Detriot Area Layoffs trigger crisis in health care

The Detriot News reports:

A young Warren couple won't have kids this year because they suddenly lack good health care.

In Dearborn, a family doctor can't fill his appointment book -- a first in 15 years.

And throughout southeast Michigan, patients who once had top-notch health insurance are shopping at discount stores for cheap drugs, splitting prescriptions with friends or simply going without.

Fallout from mounting layoffs and a sluggish economy is rippling through the region's already strapped health care system, leaving Metro Detroiters in the lurch for even the most basic care and forcing hospitals to pick up costs for those who can't pay.

"The whole system is changing dramatically," said Dr. Warren Ringold, a family practice physician in Dearborn. Many of his patients have lost their jobs and tell him they aren't coming to see him because they can't afford it.

Michigan is changing.