Health Care Crisis Worsens
Now that I have begun I feel a need to continue exploring health care reform in this blog. Truthfully I was disappointed at the minimal response I received from my last blog. In fact, all of the comments were positive, but there were so few people who bothered to write. I would think that the welfare of each of us and our families would receive a higher priority and more enthusiasm in our thinking. I received the following comment from a friend who is an expert in health care. He wrote: “Now for the blog......you have too much knowledge. It is clear that health care reform will be a major issue next year and if legislation is actually passed it will be written and voted on by people who have a limited understanding of the structure of the system. Not only is the health care system broken, the system we will use to fix it is also broken. I hope the new system, whatever it is, will provide realistic, affordable, universal high quality care, but I wouldn’t bet on it.”
It seems most of us only care about the cost of health care and not the delivery system. In other words, if I have my insurance and it doesn’t cost too much I am satisfied. The malpractice crisis is OK because maybe I will get lucky someday and I will be able to win a jackpot settlement against a doctor. And besides, in the meantime I can keep complaining that my doctor missed the correct diagnosis or my doctor didn’t get a good result from surgery. And look at the wicked pharmaceutical industry. They make so much money. It isn’t my responsibility to reform the health care system. They should do it for me. Sort of like the oil industry, I guess. Let the poor continue to use an emergency room instead of a primary care doctor for their needs. I only get upset when I have to go to the emergency room and the wait is 6-12 hours. Gosh darn it (thanks Sara) we can improve the health care system by putting more money in the pot as with tax rebates or preventive medicine and maybe a small increase in the taxes on small business.
Let me tell you about the health care system in the United States. Hospital professionals are uninspired and check the clock to see what time they get off work. Nurses are now administrators. Please don’t ask them to treat a patient. Primary care is offered by nurse practitioners with a master’s degree post nurses training or by physician assistants with up to 2 years training post bachelor’s degree. Doctors are depressed over increased expectations and decreasing pay and the ever present threat of a law suit. Small business is cutting back on health insurance plans because they are implicitly unaffordable. 47 million people are uninsured and that number is growing. I feel like the man in the cave in Plato’s Republic. No one seems to care that his reality is at best a reflection of something that is going on around him. And I am sure that if my readers and my patients who are affluent and educated do not wish to respond to this crisis, then it is preposterous that our politicians will do so.
Edward Lack MD http://www.metropolitanmds.com/
It seems most of us only care about the cost of health care and not the delivery system. In other words, if I have my insurance and it doesn’t cost too much I am satisfied. The malpractice crisis is OK because maybe I will get lucky someday and I will be able to win a jackpot settlement against a doctor. And besides, in the meantime I can keep complaining that my doctor missed the correct diagnosis or my doctor didn’t get a good result from surgery. And look at the wicked pharmaceutical industry. They make so much money. It isn’t my responsibility to reform the health care system. They should do it for me. Sort of like the oil industry, I guess. Let the poor continue to use an emergency room instead of a primary care doctor for their needs. I only get upset when I have to go to the emergency room and the wait is 6-12 hours. Gosh darn it (thanks Sara) we can improve the health care system by putting more money in the pot as with tax rebates or preventive medicine and maybe a small increase in the taxes on small business.
Let me tell you about the health care system in the United States. Hospital professionals are uninspired and check the clock to see what time they get off work. Nurses are now administrators. Please don’t ask them to treat a patient. Primary care is offered by nurse practitioners with a master’s degree post nurses training or by physician assistants with up to 2 years training post bachelor’s degree. Doctors are depressed over increased expectations and decreasing pay and the ever present threat of a law suit. Small business is cutting back on health insurance plans because they are implicitly unaffordable. 47 million people are uninsured and that number is growing. I feel like the man in the cave in Plato’s Republic. No one seems to care that his reality is at best a reflection of something that is going on around him. And I am sure that if my readers and my patients who are affluent and educated do not wish to respond to this crisis, then it is preposterous that our politicians will do so.
Edward Lack MD http://www.metropolitanmds.com/
Labels: health care crisis
posted by Edward Lack MD at 8:39 AM
2 Comments:
Hello. I am a Cal Poly Political Science major, and I am conducting a research project on the different views on health insurance from a doctor's point of view. More taxes for the wealthy, to provide health care to those uninsured? Or insurance price cuts, minimizing the price, however, not insuring those without it. If you could let me know, as a plastic surgeon, your views on the insurance crisis, it would help a great deal. I enjoy your blog very much and plan to keep reading and responding to your entries.
Sincerely,
Natasha K.
Thank you for your comments on the health crisis, Dr. Lack. As a patient I have known you to be a person of principle and character.
Perhaps the election took many people's time and attention. Due to activity related to the campaign, I was more busy than usual. But I am also involved with other organizations that seek healthcare reform.
As you said, the situation here just got worse and worse. We were told that the profit motive would keep this from happening, but it could not. People can't pick and choose services when they need them, not can they change insurers easily. People focused on what they could do, but no one was watching the henhouse but foxes.
There is blame with insurance, medical institutions and people who are scammers. But who pays for our loss of quality across the board? Medical people of integrity who can't provide necessary service, insurance claims people who can't afford to loose their jobs but hate what they are asked to do, and good people with real problems who would never have the guile to scam.
This system has too long been tilted for the wrong people to win and the good to be intimidated. Most are overwhelmed at how to begin, so I am not surprised that few comment. And, on the back of the financial collapse it's even more difficult to absorb.
To write about this is to look at it closely, and perhaps really feel the pain of its dysfunction.
It's a difficult pill to swallow, and at our current level of entanglement, an extreme cure may sadly be the only option.
June P.
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