Coalition Launched To Lobby For Better Chronic Illness Care
"Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed several ways to reform the health care
system. Now's he's got support from a newly formed coalition of people
concerned about chronic illness." http://www.tmjsociety.org/cccc.htm
Over 16 million Californians (that's nearly half the population!) have chronic health conditions.
"The group's goal is to see California's broken health care system repaired with better care for the people who need ongoing treatment for ongoing, and often progressive, conditions.
"Crisis management health care just doesn't work anymore. We need to make a commitment towards chronic care management and preventive care," said Michael Negrete with the Pharmacy Foundation of California."
And this is, unfortunately, the problem that CFS patients have run into -- there's simply not much interest in treating chronically-ill patients. Doctors like to see successes; it's depressing to deal with a patient who gets worse no matter what you do. But just like schools are obligated to provide education to even those with no hope of going to college, doctors are obligated to provide care to even those with no hope of achieving perfect health. It's part of the job, deal with it!
Another problem faced by CFS patients is doctors who attribute every symptom to the CFS. Tests which would be ordered for other patients are denied. When I finally got to a gastroenterologist and explained that although I'd met the criteria for screening years ago, including family history, the doctors wouldn't order a colonoscopy because I have CFS. Apparently, they thought that made me immune to other diseases. He muttered that he almost wished he'd find cancer so that I could sue them.
I'm hoping this new coalition gets the point across that CFS patients need care every day, not just when they've deteriorated enough to land in the hospital.
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