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{"id":4656,"date":"2011-09-21T09:28:38","date_gmt":"2011-09-21T17:28:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/concussioninc.net\/?p=4656"},"modified":"2024-05-29T17:03:39","modified_gmt":"2024-05-30T01:03:39","slug":"who-foots-the-bills-for-the-football-systems-predictable-catastrophic-medical-costs-we-all-do-that-is-until-no-one-does","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/concussioninc.net\/?p=4656","title":{"rendered":"Who Foots the Bills for the Football System’s Predictable Catastrophic Medical Costs? We All Do \u2013 That Is, Until No One Does"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nWhen I argue that the $10-billion-a-year National Football League is behaving as just about any corporate entity would – trying to shirk its responsibility for a public health tab – bear in mind that we’re talking about quite a tab.<\/span><\/p>\n

And it’s not all concussions and it’s not all death. Last month a CBS News report estimated that there are 140,000 annual “mild to severe spinal injuries” in high school football, with 10 resulting in paralysis. (See http:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/video\/watch\/?id=7376583n&tag=mncol;lst;1<\/a>.) I suspect alternative methodologies might set the former number lower and the latter higher. Whatever the statistical sweet spot, the existence of a substantial and unacknowledged subsidy is clear, as catastrophic medical costs for spinal injuries can run to $500,000 for just the first six months.<\/span><\/p>\n

As I post this item, I know of at least two young football players who lie comatose from early-season brain (not spinal) injuries: Adrian Padilla in California and Tucker Montgomery in Tennessee. See https:\/\/concussioninc.net\/?p=4646<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rasul “Rocky” Clark – who was left paraplegic by an injury in a high school game 11 years ago and recently had to downgrade his care under changes in Illinois Medicaid policies – was the focus of the CBS story. The Clark case was also covered by the Chicago Tribune <\/em>at http:\/\/articles.chicagotribune.com\/2011-08-31\/news\/ct-met-rocky-clark-insurance-0831-20110831_1_medicaid-program-hmo-style-new-doctors#.TnjzC5mJFhE.email<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Let me emphasize that this is about more than health insurance reform. Clark’s now-inadequate Medicaid coverage itself only kicked in after his suburban Chicago school district’s $5 million catastrophic health insurance policy benefits dried up.<\/span><\/p>\n

You say that playing football is a “personal choice and risk”? Indeed it is: a personal choice and risk for which all American are paying through the nose — both daily and for as far into the future as the mind’s eye can see.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Irv Muchnick<\/em><\/span><\/body><\/html><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"