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Obama, Heal Thyself
pajamasmedia.com ^ | 5-3-09 | Ralph Alter

Posted on 05/03/2009 7:52:50 AM PDT by HangnJudge

An April 26 article in the New York Times reported:

The need for more doctors comes up at almost every congressional hearing and White House forum on health care. “We’re not producing enough primary-care physicians,”Obama said at one forum. “The costs of medical education are so high that people feel that they’ve got to specialize.”

This quote demonstrates precisely the stilted logic based on flimsy assumptions that characterizes the intellect of our statist new presidential administration. That primary care physicians are in short supply is not in dispute, but the shortage certainly doesn’t stem from the cost of medical education, according to a November 2008 consumeraffairs.com report:

Thus, your new national health care coverage will be administered by physicians trained more frugally than those now practicing. Perhaps these newbies can be rushed through a community college-type program in a couple of years to meet the demand for “doctors.” One can imagine the high quality sawbones that would be turned out by our nation’s rumpled bureaucracy.

The simple alternative — simplifying the procedures for physician access to Medicare and Medicaid funds combined with tort reform to enable doctors to keep more of their hard-earned cash — is surely anathema to Obama and his regulators. Unfortunately the president’s approach meets the medical standard for Gresham’s Law, as demonstrated in nationalized health care systems in Europe and Canada: Bad doctors drive out good doctors

(Excerpt) Read more at pajamasmedia.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government
KEYWORDS: healthcare; obama
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Comments at end of article worth reading also
1 posted on 05/03/2009 7:52:50 AM PDT by HangnJudge
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To: HangnJudge

The objective is TO GET CONTROL over people’s lives by using socialized medicine. The goal is CERTAINLY not improving health care. He cannot do that and really does not care to.

It is all about control by socialists. Has nothing to do with your health or mine....at all.


2 posted on 05/03/2009 7:55:53 AM PDT by EagleUSA
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To: HangnJudge
“The costs of medical education are so high that people feel that they’ve got to specialize.”

Ok, either I haven't had enough coffee yet, or that sentence makes absolutely no sense.

Does he think an ENT or a pediatrician or a cardiac specialist attends LESS school? WTH is he talking about?

3 posted on 05/03/2009 8:00:02 AM PDT by tsmith130
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To: EagleUSA
It is all about control by socialists.
Has nothing to do with your health or mine....at all.

IMHO
When Obama Care kicks in
~30% of physicians will just quit

The job is just too destructive to self
and to primary relationships
The personal costs too high to sustain
with a ever increasingly intrusive government presence


4 posted on 05/03/2009 8:02:48 AM PDT by HangnJudge
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To: tsmith130
WTH is he talking about?

Specialist have higher average incomes than generalists
They can support higher “startup” costs than
Pediatricians, FP’s, General surgeons

5 posted on 05/03/2009 8:05:02 AM PDT by HangnJudge
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To: HangnJudge

Ok, so it was my lack of caffeine. Nevermind....


6 posted on 05/03/2009 8:08:11 AM PDT by tsmith130
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To: HangnJudge

Actually the biggest reason there are too few doctors is that medicine is hard. There’s a very limited pool of people who are smart enough and have the desire to do the grueling 12 years (or more depending on the specialization) of study.

That’s why it seems like every other person you meet is studying to be a nurse practitioner or physician’s assistant or aroma therapist or some such thing. They get to help people in a shorter time period and with a much lower likelihood of failure.


7 posted on 05/03/2009 8:09:17 AM PDT by irv (Live Tea or die!)
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To: HangnJudge

I’ve already heard from surgeons that say they will just quit. No sense in working to not get paid .


8 posted on 05/03/2009 8:09:40 AM PDT by freeangel ( (free speech is only good until someone else doesn't like what you say))
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To: HangnJudge

While the problems of the uninsured should be addressed, is socialized medicine really the answer?

And considering that many nations in Europe, Canada, etc. have had socialized medicine for many years, we have seen both some good points and some big problems with those systems.

We have seen what the problems are in the real world, not as part of some abstract theory, but what has happened in these systems. Yet the Obamabots talk about this issue as if it is an abstract theory that has never been tried before.


9 posted on 05/03/2009 8:10:53 AM PDT by Dilbert San Diego
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To: HangnJudge
Specialist have higher average incomes than generalists

Right. And a specialist in private practice even earns more and better control over his practice than being a ward of a large HMO or Government. Government control over health care will destroy good medical care by destroying private practice. Wait and see!!!!!

10 posted on 05/03/2009 8:13:13 AM PDT by Logical me (Oh, well!!!)
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To: irv

And these other people have much less likelihood of getting sued also. Tort reform is badly needed.

I’ve heard that about 2/3 of all OB/GYN doctors get sued for malpractice sometimes in their career. And that yearly malpractice insurance premiums can run into six figures for these doctors. You think doctors make a lot of money, because they have six figure incomes, but they also have some huge expenses that you and I don’t have.

But I’m sure Obama has figured out what to do about malpractice and other issues in medicine.


11 posted on 05/03/2009 8:13:39 AM PDT by Dilbert San Diego
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To: irv
12 years (or more depending on the specialization) of study

In my case, 13...
4 years Undergraduate School
1 year Graduate school
4 Years Medical School
1 Year Internship
3 Years Residency

Lifetime of Continuing Education
Medical Boards
2 Specialty Boards

And I still feel insufficient

12 posted on 05/03/2009 8:15:50 AM PDT by HangnJudge
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To: HangnJudge

Specialists have higher income NOW.

They won’t under BO med-no-care. That’s one of the gripes not mentioned in the article. If all doctors are paid the same, you won’t get specialists. Why study 4 or 5 more years to get the same pay as the just-graduated resident?


13 posted on 05/03/2009 8:23:16 AM PDT by FrogMom (No such thing as an honest democrat! Or one with a brain.)
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To: Dilbert San Diego
But I’m sure Obama has figured out what to do about malpractice and other issues in medicine.

Yep, he'll make it illegal to sue your BO med-no-care doctor. That way they can slap a bandaid on your spurting artery and not worry about getting sued.

14 posted on 05/03/2009 8:26:00 AM PDT by FrogMom (No such thing as an honest democrat! Or one with a brain.)
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To: FrogMom
Why study 4 or 5 more years to get the same pay
as the just-graduated resident?

Yup
Back to the classic General Practitioner
4 Years Medical School
1 Year Internship

Or even skipping Internship and
going straight into practice

Shiver

15 posted on 05/03/2009 8:32:29 AM PDT by HangnJudge
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To: tsmith130
What he meant is "the cost of litigation is so high" that many feel it necessary to specialize to limit the pool of potential litigants (and weasel lawyers) to those absolutely having serious medical problems (look at it this way - smaller pool (no deadbeats), probably likely to die, if they get to you they got insurance or papa G coverin' em no questions aksed, it goes on)......

Makes a whole lotta damns sense to me.

16 posted on 05/03/2009 8:52:14 AM PDT by Gaffer
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To: Gaffer

India, Thailand and Singapore will just build more for profit hospitals to service those with money from the West.
They will attract US trained Dr. who will make a lot of money inspite of lower rates. Very little insurance, lower operating costs, more cash payment with less paper work and accounts receivable.
Our out is Singapore. We would go there if treatment was unavailable in the US.
One of our friends is preparing for a kidney transplant. Under the UK or Canadian system she would not qualify..too old.


17 posted on 05/03/2009 9:10:45 AM PDT by Oldexpat
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To: Oldexpat

I wish her well.


18 posted on 05/03/2009 9:11:21 AM PDT by Gaffer
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To: Oldexpat
Our out is Singapore.
We would go there if treatment was unavailable in the US.

Better watch out where the
Transplanted kidney comes from

http://www1.american.edu/TED/prisonorgans.htm
19 posted on 05/03/2009 9:22:34 AM PDT by HangnJudge
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To: HangnJudge
Before we commit billions to educating more doctors, remember this:

One half of USA doctor visits result in NO quantifiable improvement in the patient’s condition.

Despite spending trillions for research and treatment, modern medicine has few answers to the physical destruction of old age.

In 2009, the greatest enemy of good health is your BIRTHDAY.

Medical research will slowly extend the human life span and quality of life.

Increasing the number of clinical doctors will make only a minor contribution to public health in the coming decades.

20 posted on 05/03/2009 9:49:11 AM PDT by zeestephen
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