Natasha Richardson's death may be an example of how the future American health plan will work.  When congress and the current Obama administration complete the legislation for all Americans to be insured the cost of health care is said to decrease.  Why will it decrease?  What services will be withheld or eliminated?  For the cost to decrease the services must be decreased as well.

How can services be decreased?  Why do Canadians come to the U.S. for health care?  One reason they come because they cannot get immediate care for their condition in Canada.  They may be able to get the care, but is it timely. Do they need or want immediate care and it is not available.  Do they need a procedure that has many previous applicants ahead of them; therefore they are delayed treatment for weeks or months.  

Did Natasha Richardson bump her head and have a slow brain bleed.  Once she went to the hospital did she receive a CT scan?  It is reported that the hospital had a scanner.  But have we been told that she received a scan?  Assuming that she was scanned, was there a brain surgeon capable of performing a burr procedure to relieve the pressure the bleed caused?

All of us have had our fingers mashed resulting in a blood blister sometime during our life.  A brain bleed is much the same thing.  However, this takes place between the skull and the brain and as the bleed continues the pressure intensifies.  The skull does not give but the brain can be pressured much as you squeeze a sponge.  The longer you squeeze the greater the pain and the greater the damage to the brain.  

A simple burr procedure will relieve the pressure.  A small hole is drilled through the skull in the location of the bleed.  The blood exits through the hole and the pressure is relieved.  This is a temporary measure, but it is also an important one.  Once the pressure is relieved the brain is no longer being squeezed and brain damage ceases.  

Did Natasha Richardson receive the medical care her condition needed.  Timing is critical to recovery and she returned to her room before seeking medical attention.  Once the attention was sought was she too far from a treatment center that had the training her condition called for?  These are a lot of unanswered questions.  But the big question is for Americans to ponder.  When health care cost is reduced, what else is reduced?  What services are no longer available due to their high coast or limited access?