Can the US President save the patient?
on 07/24/2009 at 02:54 AM
doctors, as the President noted, are rewarded for services provided and not for the health of their patients.
Yes, Peiper - there is so much wrong with this sentence. One is the demeaning and making evil - doctors. There would be no health, no cures nor the best health care systemin the World, if it weren’t for the people in the trenches - doctors, nurses and the techs. As they are the grunt soldiers of medical care.
The fees that the Bamster is bitching about are - gasp - set by the Insurance companies - hee, hee, hee - not the doctors. As it is probably based on the best return for the myriad of insurance companies serviced in the area. (#1 reason ‘rates’ for medical care are so damn high - another (completely uninvolved) entity in the system - have to feed those bureaucracies). Ironically, it was ‘The Blues’ begun in the 1930s that unwittingly created this ‘crisis’ one side - hospital Blue Cross and physician Blue Shield. Doctors were worried that insurance would limit what they could charge and hospitals were worried that they were going to be priced out of existence. And of course the forced provisions of ‘healthcare’ attached to jobs - thanks Unions for having a major hand in this ‘crisis’.
Throw in a zillion ambulance chasers headed by the idiot Edwards (’I can channel the baby and she does not want to be like this’ crappola - which the damn lawyers, judges and jury are just as at fault as Edwards) and that has indeed created a ‘crisis’ - too few OB/Peds who are scared of lawsuits for situations that they have no control over. But that has nothing to do with health or medicine. Again.
Then, of course the government got involved with all sorts of regulations and mucked up the whole thing - causing a ‘crisis’. Now even today, 81% of the people are satisfied with their coverage and 100% of people can/have access to some sort of health care. So where is the ‘crisis’?
And finally - we get to what someone on tv last night was emphasizing - health is a matter of behavior and lifestyle. And whether one has insurance or not - does not deal with that issue. Complicated with it is that the Drs., the AMA, big Pharma and Insurance can’t and won’t deal with it either. Oh, don’t get fooled, they pretend but look at this
one example to make my point: Don’t know how it is where you are - but here in OH a big first question is - are there any guns in the house? [That one was easy to slide by as we’d just moved here, we only had the .22 rifle and indeed I don’t think any of us even knew where it had been put]. I was shocked, what the #*X@ does that have to do with my medical history? Yet, while asking that very important medical question - I was never asked if I breastfed any of my children. Health my a**.Thus the issue is that none of this is really about health - it is about indoctrination into what The Nanny Statevia Big Insurance, Big Pharma and Big AMA (which btw are probably all joined at the hip) want to control and intimidate the stupid masses into doing.
And Obamacare is just a massive invasion and attempt to further control people literally from conception to grave.
What a arrogant sob that Obamanation is.
God Help America.
Wow, Wardmom. Yeah I can see where you’d be shall we say, just a mite upset with health question as per your example.
I am reading correctly I think. You’re saying that my docs fees back home were set by ins. companies? What scale would be used if say someone were without ins.? Might the doc charge less? I don’t know if you saw my comments yesterday re. doctor practices and the hours worked etc. I mean, if a doc is selling his practice for say 2 or three hundred thousand dollars and lists the hours as 14 or 20 hours A MONTH. Are you saying that its the ins. company that set that rate for that doc?By coincidence, someone sent me some sort of survey that says only 56% of Americans are happy with their ins.
My ins. company drove me bananas when they’d change the formulary on a drug I’d been on, fine except the drug they changed to with much hoopla cost me a lot more as they didn’t cover 100% medication.
We were lucky in having a couple of very good GPs in Riverside. Not so lucky in Palm Desert tho. And one would think it might be easier in PD due to the area. Not so.
The docs here aren’t bad but I do have issues.
I haven’t seen my own doctor in a year, altho I’ve seen others. Especially about the cough and another vexing problem. My own doc seems more concerned with me becomng addicted to the medication then he is about the fact that the cough is a very bad one , when it occurs, and has given me medication that doesn’t work. Yesterday however I was able to talk to the wife’s doc on the phone and she gave me the medication that does work. RELIEF!
At last.(Peiper and I have secret mind-ray communications going ... we figure out exactly what kind of posts will generate a big reply from either Turtler or Wardmama, because both are great to read!)
Ah healthcare is a particular bugaboo for me.
Having been born with truly horrendous medical issues - and made a ward of the state about 2 nanoseconds later - and surviving above and beyond what was expected of me - then doing it again with a son who survived a fatal burn - well let’s just say the prattle aimed at the stupid masses is just prattle.
When I worked in breastfeeding (counselor from 1990 to 2005) there was a bumper sticker (gee, created about 1993) that said - Affordable Healthcare Begins with Breastfeeding. It is so true - for the babies higher IQs (the top mensa people - the only consistent variable - they were breastfed for at least 3 months (1979 survey)), lower cholesterol (study of people over 65 - only consistent variable for those with great ratio & levels of their cholesterol numbers - they had been breastfed), and the same for obesity levels (and even one study showed that breastfed babies were less likely to become smokers) and to the mother - while nursing her calcium levels plummet (which is why most HCPs recommend continuing the pre-natal vitimins) but after weaning - they rise even beyond pre-pregant levels, the weight loss is slower, but more lasting (burning those extra 500 calories a day can work wonders, even better you have to sit down to do it) and finally the hormone continium (pregancy, nursing, weaning) that nature created (i.e. biology) is maintained which many believe is a protection against ‘female’ problems. [I worked with as a ‘Professional Liaison’ for about a year that is dealing with medical and legal issues - thus I received The Breastfeeding Abstracts which list all the medical papers for the year, which is where I got most of the info] We won’t even go into the political/social issues of breastfeeding. My rant is over.
However, having said that - most medical schools for Peds, OB & FP - only put Breastfeeding as a Grand Round (i.e. OPTIONAL) and only do 2 days for Infant Feeding - I could do 2 days on Breastfeeding without even cracking a book - of which I have a whole shelf load and access (well I use to) to the forum where all the experts of BF hang to discuss their hardest (and most absurd) cases.
My point is that it is a vital and important issue (breastfeeding, ok rant not yet over) concerning the health of two individuals and most HCPs give it lip service - thus how much of our ‘preventative’ and ‘healthcare’ is really about health? Most HCPs do not give the correct information (I think it was 9 out of 10 for a study done by a Dr while I was working in this field - with FP being the most knowledgeable.)And why - because it is a ‘lifestyle choice’ - yeah they can bash smoking day after day but not this issue - have you asked why. It is simple - follow the money. Breastfeeding costs nothing, makes no money for any corporations, but formula does - both for the likes of Nestle and Gerber and also it creates a less healthy population for all those Drs and HCPs to take care of - forever. And so much of what they do is driven by decisions made by non-doctors. Such as tests determined to be necessary as a result of a lawsuit 10 years ago - first not looking to the improvements in the field in those 10 years (or that another new test might be even better and/or safer), not to take each case on an individual case by case (i.e. bringing all down to the lowest level - even though the majority are not going to have diabetes during pregnancy or a deformed infant or have poor health to begin with) and as I said - the insurance.
Who wants an accounting whinnie who is using actuary tables to determine what is the best course of treatment? Come on people no two women, 50 year olds or cancer patients are the same - it throws out history (unless they want to use that to deny treatment) and individualism - we all become GM cars going to Mr. Goodwrench - where every condition is treated the same. Not for me. Ever.
I do think that while an individual Dr/Clinic might play with the charge numbers - that the Insurance industry does go with a median or mean charge of what is the ‘going rate’ in their service area - come on how many Health Insurance (which is a stupid misnomer - it is betting against health - let’s just do catastrophic and get to the real point) commercials do you see - compared with Car Insurance which you can buy across state borders??? Competition, not government involvement is the key to bring that monster under control.
And finally how much is enough? I no longer play the ‘yearly’ tests game - why, I’ve had it done via the Army all through my youthful, childbearing years and guess what - not a one came back bad - so, um why now should I continue to do the same vapid tests, over and over again? Just to make sure - well here’s the make sure - nothing is bleeding, turning black, oozing or hurts - I can function (all the bodily functions) A OK. I no longer smoke (6 years, this time), no longer drink (the Gourmet cooking did a slight number on that, as did the Stanley Cup playoffs but it is not a regular thing) and I am attempting to eat less junk food and more healthy foods - certainly cut down the processed stuff to a bare minimum. So why should I be forced into the same regime as someone who doesn’t even care to take care of themselves? Again - bringing the individual down to the lowest common denominator. Sorry if I wanted to be poor, stupid, vapid and lazy - I’d be on welfare - not taking a college course at 54.
Speak of that - just a little heads up - had open heart surgery (back in the day, they did it for all heart surgeries) at 7, entered the hospital (UofMN Heart Hospital) on Sunday, they did the cardiac cath on Monday, the heart surgery on Wednesday, and I was released on the next Sunday. Back in school two weeks later. Son a 99% tbsa burn (95% 3rd degree) - supposed in the early days - a year in the hospital, 40 to 50 surgeries - he was released in 8.5 months and has had a total of 18 surgeries. I do not care who you are - you can’t tell me ‘it’s a medical absolute’ - Does not exist ever in my World. Because I can prove you wrong - and your stupid textbook too.How dare the Klownposse in DC, Uncle Obama ever, ever want to make me one of the herd - I AM SARAH PALIN and damn you for attempting to make me an ACORN BOT.
//rant off (again)//
P.S. I am glad you guys think I write and respond well - I’ve been sent packing from so many places that think I am too strongly opinionated! What little ole me?
And Peiper I forgot - I too saw the 60% poll - and darn if I can’t find where I found the 81% but I do know it was June 29, 2009, in some article I read - so obviously - someone somewhere found a lot of people who are satisfied and not interested in Obamacare.
I had to take Miss Kitty to the pound and now I feel like crap. I guess I will go finish off my lousy mood by doing some homework.
I’ve been sent packing from so many places that think I am too strongly opinionated
GOOD! That means we do not have to share you with those who are too stupid to appreciate and LOVE you!
07/24/2009 at 06:55 AM
Next entry: WHAT PEOPLE LEAVE BEHIND .... AIRCRAFT AND SHIPS OF WW2.
Previous entry: Just Another Day In Joisey