Health Care Legislation and the ICU

[classicaldreams]

Forgive me if this question has been asked before and answered. I did a search but didn't find anything.

How do you think health care reform will effect the patient population and health care we provide in the ICU? I work in a large metropolitan trauma center. We care for a population with various medical, surgical, and trauma needs. The nurses I work with have all voiced concerned over the heroic inventions we are forced to provide to end-stage illnesses with very poor prognoses, but to no avail. This is just the tip of the iceberg in health care reform, of course, but a reoccurring problem for us.

Any insights, thoughts on the impact of health care reform specifically in the ICU would be appreciated.

Classicaldreams

[elkpark]

Well, in the discussion in Congress, "healthcare reform" has already been watered down to "healthcare insurance reform" -- at this point, no one (as far as I'm aware, and I've been following the process pretty closely) is talking about making any significant changes to the healthcare system overall -- which is what we really need, and what would really make a difference -- it's more about tweaking the current financing system a little around the edges (and providing huge numbers of new customers and taxpayer subsidies to the for-profit insurance companies!)

I doubt we're going to see any real change, unfortunately.