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March 10, 2009
Even the Cost of Dying Is Racist
According to new research, end-of-life healthcare costs are much higher for blacks and Hispanics than for whites:
It's not that minorities are being charged more than whites. It's that they tend to get more costly, intensive treatments including feeding tubes and other invasive medical procedures near death. …
Medicare costs in those final [six] months averaged $20,166 for whites. Among blacks, they were $26,704, about 30 percent higher; and among Hispanics, $31,702 or almost 60 percent higher.
Since the moral of every media story involving race must be that nonwhites are oppressed by Farrakhan's blue-eyed devils, the explanations offered for this are tortuous in the extreme. An awkward attempt is made to leave the impression that nonwhites receive more healthcare when they're dying because they receive less healthcare when they're not dying, which results in their deaths being more severe, or something along those lines.
The most reasonable explanation is hinted at by Ezekiel Emanuel of the National Institutes of Health:
Some of it may be fear-based.
That is, physicians fear they will be accused of racism if they don't spend the hospital into bankruptcy to keep nonwhites alive a few minutes longer. On the other hand, physicians are more likely to "pull the plug" on whites, which won't result in Al Sharpton picketing or Eric Holder conducting an investigation.
On a tip from Wiggins.
Posted by Van Helsing at March 10, 2009 10:47 AM
Comments
Most of the black people that die around these parts are from gang related violence. They seem to knock each other off. Sure cost's a lot trying to save someone from an illegal gunshot.
Posted by: Stephana at March 10, 2009 11:12 AM
I have a cure, it starts with .45 and it is race blind.
Posted by: TED at March 10, 2009 11:20 AM
Would somebody please pull the soap box out from under JESSIE JACKASSON so he falls on his pointed head and knock loose his walnut brain
Posted by: SPURWING PLOVER at March 10, 2009 11:57 AM
I think when one is dying, care in a trama unit IS MORE EXPENSIVE!!! Geez am I ever sick of this BS. I'm with you SP, much would be resolved if Jesse and his buddy Al Sharpless would just grow a brain!!!
Posted by: HoosierArmyMom at March 10, 2009 12:30 PM
Posted by: HoosierArmyMom at March 10, 2009 12:30 PM
You're on to something. Minorities get less routine care, so when end-of-life comes, they get expensive trauma care. The line between "definantly going to die, nothing we can do" and "might recover with treatment" is a lot less clear, so hospitals go for the more expensive route based on limited information.
Posted by: Anonymous at March 10, 2009 12:54 PM
Even with the lead comment in this article:
It's not that minorities are being charged more than whites. It's that they tend to get more costly, intensive treatments including feeding tubes and other invasive medical procedures near death.
...clearly indicating that the extra expense comes from enhanced end-of-life care.
Regardless, we still know what we suspected all along: a white devil will always pry out an extra dollar from a dying black.
No way this story has anything to do with the liberal media losing market share
Posted by: Fiberal at March 10, 2009 5:19 PM
Could the long term health problems of poor lifestyle (obesity, bad doet, etc) lead to conditions more expensive to deal with at end stage?
Posted by: titan at March 10, 2009 5:33 PM
Could the long term health problems of poor lifestyle (obesity, bad doet, etc) lead to conditions more expensive to deal with at end stage?
Titan: Sure, but the black grievance groups would tell you that saying that (or thinking it) is racist, too, so no one will ever seriously try to follow that path.
Posted by: CoderInCrisis at March 10, 2009 10:01 PM
