Advice from your friendly, local radiologist:
Dear Patient,
It's time for you to make a very important choice in your life. Who do you want - and trust - to make your personal health care decisions for yourself and your family - from this point on in your life ? You and your doctor? Or the federal government?
It's really very simple. If you 'd prefer the latter, then go ahead: pull the lever for President Obama and his misleadingly labeled "Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act".
Remember though that by doing so, you deliver yourself, and just as importantly, your doctor -bound hand, foot and mind- to the dictates and decrees of tens - if not hundreds- of thousands of medical technocrats from over 159 new federal medical bureaus, panels, commissions and boards who will be convening, discussing and dictating the terms of your care- what you can have, when you can have it and if you can have it.
Remember though that by doing so, you deliver yourself, and just as importantly, your doctor -bound hand, foot and mind- to the dictates and decrees of tens - if not hundreds- of thousands of medical technocrats from over 159 new federal medical bureaus, panels, commissions and boards who will be convening, discussing and dictating the terms of your care- what you can have, when you can have it and if you can have it.
You will be putting your money into the government pot and trusting your life to the wisdom, training, compassion, education, and motives of the same federal bureaucrats who will have power over yourself and your doctor.
Go ahead. Spin the roulette wheel. You might get lucky and hit the jackpot -and get "your fair share" of the pot of government money to get the medical services you need when your life depends on it- if you happen to be the "right age" or have the "right condition", be a member of the "right group", know the "right people", or hire the right lobbyists who will give money to the "right people" at the "right time" during the "right election cycle".
I would suggest that you think long and hard before doing that. As a doctor- practicing over 20 years- and helping patients make life or death decisions, I would actually advise against that. Without a doubt, there are many problems in the US health care system-as well as the US health care financing systems - which need to be reformed. In case you were unaware, they are- *every_last_one_of_ them* - problems that were *created* by bad government laws, policies and regulations and destructive intrusion of government into the market for medical services and health insurance in the *first* place.
Your government- over the past 50 years- has created this mess and piled bad health care policies and regulations onto bad health care policies and regulations like fuel onto a burning conflagration. Yet, in order to fix this mess, rather than listening to the opinions and advice of your doctors- the people who actually have devoted their lives to providing the life-giving and life-preserving services you depend on - and empowering them to help make the necessary changes in your best interest, you are going to look to the same government tinkers who caused it in the first place ? Bad choice.
The US health care financing system is certainly a mess- and you can thank your government for that . If you are smart, you will not sign on the line for empty promise and "Hope &Change" again. If you are smart, you will *not* endorse the idea that " we have to re-elect the President to find out what's in it".
You will *not* put your blind trust into the hands of Government to "fix it once and for all" ( I promise you, they will, alright-....).
Reforms are needed- desperately- but reforms that preserve your personal freedom to make your own personal, deeply private medicine choices- and your doctor's personal ability to treat you according to his or her own best medical judgement- not the dictates of bean-counting federal bureaucrats. In order to do that, ObamaCare must be WIPED OUT.
Reforms are needed- desperately- but reforms that preserve your personal freedom to make your own personal, deeply private medicine choices- and your doctor's personal ability to treat you according to his or her own best medical judgement- not the dictates of bean-counting federal bureaucrats. In order to do that, ObamaCare must be WIPED OUT.
So I would suggest voting for the candidate who has vowed to REPEAL ObamaCare. HINT: The current President is *not* one of them. This would not be the "end" of the US health care reform process- but rather, the *beginning* - since blowing this dangerous law out of existence is the *first step* and *pre-condition* of allowing doctors to and patients to bringing to bear economically sound , patient-oriented and doctor -oriented health care reform policies that preserves your freedom as a patient to make your own choices and preserves your doctor's freedom and ability to practice medicine- in *your* best interest.
Furthermore, beyond just voting for candidates who have pledged to REPEAL ObamaCare, I would also like to encourage you to take action to educate other doctors and patients to do the same by joining the Docs4PatientCare Patient/ Voter / Doctor Education Campaign .
Your own doctor probably has said very little or nothing to you about this and may know very little about the law himself .You would do him or her- and their patients- a great service by getting our educational brochures into the hands of your OWN doctor to disseminate to patients in the waiting room. Your health - and the future and health of the US health care system depend on it..
Thank you for your time,
Evan Madianos, MD
Docs4PatientCare is excellent health care reform organization that advocates for the protection and preservation of the the doctor-patient relationship and the critical ability of America's physicians to make medical decisions in the best interest of their patients- instead of being forced to follow bureaucratic dictates handed down from Washington, DC. They have designed a number of terrific educational postcards, posters, and brochures that doctors can print out and display in their waiting room or mail to their patients, informing them about the Risk & Perils of ObamaCare.
The time to speak out against ObamaCare is now. The election is rapidly approaching and you can STILL make a critical impact by helping to inform the electorate about the destructive impact that the misleadingly titled "Affordable Care Act" will have on the US health care system and economy- and to advocate for economically sound , problem- oriented solutions to America's health care financing crisis that will lower the costs of medical services and health insurance premiums while critically protecting and preserving your ability to make your own medical care decisions- free of the highly destructive effects of bureaucratic control.
The time to get involved personally is NOW and the tools to do so are in your hands. Join the Docs4PatientCare "Waiting Room to Exam Room Campaign".
Please forward this as well to your own doctor, physician colleagues, friends and family.
Please forward this as well to your own doctor, physician colleagues, friends and family.
I've been in healthcare for many years myself. While I am impressed that you admit the problem with our current healthcare system did not begin four years ago unfortunately, you are remiss in omitting the role that physicians have played with this problem. The blame must be distributed amongst the wonderful physicians that deliver care also. Physicians, Medical Directors, Hospitals, i.e. have been accepting kick-backs from vendors, self-referring, and simply not being good financial stewards for years.
ReplyDeleteThe truth of the matter is you are concerned with the impact of ObamaCare on your wallet. It’s ok…I share the same concerns. My wages will decrease also. But how can we live in the free world and have citizens who don't have access to medical care and insurance? I think you should do some introspect. I would imagine at some point in your career in medicine it wasn’t about money.
Neither the government nor physicians are faultless in making unethical medical decisions against American citizens less we forget the atrocity of the Tuskegee Experiment. Being a direct descendent you can refer to me as number 319…my grandfathers number.
You are now asking the public to rally behind your financially motivated cause. The general population may have questions regarding ObamaCare but are we at a point in our nation that we want to start fighting for our Constitutional rights that we already have? Roe v. Wade…really?
Healthcare should be a right for all United States citizens. Shame on your for attempting to persuade people to make another choice based on a political or financial platform.
Hi Evan! Yes it's me Steve. Glad to see you are engaged in this conversation. While I am concerned about many of the points that you made, I cannot agree. No doubt, many of us will suffer even more as universal healthcare becomes a reality. I totally agree that the technocrats and bureaucrats will show their usual ignorance and insensitivity. But I strongly believe that doctors have dropped the ball and to "wipe out ObamaCare" is coming to the party too late. Now is not the time to wipe out, but the time to come to the table and make the demands we require. Doctors are much more powerful than they realize. I think you are adding to the divisiveness rather than participating and bringing doctors together to show our true strength. By the way, to Angela, just for the record, I am a Medical Director as I do NOT accept kick-backs.
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