bear with the long post,as i need some input before I TRY to submit a rebuttal.this is what the Tea party is pushing-advertising the aaps as the main medical institution and discrediting the AMA as a socialist splinter group organization(because they actually CARE about their patients)...read and then any feedback or references.My paper had nothing but right-wing SHIT since the editor was on vacation...and one of his collegues was at the desk.
I will post the links to the AAPS,as my paper is difficult to access.the columns were taken from there....
last thursday's
http://www.aapsonline.org/newsoftheday/001109Why the Government Cannot Control Medical Costs
Posted on June 28, 2010 by admin
By: Alieta Eck, MD
From the patients in my office we can learn why Medicare and Medicaid cannot control costs. Neither the President, the Congress, nor learned journals are telling these stories.
A spry, cheerful patient told me that she had fainted under the hair dryer in her beauty salon. The rescue squad rushed her to the emergency room of the nearest hospital. On the way, she was alert and speaking clearly with no weakness of her arms or legs. She told the rescuers that this had happened once before a few years ago.
All indications pointed to a simple fainting spell. Maybe she was dehydrated. The warmth from the hair dryer probably caused blood vessels to dilate and her blood pressure to drop.
Nevertheless, she spent three days in the hospital with EKG monitoring, and underwent a CT scan, an MRI, an EEG, and endless blood tests— all normal. Several specialists were called in for this “complicated” case. Finally, the patient insisted on going home even though some advised her to stay a little longer. She commented on how she probably would never have even been admitted had she not been covered by Medicare. And Medicare (working people and their as-yet-unborn grandchildren) will probably pay more than $20,000.
A television commercial states, “Last year, 9 out of 10 people got their Hoveround for little or no money.” A perfectly healthy appearing actress, sitting in her fancy scooter, folding her wash, says, “With Medicare and my insurance, I paid nothing out of pocket.” Those commercials ignore the fact that someone is paying for those expensive scooters— just not the actual users.
In a free clinic, one patient told me she preferred the brand name to the much lower cost generic. “Why?” I asked. “My friend told me the brand name is better.” Her prescriptions are covered by Medicaid, so all her medicines are paid for by someone else. I respectfully declined to write, “brand medically necessary,” and explained that although the medicine was free to her, the State of New Jersey is out of money and the generic will probably work just as well.
Are these patients or their physicians committing fraud? No. They are simply acting legally to enhance their own well-being, following the incentives set up by the unwieldy system. People with “coverage” do not care what costs they incur, and those who provide services benefit by providing more. As with the oil rig in the Gulf, there is a lot of pressure behind the leak. Adding more pressure —as with the Democrats’ idea of saving money by covering everybody—is not the answer. It can only make things worse.
We have in fact already tried it– in Massachusetts. The one-state version of ObamaCare functions only because of heavy federal subsidies. Massachusetts has tried to limit fees, and still the state is hemorrhaging cash. Massachusetts Medicaid went from $1 billion to $1.75 billion in 4 short years and the federal government—actually the taxpayers from the other 49 states— subsidized half that increase.
Will it take a bomb to stop the leak before we are smothered in oil or debt that our grandchildren will never be able to repay? What will be the result of the looming 21% cut in Medicare payments to physicians?
Doctors who have been accepting steadily diminishing payments to care for the elderly are increasingly bolting out of the system. Savvy Medicare recipients will continue to secure their free Hoverounds, but the weaker, more confused, sicker, and more vulnerable will find that fewer physicians will be able to care for them. Once the nation is bankrupt, hospitals have closed, and physicians have found alternate ways to earn a living, real medical needs will not be met. The best medical care in the world will simply cease to exist. Then all Americans, young and old, will feel the pain.
There is a better answer, pointed out by Rep. Ron Paul, M.D. (R-TX):
“We need a system in America where patients pay cash for basic services, and carry insurance only for serious illnesses and accidents. ‘Health maintenance’ is the responsibility of each of us individually. We cannot continue to collectivize the costs of healthcare and expect things to get better.”
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Dr. Alieta Eck, MD graduated from the Rutgers College of Pharmacy in NJ and the St. Louis School of Medicine in St. Louis, MO. She studied Internal Medicine at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, NJ and has been in private practice with her husband, Dr. John Eck, MD in Piscataway, NJ since 1988. She has been involved in health care reform since residency and is convinced that the government is a poor provider of medical care. She testified before the Joint Economic Committee of the US Congress in 2004 about better ways to deliver health care in the United States. In 2003, she and her husband founded the Zarephath Health Center, a free clinic for the poor and uninsured that currently cares for 300-400 patients per month utilizing the donated services of volunteer physicians and nurses. Dr. Eck is a long time member of the Christian Medical Dental Association and in 2009 joined the board of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons. In addition, she serves on the advisory board of Christian Care Medi-Share, a faith based medical cost sharing Ministry. She is a member of Zarephath Christian Church and she and her husband have five children, one in medical school in NJ.
and today's
The National Doctors’ Tea Party
Published: Sunday, August 8, 2010 12:24 AM CDT
Dr. George Watson
Association of American Physicians and Surgeons
While the original Boston Tea Party was sparked by a Tea Tax in 1773, the Doctors’ Tea Party of Aug. 7, 2010, is a response to an over-reaching, out-of-control government.
TEA stands for “Taxed Enough Already.” Originally a grassroots organization of private citizens, passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) has stirred the sleeping masses of private physicians. These are the doctors who adhere to the original Oath of Hippocrates, preserving the patient-doctor relationship as sacred and confidential.
For historical perspective, remember the first battle of the Revolutionary War was fought April 19, 1775, at Lexington, Massachusetts. The Declaration of Independence was signed July 4, 1776, and the Revolutionary War lasted from 1775 to 1783—eight long years!
“Attention to Orders!” shouted the adjutant. George Washington then gave the General Orders in 1776: “The hour is fast approaching, on which the Honor and Success of this army and the safety of our bleeding Country depend. Remember officers and Soldiers that you are Freemen, fighting for the blessings of Liberty — that slavery will be your portion, and that of your posterity, if you do not acquit yourselves like men.”
Washington’s sobering words could be paraphrased to doctors in 2010: “The hour is fast approaching, on which the Honor and Success of this medical profession, and the safety of our sick and bleeding Patients depend. Remember doctors and Patriots, that you are Freemen, fighting for the blessings of Liberty—that slavery will be your portion, and that of your posterity (and Patients), if you do not acquit yourselves like men.”
Richard Amerling, M.D., Board Member of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons wrote The Physicians’ Declaration of Independence in December, 2009. See this at www.aapsonline.org
The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons filed suit against the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA or ACA) on March 26, 2010, specifically challenging the unconstitutional individual mandate.
Why is the National Doctors’ Tea Party necessary? The AMA would have you believe that it represents all the M.D.’s, when only 17 percent of practicing physicians are members. Without the AMA’s endorsement, Obamacare might not have passed. Without the lucrative monopoly of the Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) codebooks, the AMA would have lost $70 million revenue from sales of the books to every doctor who bills insurance. Do you smell bribery or extortion? So, doctors who believe in the practice of private medicine—the patient-doctor relationship free of third party intrusion—were left out of the discussions. Now these doctors are speaking out on behalf of their patients’ privacy and protection.
And the doctors must protect themselves! S.2170 in Massachusetts would make licensure conditioned on accepting “payment at the lowest statutory reimbursement rate” under the Massachusetts “Affordable Health Plan.” Under PPACA, Dr. Robert Moser, of Georgetown University, said, “…it will develop incrementally…there will be universal capitation, the elimination of profit, the end of ‘futile care.’”
Dr. Amerling and Dr. Elizabeth Lee Vliet wrote, “The time has come for individual physicians to act in their own and their patients’ interests, and to defend the medical profession they should hold dear. Physicians must declare independence from third party control in our offices and for our patients, particularly from state-run health care.”
The National Doctors’ Tea Party is every doctor’s chance to fight, as a Freeman for his patients and his profession. Should he fail, he will work as a slave on the government PLANtation.
George R Watson, D.O., serves as president of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons.
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