posted
Former Bush And McCain Mouthpiece Nicolle Wallace Claims To Speak For All Doctors Appearing on CNN yesterday afternoon, Nicolle Wallace, former spokeswoman to the presidential campaigns of George Bush and John McCain, claimed all doctors oppose the creation of a public plan, an integral component of reform. Indeed, the AMA, where President Obama spoke yesterday, has indicated that it will lobby against an effective public plan. But even though the AMA represents only 29% of American doctors (or much less than that, depending on if you subtract the dues payers who don’t currently practice), Wallace incredulously cited the AMA’s position as she boldly claimed to speak on behalf of the “docs”:
WALLACE: I think the biggest problem that Obama faces is not Republicans, it’s the doctors. [...] I think that most normal people look to their doctors for advice and for their reaction to the big health care debates that take place in Washington. And doctors are opposed, very strongly opposed to one of the central tenets of Obama’s plan.
BLITZER: Which tenet is that?
WALLACE: It is the public option. [...]
WALLACE: But there’s plenty of competition. The docs argue that you would crowd out private insurers. As Paul Begala noted, the AMA doesn’t bother to even survey its members. So not only is Wallace wrong to try to speak for all American doctors when she attacks the public option, she doesn’t even necessarily speak for AMA doctors.
It is difficult to take the AMA as an honest player in the health reform debate. The AMA secures over 20% of its revenue from selling doctor information to the pharmaceutical lobby in a complex scheme to help the drug lobby market its products. This arrangement certainly clouds the AMA’s policy voice.
Unlike the AMA, Doctors for America, an actual member-driven group, conducted a poll of physicians over the weekend asking if they support the public option. Within 48 hours, over 1,500 responded from 48 states with an overwhelming 97% of respondents voting “Yes.” One of the respondents to the DFA survey, Dr. Andrew Janssen, noted:
As a rural family physician, I see people daily who cannot afford or who have been denied private insurance. Without a public insurance option meaningful health care reform is impossible.
Even with the AMA leadership opposing meaningful reform, physician members of the AMA should support a public insurance option. A robust public plan would not only eliminate unnecessary paperwork gimmicks used by private insurers today, but would also give providers timely payments that would allow doctors to focus on delivering the best quality care to their patients.
-------------------- Wise men learn more from fools than fools from the wise.
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on the one hand? certain people claim that the Govt sux at everything it does and has no business in health care cuz it'll ruin it.
at the same time? the same people are now complaining that the Govt will be so competitive that it'll squeeze out the competition.
which is it?
health care costs are what destroyed GM.
more than half of all personal bankruptcies in America are directly due to health care issues and something like 70% of bankruptcies involve health care costs.
wanna decrease health care costs? create twice as many medical schools in the US. make it more competitive all around. make the med students compete LESS to get in and more to get oUT.
doctors complain about having to pay for "mistake insurance" that's right it's for mistakes. maybe if they didn't try to see 150 patients per week? they wouldn't have so many "mistakes"
also? a few years back? they wrote a patient diagnostic program questionnaire for patients that proved to be much more reliable than a hands on diagnosis for a number of reasons... this could help doctors but hey, they don't like it becuase they are afraid it will put them out of business entirely. it would decrease misdiagnosis alot.
-------------------- Don't envy the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise.
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quote:Originally posted by glassman: here's the "twist" as i see it:
on the one hand? certain people claim that the Govt sux at everything it does and has no business in health care cuz it'll ruin it.
at the same time? the same people are now complaining that the Govt will be so competitive that it'll squeeze out the competition.
which is it?
health care costs are what destroyed GM.
more than half of all personal bankruptcies in America are directly due to health care issues and something like 70% of bankruptcies involve health care costs.
wanna decrease health care costs? create twice as many medical schools in the US. make it more competitive all around. make the med students compete LESS to get in and more to get oUT.
doctors complain about having to pay for "mistake insurance" that's right it's for mistakes. maybe if they didn't try to see 150 patients per week? they wouldn't have so many "mistakes"
also? a few years back? they wrote a patient diagnostic program questionnaire for patients that proved to be much more reliable than a hands on diagnosis for a number of reasons... this could help doctors but hey, they don't like it becuase they are afraid it will put them out of business entirely. it would decrease misdiagnosis alot.
Here is what I can easily see happening. Obama gets his government run health care plan pushed though like the stimulus. Then, slowly over time employers stop issuing private health care insurance because they know the government will pick it up. They will be paying higher corporate taxes anyway once the plan goes into effect.
Then, whos to say if you are 79 and need a heart transplant the government says, "well we dont offer transplants past 60 and thats across the board" then boom your screwed.
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posted
Originally post by Glassman: wanna decrease health care costs? create twice as many medical schools in the US. make it more competitive all around. make the med students compete LESS to get in and more to get oUT.
There's the answer clear and simple.
-------------------- Let's Go METS!!!
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OK, i've spent about half my life involved with universities.
most of my social acquaintances as an adult have been graduate students.
i hate to say this, but most people who graduate with the 3.95+ required to matriculate into the US med school system were cheats.
there are some who were honestly just "perfect" students, but my observation is that way more than half the "4.0" students are mercenaries.
the way med schools work toady is that they have a very limited numbe of seats, and they intend to graduate over 90% of the people they accept.
in other words? they strictly limit the supply of US doctors they graduate, and then they put them into hospitals to do their residency.
in residency? they are pushed to the limits of human endurance. they have excuses for the reasons behind doing this but in the end?
it CAUSES mistakes.
US trained doctors are taught to beleive they are privileged beginning the first day of med school.
my personal observation is that they do not recruit healers. they recruit people with a certain drive and a set of abilitites that are not even compatible with the ideal healer. my observations are that there is actually a very large group of 3.4 students that are in fact ideal healer types who can't even consider med school because they won't be accepted. they are not "dumber" they are less driven to be "perfect", and much more likely to have less confidence that they are right the first time every time.
one of the ideas that i have heard lately that i like is insurance co-ops.
we wouldn't need a govt plan if people could form co-ops to buy insurance.
some of the best insurance COMMONLY available is thru the US govt employee system, why do you have to be a us govt employees to join that group? why not open it to everybody?
engineers can be very frustrating, they seem to have math that proves that flies can't fly, yet we know they do
-------------------- Don't envy the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise.
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