COVID19 Patient Queue for HNWI

[Nell-e]

I'm curious. 

 

If there's a 70 y/o high net worth individual who say is worth $35M to $100M and then they get COVID19 and it develops into ARDS and then they need to go to the ICU and get ventilator treatment, how does their level of medical treatment differ from everyone else?

 

Obviously, this will differ by geography but let's say it's one of the top 5 US cities.  Also, this hypothetical person has a lot of money but doesn't have any powerful friends.

 

Will this person be as fucked as everyone else if the healthcare system gets overwhelmed?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Read the Footnotes]

not interested in politics now. Thanks.

[orthopa]

I'm curious. 

 

If there's a 70 y/o high net worth individual who say is worth $35M to $100M and then they get COVID19 and it develops into ARDS and then they need to go to the ICU and get ventilator treatment, how does their level of medical treatment differ from everyone else?

 

Obviously, this will differ by geography but let's say it's one of the top 5 US cities.  Also, this hypothetical person has a lot of money but doesn't have any powerful friends.

 

Will this person be as fucked as everyone else if the healthcare system gets overwhelmed?

 

 

It will not differ from anyone else.  You will be triaged based on symptoms and treated accordingly. Nothing to worry about. Said person likely has had the flu and has been at just as much risk as a result.

 

Fortunately your net worth does not matter in an emergency situation even if you have no "pull".  If your asking for a "friend". Your friend will be fine.

[Nell-e]

Thanks for the responses.  Fortunately, there's no actual acquaintance related to this hypothetical question.

 

My curiosity was about long term structural change to our healthcare system.  Just my views but I don't think politicians respond to poor people but if the donor class is affected then maybe the odds of change go up.  But, I may be wrong.  My cousin died at the age of 47 of a heart attack in China.  He was a high net worth individual and they have a piss poor healthcare system where paramedics don't know how to perform CPR.  If he had been a janitor in the US, he would still be alive because our system is much better geared towards treating heart attacks.  China has a lot of billionaires and their healthcare system is still behind so who knows if COV19 will cause structural change in the US.

 

Just thinking out loud:

 

- I wonder if there's going to be a mass of pregnancies during this time as people are cooped up and how the timing would play out as supposedly the soonest a vaccine would be available commercially is 1 1/2 yrs.  Plus what if Roe v Wade gets struck down?

 

- I was chiming in a UBI discussion a couple months ago and made the point that extreme wealth inequality causes negative externalities and those externalities aren't contained to poor areas.  Well, I think COV19 certainly qualifies as an example as poor people can't afford to take time off  and they're going to be moving about and spreading the virus.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Read the Footnotes]

not interested in politics now. thanks.

 

Please move to the politics board.

[Nell-e]

I think regardless of nationality people find the specifics of what you are suggesting offensive. Medical ethics has a bit of universality that stems from how people's brains are wired and I don't think that stops and starts at the border.

 

 

Is it offensive to suggest that rich people may get access to preferential treatment?  I don't know about other countries but I know for sure that patients bribe doctors for preferential treatment in China.

[Jurgis]

In the USA, critical personnel will be prioritized in certain instances that will allow them to continue their work, otherwise Orthopa's answer is the right answer. I think regardless of nationality people find the specifics of what you are suggesting offensive. Medical ethics has a bit of universality that stems from how people's brains are wired and I don't think that stops and starts at the border.

 

Not true.

 

In Lithuania you can get priority care if you bribe medical personnel. Including critical care cases. I'm pretty sure that's true for quite a few countries.