Oso planning to go pro
That's not my point. Rural health care in WI is a huge problem. Covid is making it worse. But the shortages have been bad for years.I didn't say anything about your friend or her choice to help out.
Chiming in, I didn't think you were taking a shot. Just my $0.02 That's not just a WI problem. Rural healthcare is bad nationwide.
It is not profitable. Guy in my office space founded a startup to create networks of rural health care throughout the state. It is not an easy task. Lots of specialty clinicians needed like for diabetes, agricultural borne maladies, and other ailments common away from metropolitan areas.
If numbers matter to anyone here anymore...WI has now surpassed 200,000 total cases, only the 12th state to get there. All the states above them have larger populations, most considerably larger. In cases per capita, WI has hit the top 10, where it sits in bleak company with Iowa, the Dakotas, and most of the sunbelt.The pandemic sucks everywhere, but WI is distinguishing itself in rather unfortunate ways.
Our drinking culture bears a lot of the blame. I have no numbers or facts to back that. Just a humble opinion
Lots of places have drinking cultures, but the blame lies squarely on the Legislature and partisan judiciary that has acquiesced to the Tavern League to suspend any indoor capacity limits and spread the word that COVID isn't as bad at it is. One can have a drinking culture but if there's no place to go then there wouldn't be the ability to spread.
Surprised you left out the category of deaths per million being that we remain one of the best at protecting the most vulnerable and our health system seems to be one of the best in the country and managing the ones who get hit the hardest.
Got it. Thanks for clarifying and I apologize for an overreaction.To clarify, she's not volunteering to go, she's being told to. She's going to a place where a majority of the citizens support the candidate who says about the numbers of deaths "it is what it is.' You make an excellent point about rural health care. When my dad finished his residency over 40 years ago he was offered federal incentives in the form of loan forgiveness to relocate to a small rural town and join a newly established practice of three other GP's taking advantage of the same program. I don't know if there are similar programs in existence today but it would likely help alleviate the shortages for care were seeing in rural areas. Of course, it doesn't help in terms of facilities but it's a start.
On the flip side, advances in tele-medicine or zoom-medicine will help out with a lot of health issues in rural areas. Not a substitute for a primary care doc, a dentist, or any other hands on care. But any visits that can be done not face to face will be an improvement.
You are not surprised, because I have explained this to you before. Wisconsin's death rate is (currently) lower because its first big peak came later than the peaks in many other places. If you look at the death rates, you can easily separate them based on when the peak hit.That said, Wisconsin's death rate is projected to increase dramatically over the coming months.But you knew all that.Lecturing aside, I will agree with you on one thing: the doctors and other healthcare providers in Wisconsin are excellent. I count many close friends and family members among them, and agree that we owe our frontline healthcare workers a huge debt of gratitude for their work during this pandemic. 👍
I might have an unpopular opinion.If you have a behavior or habit that contributes to you getting a disease/illness/ailment, your insurance shouldn't cover your treatment or should cover significantly less than the rest of the insured pool.For example - smokers, poor eating habits, drug users, big-time drinkers, etc.
Everyone has bad habits. Everyone gets sick from something. While for many people you can connect one with the other, you can't with many others.It's completely unworkable.
You keep saying that but by beginning of April we had 3x’s the number of infections compared to Minnesota so not sure what you consider “early” but our case counts were higher then Minnesota’s from day 1. Which isn’t something to necessarily brag about but your argument that Minnesota got hit earlier then Wisconsin is inaccurate. But please by all means continue with the lecture.
My posts today said nothing about Minnesota. But if you want to revisit that argument, fine. You said Wisconsin’s “case counts were higher than Minnesota’s from day 1.” Here are some actual numbers:On June 1, Minnesota had 27,076 confirmed cases. Wisconsin had 18,543 (31% FEWER than MN).On July 1, Minnesota had 38,945 confirmed cases. Wisconsin had 29,199 (25% FEWER than MN). As of today, Minnesota has 135,372 confirmed cases, Wisconsin has 201,049 (49% MORE than MN).Want to reconsider your comment that Wisconsin’s cases were higher from day one?Facts matter.