BMJ  2007;334:608 (24 March), doi:10.1136/bmj.334.7594.608-a

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Doctors must lead America's healthcare reform

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Last week's JAMA dedicated most of its pages to America's broken healthcare system, particularly the desperate problem of poor access to care. While costs are at an all time high, around 60 million Americans are uninsured or underinsured, and a cluster of papers and comment articles describes the consequences for their health and wellbeing: For people with heart attack, poor coverage means inability to pay for drugs and other essentials, worse angina, worse quality of life, and a higher risk of readmission (pp 1063-72). The story is the same for people who fall ill with chronic diseases or injure themselves in accidents (pp 1073-84). Emergency departments across the country are "at breaking point" trying to deal with a flood of people who have nowhere else to go for the care they need (pp 1128-30).

The multitude of reforms on the table tinker with infrastructure, insurance eligibility, or tax breaks. But . . . [Full text of this article]


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