The Burrill Report


It’s been a strange week in the world of healthcare. It’s been so strange, that on multiple occasions I paused to check to make sure the publication I was reading was not the Weekly World News.

I’m not afraid to admit that now and then I like to check up on the Bat Boy or find out what Elvis is up to these days, but don’t dismiss the recent spate of stories that might have Mr. Ripley believing them or not. There are lessons in there for all of us, particularly as the health insurance exchanges created by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act get ready to open their doors.

Here are three bits of news from the previous week:
Paul Karason, a man who became an Internet sensation known as “Papa Smurf” because of his white beard and blue skin color, died at the age of 62. Karason’s skin turned blue 15 years ago after he drank colloidal silver he purchased through an ad that promised to restore health in the back of what reports identified as a “new age” magazine. He said the concoction cured him of acid reflux and arthritis, but it also turned his skin blue.

A 66-year-old Columbian farmer, who was trying to impress his new girlfriend, intentionally overdosed on the erectile dysfunction drug Viagra. According to reports he had an erection that lasted for days and eventually went to the hospital, where doctors found his farm implement swollen, fractured, and gangrenous. Though my female colleagues took glee in recounting the story, it ended badly. Let’s just say if the surgeon was a grammarian, he took the farmer’s dangling participle and turned it into a past participle.

In the Fujian province of China, a man who suffered severe damage to his nose as a result of a car accident is getting a new one. Doctors grew and sculpted a replacement nose on the man’s forehead using expanders beneath the forehead to stretch the skin and rib cartilage used as a foundation. The man, who in photographs looks like a Picasso painting from his cubist period with a full grown nose growing out of his head, will have the new nose harvested to replace his damaged one.

As millions of my fellow Americans are on the cusp of gaining access to health insurance and maybe entering a new world of waiting rooms, rubber gloves, and prescription drugs, these press reports are not just curiosities, but valuable lessons from the world of healthcare.

So what are the lessons here to millions of uninsured people who will now have access to coverage and may be a bit new to navigating the world of healthcare?

1. There’s a reason clinical trials are done before a drug is allowed to be marketed. Drugs are tested for safety and efficacy and products are regulated for a reason. Not all health information, particularly in the age of the Internet, is created equal.

2. There’s a reason there are warnings on drug labels. They are not there just for the hell of it. Don’t exceed the recommended dose of a drug without a doctor’s instructions. And, if you have an erection lasting more than four hours, see a physician immediately.

3. Human beings are flawed and tend to do stupid things that can result in the need for medical care. Sometimes health problems require new and expensive treatments. Sometimes doctors can do things you haven’t even imagined, even if they seem a bit freaky. If you don’t have health insurance, get it.

Information on obtaining health insurance through the health exchanges created by the Affordable Care Act can be found here. Good to have, but best not to need.



September 27, 2013
http://www.burrillreport.com/article-lessons_for_the_newly_insured_.html