Thanks for the link, Donald. And if your're here on your own, be sure to check out his American Power roundup on the topic
Pardon me for being a bit insulted, but according to President Obama I am the problem. No, really. It's my fault. After 10 years of higher education after college; after internship rotations that required up to 140 hours in the hospital in one week (cardiothoracic surgery: do the math - there are only 168 hours in a week); after 18 years of medical practice during which I've successfully treated thousands of people for their life, limb, and livelihood threatening injuries; after years of dedication to the profession of medicine that saw me attend hundreds of hours of continuing education to maintain and improve my skills and knowledge and that made me accept substandard payments from Medicare, Medicaid and HMOs, it's come to this. It's my fault.
The President supports, if he knows what's in the bill,
- paying for it by taxing only "the wealthy"
- reducing payments to physicians by having the government dictate rates which, because of the future structural deficits, must be reduced
- giving the government further ability to hamstring my practice by controlling access to procedures
- leaving loose the dogs of law to sue willy-nilly looking for jackpot justice
All of those provisions leave doctors as the villains. I have never performed a procedure or ordered a test that was not medically indicated. I don't do procedures to line my pockets. I offer every patient who needs PT the opportunity to attend therapy wherever they want, not just in the PT practice that my group opened last year. I've had one knee arthroscopy temporarily denied by the insurer, only to have it approved 8 weeks later when their suggested management didn't work. I've never had a mark against either my license or my hospital privileges, and I've never failed to achieve certification at any level. I do admit to - rarely - ordering the occasional test to insulate myself with litigious patients. And, after hundreds of thousands of dollars in malpractice premiums, in 18 years I have never been sued. (I hope I didn't jinx myself.) But apparently the government needs to watch over every move I make, and the tort bar to hold my feet to the fire or I'd go on bilking the system and harming patients. Thank you. I feel so much better now.
Oh, and I get to pay for this "reform" because, apparently, being a successful physician must not be simply demonized, but also punished. I have no earthly idea why smart, talented young people would want to go into medicine in a future where they'll have to answer to the federal government at every step of the way, work for less-than-plumbers' wages, and have tort lawyers circling their patient care like vultures.
7/22/09 2320: Oh, and about those 45 47 50 million uninsured.
Journalists’ failure to question that high figure has furthered the cause of nationalized care. “Proponents of universal health care often use the 46-million figure -- without context or qualification. It creates the false impression that a huge percentage of the population has fallen through the cracks,” Gratzer told BMI. “Again, that’s not to suggest that there is no problem, but it's very different than the universal-care crowd describes.”
7/22/09 2350: You think I'm joking?
1. Doctors Want to Take Your Kids' Tonsils For Profit
Again, another answer unrelated to any question asked: "Right now, doctors a lot of times are forced to make decisions based on the fee payment schedule that's out there. So if they're looking and you come in and you've got a bad sore throat or your child has a bad sore throat or has repeated sore throats, the doctor may look at the reimbursement system and say to himself, "You know what? I make a lot more money if I take this kid's tonsils out."
In all, he had some very clear villains in tonight's performance: doctors, insurers, Republicans, and the Cambridge police department. A full transcript of the press conference is available here.
All I know is, at least I can throw a baseball and hit the broad side of a barn. Oh, and if you'd rather play basketball, I gotta tell you I'm game for that also. Let's make it a decathlon. You pick five, I'll pick five. Bring it on, Barack.
7/23/09 1115: More from Slublog on the demonization of physicians.
My wife works in the healthcare industry, and when I showed her the video of Obama’s statement, she reacted with incredulity, because she knows the truth - those in healthcare work hard to earn the RN behind their name or the Dr. in front of it. The vast majority of them do not do so because of the paycheck they’ll earn, but because they know their work will help save or improve the lives of others. When the president suggested otherwise, he slandered the motives of every doctor and nurse who treats patients on a daily basis.
Precisely
7,23,09 2140: Righwing Czar
But the President might have accidently revealed his hand last night when he started talking about doctors trying to make money. He is clearly saying that he does not want doctors making decisions about patient care because they are only interested in profit. If Obama believes that doctors can’t be trusted to make good decisions about what a patient really needs, then why should we believe him when he says he wants to make sure that it is doctors who make those decisions?
Of course, the truth is that Obama’s speeches about letting doctors and patients decide what’s best is just another one of his noble myths. Sure, he wants them to make their decisions together – as long as they are deciding between the treatment options that the federal government has said they can choose from.
“Here in Soviet Russia, you can buy any color car you want, just as long as it’s black!”
