Tuesday, August 3, 2010

BloggeRhythms 8/3/2010

U.S. District Court federal judge Henry Hudson's allowing the state of Virginia to continue a lawsuit to stop the new health care law from taking effect. He said "No court has ever ruled on whether it's constitutional to require Americans to purchase a product."

In a 32 page decision, he went on to write, "While this case raises a host of complex constitutional issues, all seem to distill to the single question of whether or not Congress has the power to regulate -and tax- a citizen's decision not to participate in interstate commerce. Given the presence of some authority arguably supporting the theory underlying each side's position, this court cannot conclude at this stage that the complaint fails to state a cause of action,"

The bill was rejected by all congressional Republicans but signed into law by President Obama earlier this year.

I'm bringing this up today because it's another example of government plowing ahead into areas where it hasn't a clue and ramming through legislation for the sake of fulfilling a ridiculous campaign promise regardless of the damage it will ultimately cause. If we're lucky, Virgina will win this case and other states will follow their lead, one by one putting our health care system back together.

I've addressed this issue many times in prior entries, so I won't go back step by step and reiterate what's been written, but, toward the end of the original debate prior to health care's passage several Republicans stated that the health care issue is far too large and involved to be treated in one fell swoop. And that's certainly true.

An approach that made the most sense to me, was that the first steps should have been to address the major issues affecting and disrupting everything else, then try to fix them properly, one at a time. But, the way things stand now a bunch of politicos who haven't a clue about health care management or program design have run over the best health system on the planet with a bulldozer.

From the git-go, for example, the issue to be addressed immediately should have been malpractice insurance. Because, if that one gets remedied a lot more subordinate problems will fall into place. But, since congress is packed with lawyers, the ambulance-chasers were critical to protect. However, if you blow those dirtballs out of the equation, health care costs would probably drop by half.

In my own case, over the past four years I've had some very serious health issues and major work performed on me. Thus, I've seen and gone through many, many scenarios myself. What's more, I was in supposedly one of the finest medical facilities on Earth.

So, let's begin with my basic check-ups. Good doc's know what they're looking for right from the start by the symptoms. They can quickly prove their suspicions by running the appropriate tests. But, today they can't simply do that because what if they missed something else? And what if what they missed resulted in further consequences and the patient developed complications or maybe croaked altogether? The answer to that one is, a line of slick, fast-talking mouthpieces show up bearing a carload of lawsuits, hoping to score a homer every time they get to the plate.

Well then, what do the doc's have to do? They have to buy malpractice protection. And the more cases there are the more premiums rise until you get what we have today. Many doctors have to work nine months a year before they see a quarter for themselves because the insurers scam so much of their earnings.

And what happens to the patients while the doc's are covering their legal tails? We're put through tests, many extremely costly, having no real purpose at all except to become part of some doc's files so he can later say he took every diagnostic step known to man if he's sued.

Beyond that, from the patient's side of the issue, we wind up getting examined, probed, pinched, shot up with serums and drugs and kicked from doc to doc like soccer balls. Then each of these clowns does their thing, sends you a bill, and moves you on to the next one in line. And, one of the worst things about that is when you're a patient and feeling ill, you go through this malpractice avoidance routine because you're to weak to just dump these doc's on their tails and go home.

Having had two major surgeries performed on me in the last four years I think I'm somewhat qualified to offer an opinion about the way many of these doc's rate as medico's. And, frankly I think they're pretty much like all professionals in any other endeavor. The two, three or four percent at the top are real "pro's" and excellent at what they do, and the rest are basically shlubs. It's like a question a good friend always asks. What do they call the guy who graduated number one in his class? The answer is: You call him doctor. And what do you call the bozo who graduated last in his class? The answer is: You call him doctor.

So, since the chances of having a really good doctor work on you at all are pretty slim, what happens to patients as they're forced to go though this series of examinations and tests by a parade of schlemiels who're all simply covering their collective malpractice tails? My answer to that one is, you're lucky if they don't kill you in the process.

So, how do you really reduce medical costs, streamline the system and continue to provide Americans with the best health care in the world? It's simple. Kill all the lawyers.

That's it for today folks.

Adios

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