So some of the crowd at the Republican debate on 09/12 acted like spectators at the Roman gladiatorial games, going thumbs down on a hypothetical man in a coma who has no insurance. And it was pointed out that in the old days the churches took care of the indigent, we didn't need no government funding. Well, let's see.
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If you were hospitalized in 1960 you got a nurse and a bed. There were no monitors like we have today, that came in with the Space Race. Very few antibiotics. Steroid use was just starting and was generally done by administering hormones to drive the adrenal glands to higher production. Heart and blood pressure control was primitive, involving digitalis and the new thiazide diuretics and loop diuretics, with careful monitoring of potassium and sodium levels (took much of the day to test). In fact, most patient blood tests were done by indirect methods; for instance, liver function was monitored by analyzing end products and not the liver enzymes themselves. No endoscopy except rigid scopes (sword swallowing, anyone?). No arterial repairs. For cancer, you cut and/or radiated, and survival was poor in any case. Mostly what doctors did was prognosticate on odds and length of survival, nurses gave personal care, patients stayed in bed (six weeks bed rest for a heart attack). Very little in the way of rehab. Imaging was limited to x-rays.
It was even more like this in the 1940s, when the cure for pneumonia was rest and nursing care, taking weeks to months, with a high mortality rate. Why do so many people in Damon Runyon's stories die of pneumonia? This reflected real life. Epidemics were common and you lived or died pretty much on your own level of health and strength.
Of course your average church could pay a few hundred dollars to cover someone's hospital stay--if that person were a member, of course.
Nowadays health care costs more. Lots of reasons for this and I don't want to debate the point, but a large percentage of the increase is for more successful treatment. Antibiotics, monitoring, minimally invasive manipulation, precise control of vital signs and functions, early activity and rehab all cost more--and succeed, more often than not.
Yes, everyone should have insurance (I don't want to debate this, either, now). But how many of those in that audience would pay something out of pocket for an indigent in need of health care. Or in need of a cup of coffee.