Creative Editing
Chapter 4
Exercise 17
17. Edit the following story from The Associated Press:
By the Associated Press
High medical bills a burden shared by most Americans are due in part to a relatively few ill people. And, people who generate much of the nation's medical expenses are often suffering from the effects of smoking, alcoholism, and obesity.
Few are burdening the many, in terms of medical bills. And researchers in Boston suggest that perhaps it's time for those few to pay a cost more like their share. The researchers' work, published last week in the "New England Journal of Medicine," turned up the finding that less than one and a-half percent of the nation's population may use half the hospital resources in a year.
The scientists suggest that these people should have to pay higher insurance premiums, or higher taxes, if national health insurance ever becomes a reality, after all, the doctors say, these people are ill because of harmful personal habits. Food, drink and cigarettes -- carried to excess -- have landed them in the hospital.
Naturally, many people with big medical bills may not have been able to prevent their illnesses. They may develop some kind of illness that could not have been predicted and that's tough to cure.
Some insurance companies already offer lower premiums for those who don't smoke -- but the problem remains, proving that you don't smoke when you ask for that lower rate.
Blue Cross Blue Shield is also encouraging subscribers to cut costs. It's promoting same-day surgery, procedures done on an outpatient basis instead of those requiring an overnight or longer stay. Among those procedures are biopsies some methods of sterilization, removal of the tonsils, and maybe some oral surgery.
Blue Cross says this not only saves money -- it also shortens the nerve-wracking waiting period, and gets you back to work quicker.
And, you can seek a second opinion, which may save not only money but also the pain and trauma of surgery. At least one citizens Watchdog group feels there are too many unnecessary operations done, many of them paid for by taxes. The group, the Better Government Association (of Chicago), says that perhaps a third of all operations may not be medically necessary.
The association, which took many of its figures from House Subcommittee Hearings, also says major elective surgery in the U S is increasing at four times the rate of the population.
End of Chapter 4 Exercises
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