Your Doctor Serves The State, Not You
by Michael Scott, MD
As a physician thoroughly frustrated with our State medical apparatus, I read a large number of opinion pieces and news articles on its perceived woes and proposals for its reform. Though I have read some excellent works on these pages and at the Mises Institute site, the majority found in the popular media reek of economic ignorance and worship of the State. Most private physicians knowingly groan when they encounter such garbage, and simply go about the business of their day caring for the sick in the often impossible system which they find themselves. In sharp contrast, many in academic medicine and professional societies such as the AMA cheer, spread it amongst their colleagues, and write additional State-supporting propaganda, the latest of which to come to my attention was the proverbial straw for this camel, and from which I include a particularly remarkable quote:
"It would be such a shame if we once again fail to cover the uninsured because of hang-ups over costs. Physician decisions drive the majority of expenditures in the US health care system. American health care costs will never be controlled until most physicians are no longer paid fees for specific services."
So begin the fantasies of yet another healthcare dictator in the making, proceeding to issue his decree specifying exactly which types of medical services should and should not be provided in this country. At the stroke of his mighty pen, many common services demanded by patients are restricted or (even better) prohibited. Today he limits his list to seven broad categories, including coronary bypass, angioplasty and stenting, prostate cancer screening and treatment, mammography, and CT/MRI (which he interestingly refers to as "art forms"). Tomorrow, who knows which unthinkable ways he will devise to save money for his benefactor the State. Forget the decisions of millions of patients and physicians across the country, they're wrong, all wrong. After all, unlike us common grunts providing the care he seeks to limit, he has the proper credentials! He's used his medical degree to specialize in pathology, work as a professor, laboratory director, journal editor and now "serves" as President and Chair of the Board of The Lundberg Institute, named for himself, whose mission is to "forge a patient-physician alliance based on trust, providing leadership, strategies, and communications that promote evidence-informed, efficient, and effective health care delivery to benefit the health and well-being of patients, physicians, and the public." While possessing a truly impressive résumé in the academic world, it is woefully devoid of virtually any experience in that one often messy matter which is the essence of the profession: actual face-to-face contact with living, breathing patients. To summarize, perfect for our newest Czar.
rest of story:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig10/scott-m1.1.1.html
I read these things you post Red, even tho more often than not I think they are ridiculous. Sometimes I find a few things I agree with. Would you like to know what I find offensive about most of these people? The thing I find I can't stand about most of them is that they operate from the position of "the general public is an uneducated, grasping, gimmee gimmee, writhing mass of mutant idiots who believe everything the government or their agents or anybody else tell them".
We are sheep.....We must be spoon fed..... We have no individual brain or ability to function without the collective....
Insurance companies are the biggest and easiest target. Eliminate them. Put value back into the services provided. Start over with a level playing field. Quit letting insurance companies trade on the stock market. The bottom line profit at all costs to share holders is in direct conflict with the principal purpose of insurance which is to assess risk. Start the ponzi scheme all over again. Make the insurance company partner with the medical field and produce better results instead of dictating procedures and denials.
Make sure the check clears by the third..........
The system is completely broken now. It took me a complete hour Monday to fill 1 prescription becasue I was on the phone for that long with the insurance company so I could get paid for that 1 prescription! The great Medicare D plan that the lawmakers put together with the donut hole after your drug costs reach $2400. Grandma and grandpa then continue to pay their monthly premium plus ALL of the drug costs until they reach $5100. Who came up with that crap! Now they are going to get "coverage" for the whole country. Give me a break!
Quote from: pamsback on October 21, 2009, 01:01:07 PM
I read these things you post Red, even tho more often than not I think they are ridiculous. Sometimes I find a few things I agree with. Would you like to know what I find offensive about most of these people? The thing I find I can't stand about most of them is that they operate from the position of "the general public is an uneducated, grasping, gimmee gimmee, writhing mass of mutant idiots who believe everything the government or their agents or anybody else tell them".
Hate to tell ya but They Do!
Quote from: jprxmkt on October 21, 2009, 08:56:54 PM
The system is completely broken now. It took me a complete hour Monday to fill 1 prescription becasue I was on the phone for that long with the insurance company so I could get paid for that 1 prescription! The great Medicare D plan that the lawmakers put together with the donut hole after your drug costs reach $2400. Grandma and grandpa then continue to pay their monthly premium plus ALL of the drug costs until they reach $5100. Who came up with that crap! Now they are going to get "coverage" for the whole country. Give me a break!
I hear ya. The only way they could get the medicare part d approved is if they did that. They couldn't sell the plan with its initial cost so they created that donut hole that just so happens to be a big chunk of folks that would fall into it but never make it to the other side so taht got the government off the lam for the bill.
I know one thing if you can possibly do it, refuse to take part D medicare, and go apply to the pharmaceutical companies for the 5 dollar drug program they offer.
Quote from: jprxmkt on October 21, 2009, 08:56:54 PM
The system is completely broken now. It took me a complete hour Monday to fill 1 prescription becasue I was on the phone for that long with the insurance company so I could get paid for that 1 prescription! The great Medicare D plan that the lawmakers put together with the donut hole after your drug costs reach $2400. Grandma and grandpa then continue to pay their monthly premium plus ALL of the drug costs until they reach $5100. Who came up with that crap! Now they are going to get "coverage" for the whole country. Give me a break!
And who came up with the broken system we have now. The drug manufacturers and insurance companies that paid off enough of Congress in years past; the same ones that are now doing everything possible to derail meaningful reform to insure their profits.
Quote from: srkruzich on October 21, 2009, 09:05:29 PM
I know one thing if you can possibly do it, refuse to take part D medicare, and go apply to the pharmaceutical companies for the 5 dollar drug program they offer.
That works sometimes, and short-term but it isn't a very realistic longterm fix to rely on the drug companies for cheap meds for a few when the majority pay over-inflated prices set by those very same drug companies.
Quote from: jprxmkt on October 21, 2009, 09:21:19 PM
I know one thing if you can possibly do it, refuse to take part D medicare, and go apply to the pharmaceutical companies for the 5 dollar drug program they offer.
That works sometimes, and short-term but it isn't a very realistic longterm fix to rely on the drug companies for cheap meds for a few when the majority pay over-inflated prices set by those very same drug companies.
[/quote]
Yeah i know but like me, i have to not buy some of my meds cause i can't afford the medicare costs. They pay for some and deny other drugs. IF it weren't for the walmart and dillons 4 dollar prescription program i wouldn't get my needed drugs right now. I know one drug i used to take, til i got a wonderful doctor that managed to repair the damage done by another doctor, its called ranexa. It was costing me 1200 every 3 months. I hit that donut hole and bam i was screwed. So what i ended up doing is take half my meds to make it the other six months without meds. It stopped my angina when i took it properly, but since i couldn't get enough i had to time my pills so that i was resting when i couldn't take it.
Now thank God i don't have to take it anymore and have probably 3 months of it sitting on the cabinet in there.
Do I begrudge or fuss about the manufactuers cost? Not a bit cause i know what went into discovering this new drug and the relief it has given many people. Just wish it could be made cheaper. :(
Also, the CEO's of most of the insurance companies earn millions of dollars each for their "important" jobs. What is it exactly that they do that merits these high incomes while so many families that have survived cancer can no longer get health insurance or it is so expensive they can't afford it?
FYI on the $4 prescriptions. Check their prices on ANYTHING that isn't on that $4 program. :o
Quote from: jprxmkt on October 21, 2009, 09:42:17 PM
Also, the CEO's of most of the insurance companies earn millions of dollars each for their "important" jobs. What is it exactly that they do that merits these high incomes while so many families that have survived cancer can no longer get health insurance or it is so expensive they can't afford it?
FYI on the $4 prescriptions. Check their prices on ANYTHING that isn't on that $4 program. :o
Yeah i know they jack you on the rest of them. You know i honestly don't have any answers on that either. I have to do what i have to do to survive.
Right now i must have plavix which takes 22 or 23 a month out of my pocket, and metropolol, bumex, potassium. I can't afford my crestor or tricore as ther like 40 dollars a month each.
so i do without and take only the ones i can get cheap. And this is on "Government" health care.
Quote from: srkruzich on October 21, 2009, 09:01:26 PM
Hate to tell ya but They Do!
Hate to break it to YOU dude but YOU are part of the general public.............do you?
Quote from: pamsback on October 22, 2009, 08:42:44 AM
Quote from: srkruzich on October 21, 2009, 09:01:26 PM
Hate to tell ya but They Do!
Hate to break it to YOU dude but YOU are part of the general public.............do you?
Sorry but i am not part of the general public that believes government is the solution to all ills. I have never believed in government. I believe Government is evil.
Government is like Cerberus, who is a multi-headed hound (usually three-headed) which guards the gates of Hades, to prevent those who have crossed the river Styx from ever escaping.
Each head is judicial, legislative, and executive. IF you notice cerberus is chained to the gate. He prevents escapees. I believe that governments job is the opposite, to prevent attacks. But it is chained to the gates to protect. Cerberus is a vicious evil creature that does its job efficiently and effectively but must be kept chained until needed. Only in certain times should cerberus be unleashed and when it is unleashed let it do its job and eliminate the opposition then be caught and leashed again until needed again.
Government is NOT our savior nor our mother or father or benefactor. AT LEAST 50% of the voting population in this country believe that it is. THeir the General public that have no clue and don't give a damn as long as government takes care of their food, clothing, housing, and thinking needs.
The rest of us, some are apathetic, but don't depend on government, and the rest are prophetic and don't need, trust, or want government outside of its designated constitutional role.
I am of the latter, pointing out and keeping the vigilant watch that our forefathers warned us to do. Jefferson, adams, and a host of them warned us that if we don't pay attention, Cerberus can escape his leash and consume us all.
that would be canibalism.
Steve, sometimes you make me laugh........I'm glad you have the human race divided off into their little pockets with the select FEW who "know the real deal" so to speak a rung or two above the "rest of us" LOL
Actually dude, Cerberus guarded the gates of Hell to keep the LIVING OUTof the Underworld. The same way Hercules defeated Cerberus..... anything government does can be UNdone.
Quote from: pamsback on October 22, 2009, 01:18:10 PM
Steve, sometimes you make me laugh........I'm glad you have the human race divided off into their little pockets with the select FEW who "know the real deal" so to speak a rung or two above the "rest of us" LOL
Actually dude, Cerberus guarded the gates of Hell to keep the LIVING OUTof the Underworld. The same way Hercules defeated Cerberus..... anything government does can be UNdone.
Well thats true of any entity. Anything and anyone can be defeated. Right now we're being defeated from within. Give it time the dumbing down of our society will achieve its desired effect and control the masses.
They said in 1864 that slavery was abolished. Not so, the slaves just got a new master, and every election cycle, more slaves are added.
Quote from: srkruzich on October 21, 2009, 09:45:43 PM
You know i honestly don't have any answers on that either.
didn't think I'd live to see the day that I'd read that ::) ::)
Quote from: pamsback on October 22, 2009, 01:18:10 PM
Steve, sometimes you make me laugh........I'm glad you have the human race divided off into their little pockets with the select FEW who "know the real deal" so to speak a rung or two above the "rest of us" LOL
If what he says is not true Pam, can you please explain to me the last election?
Also, to the rest of you who complain about insurance compaines and the obscene profits they make, can you please tell me when making a profit became an evil thing in this country? Also, for those of you who complain about the cost of medical care and medications I have a question. Which would you do, pay for the costs or die?
QuoteIf what he says is not true Pam, can you please explain to me the last election?
No, Billy I can't.....I didn't vote for him. I can't read minds so I don't know why other people did. I can THEORIZE why they did but that's about it.
I don't care about insurance costs. I don't have insurance. I pay cash or I don't go. My DOCTOR cuts me a break on prices beCAUSE I don't have insurance and I pay out of my own pocket. I have to take medicine that costs 108 dollars a month. I pay for it. Sometimes I have had to buy it a week at a time because that's the only way I could afford it but that's just the way it is. I don't sit around and bitch about it.
Quote from: flo on October 22, 2009, 03:30:15 PM
Quote from: srkruzich on October 21, 2009, 09:45:43 PM
You know i honestly don't have any answers on that either.
didn't think I'd live to see the day that I'd read that ::) ::)
I might not have answers but i do recognize that 1. The insurance companies do not owe us anything. 2. They set the prices and 3. its our choice if we wish to get that insurance and pay the prices. Shrug. Its a product that is for sale. I still haven't figured out where this nation got the idea that insurance companies which sell a product owe us a low price for anything. That is market driven.
I might bitch about the price of mine, but i pay it in the end or i don't. It still is my choice. Now what these idiot senators are proposing is taking away MY choice to do with MY healthcare what i want to do.
When they overstep that line, then they have become enemies of the people.