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Page 16
December 8, 2010
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Dying Because of Inadequate Medicine
Elderly deserve
quality care
for their families.
When someone is hospitalized,
they tend to focus on their re­
covery. With this news, patients
by J udge G reg M athis
and their families are left to ques­
An e ld e rly person
tion whether or not the treat-
should be able to spend
' 7 J ment they receive will do more
time with their families and
harm than good. Of course,
enjoy life in a way they couldn’t there is also a societal cost: taxpay­
when they were younger and work­ ers spend more than $4 billion each
ing full time. They certainly should year because additional treatments
not be worried whether or not the
medical care they receive will, at
best, cause an adverse reaction that
was completely avoidable or, in a
worst case scenario, kill them.
Unfortunately, that is the reality
for Medicare recipients around this
country: in a recently released study,
it was reported that, in just one
month, a projected 15,000 hospital­
ized Medicare patients died because
they received less than quality care.
Around 40 million Americans re­
ceive Medicare, a federally funded
program that provides health insur­
ance coverage to people aged 65 or
over. The Department of Health and
Human Services Inspector General’s
new report has revealed that there is
an alarmingly high risk for medical
malpractice within the program.
According to the study, 1 in 7
Medicare patients who are hospi­
talized are harmed by — and ulti­
mately die because of -- medical
treatment they receive.
Common causes of these deaths
include improper use of blood thin­
ning medications, respiratory failure
from over sedation or inadequate in­
sulin management. Another 1 in 7
patients experienced temporary harm,
but the error was discovered in re­
versed just in time to save their lives.
There are no words to convey
how frightening this news is, not
just for Medicare recipients, but also
or longer hospital stays are needed
to fix medical mistakes that should '
never have happened.
It is clear that there needs to be
federally funded look into the way
hospitals perceive and care for Medi­
care patients. Their safety measures
need to be examined and, when nec­
essary, changed immediately. If there
are best practices for treatment, they
should be implemented.
Unbelievably, Congress is con­
sidering cuts to the Medicare, so
such an investigation is unlikely.
And, with fewer dollars to provide
services, more preventable deaths
are to be expected.
The elderly are among the most
vulnerable members of our society
and, as a collective, we should work
to keep them safe from harm.
Call or write your elected officials
and demand that they not only vote
to keep Medicare funding intact,
but also ask that they earmark addi­
tional funds to ensure that, when
they are hospitalized, our elderly
receive quality treatment at quality
hospitals.
Judge Greg Mathis is a former
Michigan District Court judge and
current syndicated television show
judge.
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Climate Change’s Human Tragedy
Make progress
by spending less
on the military
The U.S. military is taking steps
to reduce its own greenhouse gas
emissions. Since it produces more
em issions than any other institu­
tion on the planet, this is good
news. But is it enough?
by M iriam P emberton
In a word, no.
As deserts expand
If climate change is the major
and droughts persist,
security threat the m ilitary says
desperate people begin
it is, no am ount of m ilitary
fighting over the water
greening will be enough to re­
that remains. Elsewhere,
verse it. Only w holesale m ea­
rising sea levels create
sures to curb em issions across
mass migrations. These portraits of our ow n econom y — and the
human tragedy caused by climate world's - will do the job. W here
change have become environmen­ will the m oney com e from?
tal security threats that the U.S.
Here's one big part o f the an­
military now worries about.
swer: if arresting clim ate change
is a national security im perative,
then we need to devote a substan­
tial portion of our security dollars
to that purpose.
How are we doing so far?! have
m easured the balance o f what the
federal governm ent spends on its
m ilitary forces and on clim ate
change since 2008. The clim ate
change budget has m ore than
doubled since then, from $7 to $ 18
billion. During the same period,
m ilitary spending has also risen,
though at a slower rate: from $696
to $739 billion.
As a result, we've cut the gap
between them in half. We spent
$94 on the military for every dollar
we spent on the clim ate in 2008.
We'll spend at a ratio o f $41 to $ 1
in 2011.
Obviously, this is progress. But
check out what's happening in
China, our primary global competi­
tor. It spends about one-sixth as
much on its military as the United
States. It invests twice as much in
clean energy technology. So its
spending balance works out to
somewhere between $2 and $3 on its
military to every dollar it spends on
climate.
And China is on track to become
the world leader in both solar and
wind technology by next year.
Soour41-to-l balance looks good
compared to where we were, but
terrible compared to our main global
competitor. The extreme tilt in our
budget toward military spending is
leaving us way behind in two of the
major growth markets of the global
economy.
For the sake of our economic
health and competitiveness, then,
as well as for the sake o f our secu­
rity, we need to tilt the other way.
The balance between what we spend
on traditional military tools and on
climate needs to look a lot more like
China's.
Miriam Pemberton is a research
fellow at the Institute fo r Policy
Studies.