Be Careful What You Wish For

Managed Care in health care began about 1980 with what was referred to as HMOs or Health Maintenance Organizations. My father was very excited when HMOs first started because he thought that it would be a good way to contain medical costs. I warned him (by repeating what President Reagan said, " There is no free lunch.") and that while HMOs might seem like a good idea, it would lower the quality of health care that the patient received. He ignored me because I was young and had been a dentist for 3+ years. My dad had Crohn's Disease and periodically would have to spend a week or so in the hospital. The nursing care was excellent and when a nurse was called for help, it usually arrived quickly. Fast forward 20 years and on one of his last hospital stays related to Crohn's Disease, it would take THREE HOURS to have a bed pan picked up. Three hours??????

HMO's arrived with great fanfare and created expectations that care would be great and costs would be contained.

Have you been to a hospital recently or waited in a doctor's office for 2 hours?

Be careful what you wish for.