^ PP here. No one seems to have a sourced answer about who's covering the costs, which I suspect is because it's not a single entity. I worked in insurance for the better part of a decade (not health insurance, although I do have a license to sell it but never did) and was mostly curious if anyone had heard how this was being handled. I'm in favor of single-payer universal, so Ebola coverage for all, if you ask me, although I will say I have issues with some of these charitable organizations that send doctors and missionaries to places like this and probably don't give them an accurate idea of what they're going to be dealing with ahead of time. I have my doubts this physician would have taken on this role if he'd had any idea, but who knows? Look, I'm alright with Emory bringing these people back, at least under the strict protocol they're using, but I'll admit it makes me a little nervous. The CDC isn't perfect. There's never been a highly infectious disease accidentally left out of a quarantine zone there, right? Oh wai...

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is going to come off as incredibly callous and I'm sorry about that, but I'm genuinely curious about whether this dude's health insurance is picking up the tab? The cost for care has to be in the tens of thousands per day--never mind the expense of a double-isolation helicopter, ambulance, etc. Or does the CDC cover the cost (via the US taxpayers, I guess?) because they offered to take the case? Some insurers would probably balk at covering something like this, although it would probably be a legal nightmare in light of the public nature of the case. I understand an insurer's obligation to provide medical care for citizens who incur injury while traveling abroad, but it seems nuts to voluntarily enter a high-risk, disease-ridden area and contract a deadly illness and then put everyone else on the hook for your care.

No, not incredibly callous but incredibly ignorant. Do you honestly think the CDC medical staff are a bunch of academic/medical morons? And as far as the cost, there is no question that YOU would be the first one screeching for top medical care if you contracted an incurable virus from a mosquito bite right here in America.

You better be damn glad there are/were people who are/were willing to go into the trenches to fight and keep catastrophic diseases at bay that travel airborne, waterborne, and other types of 'borne' undetectable. Yes, it is natural to have a reasonable modicum of concern but your issues are simply mind numbing. Whatever you do, try and keep your torch and pitchfork in the closet.

I would gladly donate to the care of Dr. Brantly and Nancy Writebol who have risked their lives to allay the spread of Ebola to the rest of the world. And Dr. Sheik Khan who died in the battle should not be forgotten.

Finally, I suggest you back your bags and get out of the DMV area. Dr. Khan was from Maryland.

+1
The level of nonsense on this thread is astounding.
FWIW, both patients evacuated to the US have received an experimental serum, which seems to be helping. I hope they fully recover soon.

Anonymous wrote:This is going to come off as incredibly callous and I'm sorry about that, but I'm genuinely curious about whether this dude's health insurance is picking up the tab? The cost for care has to be in the tens of thousands per day--never mind the expense of a double-isolation helicopter, ambulance, etc. Or does the CDC cover the cost (via the US taxpayers, I guess?) because they offered to take the case? Some insurers would probably balk at covering something like this, although it would probably be a legal nightmare in light of the public nature of the case. I understand an insurer's obligation to provide medical care for citizens who incur injury while traveling abroad, but it seems nuts to voluntarily enter a high-risk, disease-ridden area and contract a deadly illness and then put everyone else on the hook for your care.

No, not incredibly callous but incredibly ignorant. Do you honestly think the CDC medical staff are a bunch of academic/medical morons? And as far as the cost, there is no question that YOU would be the first one screeching for top medical care if you contracted an incurable virus from a mosquito bite right here in America.

You better be damn glad there are/were people who are/were willing to go into the trenches to fight and keep catastrophic diseases at bay that travel airborne, waterborne, and other types of 'borne' undetectable. Yes, it is natural to have a reasonable modicum of concern but your issues are simply mind numbing. Whatever you do, try and keep your torch and pitchfork in the closet.

I would gladly donate to the care of Dr. Brantly and Nancy Writebol who have risked their lives to allay the spread of Ebola to the rest of the world. And Dr. Sheik Khan who died in the battle should not be forgotten.

Finally, I suggest you back your bags and get out of the DMV area. Dr. Khan was from Maryland.

Anonymous wrote:They say this isolation unit is specially designed but what of the waste from the showers,sinks and toilets where does that waste go? There is bodily fluids there also. Does all that go into the city's sewage system? sounds scary to me

I know nothing about wastewater treatment but I imagine that there are enough chemicals in the treatment process to kill of anything. Look at the situation in Toledo -- the algae that has suddenly formed is not all that abnormal, but no one has heard about it before because it is killed off by the treatment process. This isn't Africa where wastewater is just being let into rivers and then people are drinking from the other side of those rivers. I have to imagine they've thought about this -- I mean they thought about the air, as the isolation unit has a separate air system from the rest of the hospital.

Anonymous wrote:This is going to come off as incredibly callous and I'm sorry about that, but I'm genuinely curious about whether this dude's health insurance is picking up the tab? The cost for care has to be in the tens of thousands per day--never mind the expense of a double-isolation helicopter, ambulance, etc. Or does the CDC cover the cost (via the US taxpayers, I guess?) because they offered to take the case? Some insurers would probably balk at covering something like this, although it would probably be a legal nightmare in light of the public nature of the case. I understand an insurer's obligation to provide medical care for citizens who incur injury while traveling abroad, but it seems nuts to voluntarily enter a high-risk, disease-ridden area and contract a deadly illness and then put everyone else on the hook for your care.

People volunteer to go abroad on missions to provide health care (or other service) all the time. Dr. Brantly didn't deliberately enter the Ebola hot zone -- do you really think he'd have brought his wife and 2 kids if he knew it was happening??


http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/02/health/ebola-kent-brantly/index.html

Brantly went to Liberia with his wife and two children last year to serve a two-year fellowship through Samaritan's Purse post-residency program.
He was there initially to practice general medicine. But when the Ebola outbreak began, he took on the role of medical director for the Samaritan's Purse Ebola Consolidated Case Management Center in Monrovia. It's there that he tested positive for the virus, according to the evangelical Christian relief charity.