Read this and weep.
I add one caveat.
Socialized medicine, if that is what you want to call it needs to be
made competitive by been regulated on a State by State basis at
least. There will still by national associations to use when
appropriate.
Otherwise the present US
system is disgusting. Today, all Canadians have medical care and
most if not all Canadians are happy. The only twist needs to be the
availability of private clinics for those who wish to jump queue for
certain procedures.
In short, the Canadian
system can be made somewhat better but presently costs half as much
to deliver one hundred percent.
That same system flew my
sister in law and attending family from Regina to Toronto for brain
surgery with the best talent available. They do as much for an
Eskimo having a difficult delivery above the Arctic Circle. It may
not be paradise but it is certainly not the hell that the American
system is for at least 100,000,000 Americans.
A legitimate comparison
leaves an investigator in a rage.
The Current State
of Medical Care – A Doctor’s Perspective
Dr. Shawn
Tassone, Guest Writer
January 8, 2013
A recent study of over
1,000 family practitioners stated that close to 70% of primary care
providers would be either retiring or leaving medical care within the
next 5 years. While this is disturbing, what I found more
disturbing is the responses to this story on google. Most, if
not all of the responses were blasting the medical professionals for
being whiners and for making too much money. Is that what
patients are truly upset about is that their doctor is making too
much money. Obviously, people are entitled to their belief
systems, but what a horrible system in which to operate.
Doctors are whiners?
The real reason that I will see 44-50 patients per day is because
people call my office and need to be seen; does this make the patient
a whiner? I would say no, this means that the patient feels the
need to see a doctor and on our end, we try to work them in so that
this service can be provided. In a socialized format, this
phone call to be seen on the same day will be a thing of the past,
and with lower numbers of doctors practicing medicine, there will be
less appointments.
I am not starving to
death and I never have complained about my income. I can tell
you that I have spent 4 years in medical school, 4 years in
residency, and 2 years in fellowship (all after college), to get
where I am today, and yet, there seems to be a culture in this
country that 10 years of postgraduate work should not be monetarily
rewarded, or if one makes money then this makes them a greedy or bad
person somehow. I am always fascinated how people make money in
this country. I know many people that did not graduate from
college that are making more than me, and I do not belabor them; I
wonder how they did it.
Medical reimbursements
have not increased substantially in the last 10+ years, while
hard costs for running an office, employee payroll, medical
malpractice, and cost of equipment have increased substantially.
The main cost at my office is payroll and employee benefits and this
increases yearly. The reason for this increase is that we have
wonderful employees and we pay them in order to keep them. My
main postulate is that we take care of people. We make money as
physicians and we give money back. The truth of the matter is
that money seems to be how people are judged in our society, and I am
not sure this is a true measure of a person’s worth.
Medical care in
this country is beyond sick, it is in the throes of death and will
not be recovering. Who is to blame?
* The doctors for
making too much money? If that were the case then why would
more than 70% of primary care physicians be leaving medicine in the
next few years. I would think that the promise of a
lucrative income would keep them plugging away. The truth is
that the work loads and patient dissatisfaction with their own casts
is pushing physicians out of medicine. The volume of paperwork
is a monster that has consumed many medical practices and this is
worsening. Money is not worth the paper it is printed
on….literally. Physicians don’t make too much money, they
are burned out trying to get the payments from insurance and buried
under mountains of paperwork.
* The patients
for not taking better care of themselves? Unfortunately,
one of the reasons we are one of the least healthy countries in the
world is not because of our medicine, it is because of our
nutrition. When drive through burgers are cheaper than fresh
produce, this is a problem. When the main portion of a diet are
aspartame, corn syrup, and meat byproducts (whatever those are), then
this is a problem. We have expensive medical care, no
doubt, but we use it too much. Patients are plagued by rising
medical insurance costs and many of them have no idea what their
plans even cover. Medical insurance is only good in this
country if you don’t get sick. Patients should be rewarded
for being the right weight and for being healthy. Health
insurance should also be there for patients when they need it.
* Frivolous
lawsuits. While lawsuits are definitely warranted in cases
of gross negligence, the amount of frivilous lawsuits yearly is
laughable. Similar to the woman that burned herself on coffee
from McDonalds and won multiple millions of dollars (now we have
warnings that our coffee is hot) for something that seemed common
sense. We want to blame someone when complications happen.
Unfortunately, medical care is not perfect, because the people giving
the care are human. We have a robot for surgery. The
robot is still run by a human being.
* Insurance
companies. You pay the premiums, they deny procedures.
You drive out of the state where you reside and your coverage stays
behind (ridiculous). Have you ever really sat down and read
your policy? Do you know what they pay for if you go to the
emergency room? Do you know what your copay is for a visit at
the doctor’s office. Did you know that copays and premiums
have been skyrocketing for years and reimbursements for procedures
and physician visits have not……..where is this money going?
If the insurance companies would spend more time paying for
legitimate healthcare that you have subsidized with your premium
payments, rather than spending money on trying to find a reason for
denial, it would more than likely save money.
The main point of this
essay, is to point out the fact that our medial system is ready to
die and I think we need to let it go. I might get raked over
the coals by colleagues for this, but if Obama wants to socialize
medicine, I say let it be. I am very suspicious
that socialized medicine will work and I am not for paying higher
taxes, but I think the current system is disgusting.
If socialized medicine means that patients are happy, this in turn
will truly help me sleep better at night. I think consumers
should be happy with the product they receive, and while I feel that
physicians are doing the best we can, the patients are not happy.
Physicians let managed care take over in the 80′s and we should
jump on the grenade created by the current state of affairs. Medicine
is controlled by bureaucracies and socialized medicine would be the
biggest bureaucracy of them all.
The question would be,
once medicine is controlled by Uncle Sam, will we be a healthier
nation? Will we be able to regulate something that has been
removed from the public sector. How many jobs will be lost just
in the private insurance sector? These are questions that need
to be evaluated.
This article is
featured as part of a partnership with AllThingsHealing.com.
All Things Healing
(allthingshealing.com)
is an online portal and community dedicated to informing and
educating people across the globe about alternative healing of mind,
body, spirit and the planet at large. We are committed to bringing
together a worldwide community of individuals and organizations who
are working to heal themselves, each other, and the world. We offer
39 healing categories, 80 plus editors who are experts in their
fields, a forum for each category, and an extensive “Find
Practitioners” listing. Our Costa Rica Learning Center and
Spiritual Retreat is coming soon. Join us!
This article is
offered under Creative Commons license. It’s okay to republish it
anyw
No comments:
Post a Comment