More on Death Panels (because laughter is the best medicine!)

My sister who lives in North Carolina sent me a link to an article by Joel Stein that appears here at Time Magazine online. It's called "Can I Kill You?"  Sometimes it takes a comedian to cut through the nonsensical double-speak of politicians, big business and lobbyists. Here Joel says he'd love to be chosen to sit on a death panel--something akin to the Gong Show--but makes a fabulous--and in my mind very true--statement: 

But you need me on your death panel precisely because, unlike politicians and doctors, I can admit that we already have death panels; they just prefer to go by the name insurance companies. Some people get rejected by the death panels because of pre-existing conditions, lifetime-spending caps or drug co-payments they can't afford. Others die because they are freelancers and don't have insurance, so they don't go to doctors.

If you have a moment to go to the link and read the whole article, be prepared to laugh because we just cannot keep crying over the lack of thoughtful arguments in this debate.

But I'm not here to write a polemic, only to say that I've actually lived in France and saw their health care system up close and personal. And, in short: I loved it and it works.  One of the great things about their system was that doctors actually make house calls.  I know, I know--who has the TIME?  But when one considers the risks of being admitted to a hospital including the risk of getting a nosocomial infection--it makes me wonder how we haven't considered a similar option here. 

Which brings me back to the present.  Just this week my boss said he had a great idea: Go to a person's home to perform a neuropsychological evaluation.  I wasn't sure I heard him right at first--A  house call? Who has the....?

And then I began thinking about my experience with my own father. We knew there was something wrong and that he needed a complete evaluation. I knew from my own experience that he would do well to have a complete neuropsychological evaluation given that he seemed fine on some days and quite impaired on others. And yet, schlepping up to the University Memory Clinic was not only difficult for my parents but completely unrealistic.  When I met with them on the third visit to the clinic I could see that they were both exhausted, irritable and spent.  As I see it there are numerous benefits to this model.  I think about how my father's ability to think clearly would have been much improved had he been able to remain at home rather than being driven to a new and strange place. I can only imagine the effect of his anxiety on the tests not to mention the sheer exhaustion and confusion of being in an unfamiliar place.

So Tony, if you're reading this: Please give the house call testing a try. I only wish you had started it a year ago!