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"A lot of them work, and they don't have sick days like mainstream people," he explains.
Also, their insurance may not be generous -- MediCal or policies with high deductibles. (During that same '93-'03 decade, the U.S. lost 703 hospitals and 198,000 hospital beds.)
So why doesn't he move back to Canada (where he could make more money)?
"This is where the undiagnosed patients come, and you have to use your Sherlock Holmes talents on 'em -- it's more fun."
And after growing up with the Montreal Canadiens, he's now adopted the L.A. Kings hockey team.
A few more random Newtonian notes, told before and during a recent Friday night tour of his bailiwick with the USC Annenberg School's California Endowment Health Journalism Fellowships, including the Sun-Star's own Danielle Gaines:
some 60-79 percent of U.S. hospitals are operating at overcapacity;
more primary care physicians are referring people to ERs, especially sicker patients, because there are more invasive treatment options available (such as sonograms) that can't be provided in an office;
the rate of hospitalization hasn't changed, but the ratio of nurses has: by law it must be four patients to one nurse; if there aren't enough nurses, people have to stay in the waiting room, not an ER;
there's a two-year waiting list at County for hernias and gall bladders "because they're not life-threatening;"
17 percent of people who come to County have MediCal; that figure rises to 45 percent of those leaving because many sign up while they're inside;
people wait up to 16 hours for treatment there -- "I guess that's why they call 'em patients;"
their average age is 40;
EMTLA costs every doctor in America an average of $12,300 a year in bad debts; for emergency physicians it's $138,000 a year. "It guarantees access for all patients, but it's an unfunded mandate."
"My personal physician in L.A. tells me, 'Yeah, we'll rush you right in -- see you in August.'"
Newton's medical education at McGill University in Canada ran about $700 a year in tuition (it's now around $1,500, he reckons). One reason U.S. health care costs so much is that the bills at med school are ionospheric -- "and moms want their kids to be specialists, not general practitioners."
Another reason U.S. health care costs so much is the high-end care at the end of life -- "$30,000 a day for 26 machines. This whole end-of-life issue is really dumb," he says. "People who plan on living forever are going to lose. In Canada, doctors say, 'Granny's dying.' In the U.S., they ask, 'Do you want us to do everything for Granny?' That's the wrong question."
So that's one man's Rx for what ails the U.S. health care system. Agree or disagree, you've got to admit, it's a diagnosis and a prescription based on facts.
Scariest of all is Doc Newton's only philosophical musing as he led a tour through the hallways and rooms where folks were getting treated one recent Friday night in L.A.:
"We may look back at now as the good old days."
Executive Editor Mike Tharp can be reached at (209) 385-2456 or mtharp@mercedsun-star.com.
