Fwd: qotd: Mayo Clinic’s Eric Matteson endorses tax-supported universal healthcare

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-------- Original Message --------
Subject: qotd: Mayo Clinic's Eric Matteson endorses tax-supported
universal healthcare
Date: Mon, 30 Dec 2013 07:41:49 -0800
From: Don McCanne <don@mccanne.org>
To: Quote-of-the-Day <quote-of-the-day@mccanne.org>



MedPage Today
December 27, 2013
10 Questions: Eric Matteson, MD
By Nancy Walsh

Eric L. Matteson, MD, of the Mayo Clinic, is the chair of rheumatology
and professor of medicine.

1. What's the biggest barrier to your practicing medicine today?

Without a doubt, it is lack of access for many patients, especially the
un- and underinsured.

2. What is your most vivid memory involving a patient who could not
afford to pay for healthcare (or meds, tests, etc.) and how did you respond?

I have a young woman with severe erosive RA who has limited mental
ability who works 20 hours a week in a rural recycling center at a
minimum wage job sorting recyclables. I see her in another state at a
small clinic that's 80 miles away. She has only Medicaid. She is able to
afford methotrexate and hydroxychloroquine. We accept losses with the
cost of monitoring, and also for the orthopedic surgeries she has
required and she cannot afford. I have sought drug and assistance from
every company with biologics on the market, some on more than one
occasion, and to date have been turned down by all of them. She is not
able to even afford gas, or the time off, to come to our center to
participate in drug studies.

4. If you could change or eliminate something about the healthcare
system, what would it be?

I would have a tax-supported universal healthcare for at least minimum
services.

http://www.medpagetoday.com/Rheumatology/Arthritis/43597


Comment: Mayo Clinic's Eric Matteson is yet another prominent physician
who supports "tax-supported universal healthcare," though he qualifies
that with "for at least minimum services." From his example, it seems
that he would include most of his field of rheumatology as "minimal
services," though others might say "all essential services."
Nevertheless, there continues to be an increase in those who now are
willing to speak out on the need for a publicly-financed health care
system that covers everyone. There is a growing consensus that financial
barriers to care need to be removed.