Just call him Dr. Douchebag

[holiday]

This is a little note and pic of a doctor someone posted on my facebook.

Pictured is a young physician by the name of Dr. Roger Starner Jones. His short two-paragraph letter to the White House accurately puts the blame on a "Culture Crisis" instead of a "Health Care Crisis"..

It's worth a quick read:


Dear Mr. President:
During my shift in the Emergency Room last night, I had the pleasure of evaluating a patient whose smile revealed an expensive shiny gold tooth, whose body was adorned with a wide assortment of elaborate and costly tattoos, who wore a very expensive brand of tennis shoes and who chatted on a new cellular telephone equipped with a popular R&B ringtone.


While glancing over her patient chart, I happened to notice that her payer status was listed as "Medicaid"! During my examination of her, the patient informed me that she smokes more than one pack of cigarettes every day, eats only at fast-food take-outs, and somehow still has money to buy pretzels and beer. And, you and our Congress expect me to pay for this woman's health care? I contend that our nation's "health care crisis" is not the result of a shortage of quality hospitals, doctors or nurses. Rather, it is the result of a "crisis of culture" a culture in which it is perfectly acceptable to spend money on luxuries and vices while refusing to take care of one's self or, heaven forbid, purchase health insurance. It is a culture based in the irresponsible credo that "I can do whatever I want to because someone else will always take care of me". Once you fix this "culture crisis" that rewards irresponsibility and dependency, you'll be amazed at how quickly our nation's health care difficulties will disappear.

Respectfully,
ROGER STARNER JONES, MD
If you agree...pass it on.





here is my response

oh and just wanted to say I found this doctor incredibly judgemental. How does he know whether those things were gifts? whether the person use to have a good paying job? what about if the person was denied traditional health coverage? What if some of the things came from thrift stores (i find expensive name brands there all the time)

[izzybeans]

1. The doctor is lying.

It's a collection of stereotypes the doctor thinks exist. It's what he imagines his patients are. He's a racist fuck and shouldn't be practicing medicine.

[LostinVA]

22. Yup -- The "Welfare Queen" meme

[COLGATE4]

30. I don't agree for a second with his premise or his arrogance

but as to the 'collection of stereotypes', my daughter is a doctor at a large metropolitan hospital. The characteristics he describes are pretty mild compared to what she tells me she sees in many of her patients on a daily basis now. The Emergency Department is being challenged and often overwhelmed because there is no fallback for people without health insurance, often through no fault of their own. But at the same time there are socio-cultural norms which tend to dictate that people spend whatever disposable income they have on items which bring them immediate satisfaction, rather than what may be in their own best interest.

[izzybeans]

38. There are cultural aspects to health care and health behaviors

and then there are racist assholes. Your daughter understands the behavioral aspects of health disparities. It is one thing to say that "African American women do not eat well or work out as often as white women because they are more likely to work two jobs and live in an urban food desert etc" and it is entirely another thing to invent people out of whole cloth to fit a racist political ideology. Your daughter sounds like a wonderful doctor. The doctor in this facebook spam took a truism about the culture of health behavior in our country and twisted it into the old welfare queen fairy tale. Anyone who does such a thing has suspect professional judgement, especially in an emergency room where they are likely to encounter the people they hate the most - poor black people.

If your daughter is interested in a cool model of health interventions for African-American women, I'd recommend something called the Prime Time Sister's Circle. Pretty cool stuff.

[blondeatlast]

46. True, but...

the stereotypes do exist, the doctor probably doesn't, but beyond that, you are spot-on.

[SoCalDem]

2. astro turf nonsense

Dear Mr. President:
During my shift in the Emergency Room last night, I had the pleasure of evaluating a patient whose smile revealed an expensive shiny gold tooth, whose body was adorned with a wide assortment of elaborate and costly tattoos, who wore a very expensive brand of tennis shoes and who chatted on a new cellular telephone equipped with a popular R&B ringtone.


While glancing over her patient chart, I happened to notice that her payer status was listed as "Medicaid"! During my examination of her, the patient informed me that she smokes more than one pack of cigarettes every day, eats only at fast-food take-outs, and somehow still has money to buy pretzels and beer. And, you and our Congress expect me to pay for this woman's health care? I contend that our nation's "health care crisis" is not the result of a shortage of quality hospitals, doctors or nurses. Rather, it is the result of a "crisis of culture" a culture in which it is perfectly acceptable to spend money on luxuries and vices while refusing to take care of one's self or, heaven forbid, purchase health insurance. It is a culture based in the irresponsible credo that "I can do whatever I want to because someone else will always take care of me". Once you fix this "culture crisis" that rewards irresponsibility and dependency, you'll be amazed at how quickly our nation's health care difficulties will disappear.

Respectfully,
ROGER STARNER JONES, MD
If you agree...pass it on.


................................

This was not written by a nice doctor..just a right wing , racist IDIOT who managed to graduate from medical school:puke:

http://www.fourwinds10.com/siterun_data/government/obama_government/news.php?q=1265204338

[Dennis Donovan]

33. Here's the snopes page on this:

http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/starner.asp

He's real... and a bigot.:thumbsdown:

[hfojvt]

41. funny, because he never mentions race at all

You are sure that those things are codes for "black people"? Because white people do not drink beer or have pretzels? I coulda sworn George W. Bush did both. Lots of white young people are really into R & B too. And gold teeth? Here's a story from 5 years ago. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/05/01/BAG32CIDA81.DTL

Note what it says:

"At first, all my customers were young black men, and once they bought their teeth, they really don't need to buy more," he said. "Now, all kinds of people come in, college students from UC Berkeley, grandparents ... but lately I've been getting a lot of teenage girls -- of all races."

[HughBeaumont]

3. Ah, I get it. Let's only treat clean canvassed, khaki-wearing, clean cut Harvard Grads.

Those are the only people who deserve an education as well . . . who can AFFORD it. :sarcasm:

White scaredy-cat stereotyping at its ugliest.

[Ian David]

13. We should also stop treating people for injuries sustained while SCUBA diving, skiing or skydiving.

[lapfog_1]

4. Smacks of right wing chain email isms.

All of the stereotypes for the Welfare / Medicaid recipient identified.

The only thing they left out this time was the pimp daddy loser boyfriend and the 5 or 6 children of various ages tagging along behind this "welfare queen".

And all of the stereotypes are "black" even though the race isn't identified.

I call bullshit on this letter, and suspect that snopes will have a page on it shortly.

[holiday]

7. honestly that is exactly what I thought,

I almost checked snopes first as well. It just doesn't seem right.

[Ian David]

5. See also: Why Pay For The Care of The Careless?

http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/starner.asp

[holiday]

9. so sad but true

[boobooday]

6. Respectfully?

What a dick. Yeah, I'm sure you can get Medical Insurance for the price of cigarettes and tattoo. I know I couldn't.

Oh, she had a popular ringtone! Peasant trying to live above her means, or isn't she just living the American Dream of consumerism?

Edited to add that there are so many hints for the reader that this is a BLACK person (R&B ringtone) that it is obviously a modern version of one of those racist klan type pamphlets.

[Regret My New Name]

8. I agree with the others that it sounds like BS... but even if it wasn't

Would the amount spent on a pair of shoes and a cigarettes be enough to afford health insurance by oneself?

I also found it amusing how he made it sound as if the cell phone was a luxury item. Many people only have cell phones these days, as often times you can get them cheaper than a landline.

[Erose999]

10. The letter reeks of coded racism. nt

[Ian David]

12. She had an "R&B Ringtone." You know who listens to R&B? Black people! OoOOh! n/t

[gratuitous]

15. Decisions, decisions

Should I download this "R&B" Ringtone, or should I pay my monthly health insurance premium? They cost about the same, and who knows? I could be in the emergency room later this month, and if my cell phone (another "luxury" to be sure) should happen to ring (with its R&B ringtone), will some sharp doctor hear it, recognize it, and make a judgmental, thinly-veiled racist post?

Hmmmm.

Better write that check to Blue Cross! Sorry, "R&B" artist; not this month!

[Historic NY]

11. somebody ought to find out if he paid off his student loans.?

[mrs_p]

14. i'm not so sure this is real

it is pretty risky to be writing about patients publicly, even if no names are mentioned.

[SoCalDem]

16. His picture is online.. (in my post above)

I expect him to be fired soon:)

[mrs_p]

28. love your kitty pic

is s/he yours?

[SoCalDem]

34. nope...just a random online kitty. I fell in love with

I have always loved orange kitties with attitudes:)

[Quantess]

42. IF he truly wrote this hateful essay.

There is a possibility that someone else wrote it and said that the doctor is the author.... it just seems so incredibly unprofessional and shows terrible judgement for a doctor to author something like that.

[Quantess]

44. Snopes says yes, it is correctly attributed to him.

I just looked it up.

[lunatica]

17. he forgot the expensive hair weave and the decorated fake nails

Talk about a stereotype! What a fuck. This is just another version of Reagan's Welfare Queen and being an election year this is a wedge issue tactic.

But the teabaggers will eat it up.

[LostinVA]

23. And that she had three kids by five different men and drove a Cadillac

[Bitwit1234]

18. I suppose you people know that this email is NOT

from a real doctor. Some republican hack made it up, and sent it to anybody they could get an email address for. So even if this was true, what's ONE skank compared to the millions of children who will pick up health care under this bill. I for one would pay for this person's health care in my taxes, WHICH IS NOT TRUE BY THE WAY, to see that those children get health care.

But republicans and tea bags are not like that. They don't want those who are under privileged to have anything. They are the selfish elitists. They believe that they are the chosen ones. If you notice all the things they consider "bad" are the things they themselves believe in and right away they are trying to put them off on the Democrats, Liberals as being bad.

Look at the meaning of the word liberal. Very good meaning. Then look at the meaning of the word conservative. Very bad meaning. In any dictionary. They have had the use of the press for so damn long, they have been able to turn a good word into a bad word. This is the way they are turning the good into America into bad. And all because the Democrats lack the steel balls to pass a bill that would reign the lies and bullsh*t the MSM are spewing. The America people don't deserve the type of press we have, but the members of congress belonging to the Democratic Party do, for their lack of honest and patriotic pride and love of this country.

[Ian David]

19. No, it's real. I posted the Snopes link.

http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/starner.asp

And here is a link to Dr. Jones: http://www.vitals.com/doctors/Dr_Roger_S_Jones.html

[SoCalDem]

25. The doctor is real.. If the email is fake, he should sue..if not he should be fired

[blogslut]

20. Why fall for this?

It's manufactured. Block that account and report them as a fake profile.

[LostinVA]

26. No, it's actually real!

[dogday]

21. This guy would be the perfect candidate for Doctors without Borders.

Let some of that hot air out of his ass....

[Erose999]

24. what kind of doctor speaks so judgementally about his own patients anyway? This guy sounds like a

first class Grade A Asshole. If my choices were

A.) Suffering

B.) That kind of bedside manner

I think I would go for option A.

No Dr. Starner Jones, your services are not needed. I'll remove those bullets myself. Just give me a pair of needlenose pliers and a bottle of rubbing alcohol.

[BonnieJW]

27. But isn't this the same philosophy

as the banks and Wall Street? Living large, making unhealthy choices and then expecting others to pay their way when they fail.

[SammyWinstonJack]

29. +1

:thumbsup:

[madinmaryland]

31. It's just a re-written version of the "welfare queen" story that has been

around for 30 years. Typical republican clap-trap.

[realisticphish]

32. "Welfare queen" stories make me laugh

I've known many people on welfare or food stamps, and they ain't driving Bentleys.

I swear to god, these people seem to be directly quoting Ebeneezer Scrooge sometimes.

[S n o w b a l l]

35. Unfortunately, this IS real and he is a real doctor.

I received it on my FB page today too and I was livid.

Google it...it's everywhere. He wrote the LTTE in August '09 so he obviously wasn't fired over this.

Disgusting that a Dr would write this about his patient...should've had his ass fired.

[Mimosa]

36. Do black ladies eat pretzels?

I don't know any who do. :7

How dare anybody drink a beer!

OMG! How can Dr. Dufus tell whether the woman's expensive brand of tennis shoes were genuine?

BTW, my single monthly monthly health insurance premium is $450 a month, $10,000 deductible, $1,000 annual deductible for prescriptions.

My partner and I pay nearly $900 a month for health insurance premiums and we have high deductibles and copays.

Where do I start with this doctor who's a nasty OAF (and probably a racist)?

Why can't a poor person have shoes? Why can't she have a beer now and then?

[AnnieBW]

37. I thought that Rand Paul was Dr. Douchebag?

Or that guy who refused to treat Obama voters in Florida?

[alcibiades_mystery]

39. I found an image of the PATIENT!

:rofl:

[red red red]

45. LOL

[47of74]

40. I'm wondering if there's HIPAA concerns here?

It seems to me that this "doctor" violated the privacy of his patient here by blabbing this out in a letter, even if he didn't use the patient's name.

In general, your health information cannot be given to your employer, used or shared for things like sales calls or advertising, or used or shared for many other purposes unless you give your permission by signing an authorization form. This authorization form must tell you who will get your information and what your information will be used for.

http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/understanding/consumers/consumer_rights.pdf

[Radical Activist]

43. Translation:

"Black people make me uncomfortable and I don't want my tax money going to any of them."

[47of74]

47. About right.