A 75-year-old Japanese man died after 25 hospitals in the Tokyo area refused to admit him to their emergency rooms, citing lack of beds or doctors to treat him. Could this be in the future for seniors with the new health care bill? The man who was suffering breathing problems called an ambulance after suffering breathing problems at his home in January. The man was turned down by 25 hospitals, because the hospitals did not have enough doctors to treat him. In a two-hour span, the responding paramedics called 25 hospitals, several of them more than once, but they all said the same thing. In addition, the hospitals stated they did not have enough free beds. Older Americans need to pay close attention, because health care is changing in America.
Public healthcare in Japan is heavily subsidized and generally of a high global standard. However, the population is living longer, and fewer young people are entering the workforce, so people in the healthcare field could continue to become strained. This scenario is happening in the United States at this time. Older Americans are living longer and the job market is bad enough that fewer young people are entering the workforce, and the nurse and doctor shortages are increasing. Therefore, what happened to the 75-year-old Japanese man in Japan could possibly happen here in the U.S.
Eventually, emergency medical technicians drove the man 20 minutes to a neighboring district, but the man was pronounced dead shortly after arriving. The cause of death has not been made public. A patient being rejected 25 times is something that should scare most individuals, and even though it happened in Japan, it could happen here in the U.S. Older Americans beware if the health care bill used money from Medicare to supplement funding, then you could be rejected from 25 hospital emergency rooms, and there are not even that many hospitals in the Orlando area.
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