Health Care Crisis in Green County

 Access problem for dental, medical and mental health

10/20/2010 -- There is an uproar among the people in Green County who are on BadgerCare and Medicare and are experiencing dental care as well as medical and behavioral health care issues. Many of them are frustrated with the fact that dentists in Green County are refusing to care for patients who are enrolled in Medicaid. As a result, the local hospital emergency room is the place where these people go when they have severe mouth pain that is most likely a tooth abscess that is on the brink of causing greater health issues, suffered a stroke or heart attack or attempted suicide. When they seek dental care, they are told "no" the dentist will not accept them as patients, or when they seek medical care from the local physicians they are mailed a hefty medical bill to pay the portion Medicaid and Medicare does not cover. For people needing services from the Behavioral Health professionals, there is an extremely long waiting period to be seen. This is the Health Care crisis in Green County that has been allowed to develop and is now seemingly getting way out of hand.

The problem with getting access to dentists for normal care and emergency care is taking its toll. In fact, according to Wisconsin PricePoint System, found at http://www.wipricepoint.org/Report_EDS.aspx, from April 2009 to March 2010, Monroe Clinic Emergency Room saw 96 patients with dental emergencies. The average cost per visit was $241 x 96 = $23,136.00. If there was some place where these dental patients could be seen think of the savings. The problem with the high cost of medical care that results in a bill most people on Medicaid and Medicare cannot afford to pay is also taking its toll. There are people in Green County suffering and dying due to their refusal to go to a doctor. Their are others who do not go to their doctor for regular check ups and years later discover they are diabetic after they are rushed to the emergency room because they just had a diabetic stroke. According to Wisconsin PricePoint System, from April 2009 to March 2010, Monroe Clinic Emergency Room saw 338 people with chest pain. The average cost for these visits was $1770 x 338 = $598,372. If these patients had regular check ups and had a physician that monitored their health, think of the savings. To think if these patients knew about their risk of heart disease they could have made some changes and avoided the chest pain emergency. There are other people who are diabetic, don't know they are diabetic until they have a stroke that left them paralyzed on one side of their body.  

Their refusal to got to the doctor is based on the fear of the medical bill that comes in the mail and could possibly end up causing a problem with their credit rating because of their inability to pay. After all, we have all heard the #1 reason for foreclosures has been due to the inability to pay medical bills. This financial reality for medical patients are dawnting and often avoided at the cost of their health and ultimately their lives. While, the dental patients are left out in the cold because the providers refuse to see them, the Behavioral Health patients on Medicaid are told to "take a number" and wait.

Several people have stated they are depressed and need some help and can't be seen until they clear the waiting list. In this case, it is not a situation where the people refuse to go, or are refused services, it is more of the case of the providers overwhelmed with insured patients to the point where the patients on Medicaid are not given priority and consequently have to wait. This is a dangerous situation if there ever was one. As the economy worsens and people's lives are turned upside down this is a time when all insured, non-insured and those on Medicaid need to be treated with the same priority. With people's lives in the balance this casual approach to providing much needed psychological services to those on Medicaid and Medicare adds to the frustration of the people in Green County.

So, now that the problem with access to dental, medical and mental health services is brought out in the open, some people are asking "what do we do about this?" Is there anything that can be done about this? Before this conversation can get started and action steps made, the decision-makers and community leaders in Green County need to be convinced these problems people are experiencing actually exist. Some of these leaders are not aware that if a person on Medicaid or Medicare cannot find a dentist who will provide services. Other community leaders are not aware that there are people finding out they are diabetic or have a high risk for hearth disease until they are brought into the emergency room on a stretcher after having a stroke or heart attack. People having a difficult time seeing a health care professional for helping with depression and other mental illness is not something community leaders and decision makers know about. So, how about the people of Green County, Wisconsin tell them using this blog.

You are invited to add to these stories mentioned in this article. These decision makers and community leaders need to know what is really happening to the health of people in Green County. There are solutions and ways be which this problem can be solved. It takes the knowledge of what is really going on to start the wheels in motion to make a facility whereby people on Medicaid, Medicare and uninsured are treated equally. Where the services for dental, medical and mental health provided are done so without financial strain to the patient. It is possible for people in Green County to have the same access to quality health professionals as insured patients but it will take some decisions and planning to make that happen. Write a comment to this post and share your story.

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