With all the reform debate the insurance corps are being as quiet as mice. Oh they are all sending people to DC to talk with Senators and Represenatives. Each Corporation, even the third party administrator companies, are entering offices and speaking directly to our politicians. More at stake then mere health Ins. reform. Products/policies that are sold without SEC review. Those products may yet fall under banking oversite rules and regulation. In the future requiring lisenced brokers rather than agents slinging them out for public purchase. Just wanted you to know that behind the scenes the Insurance Mice are moving in the dark.
The vocal group with much umbridge are the practicing doctors of today. In the USA they have precarious history. They claim direct rite to the itellect of Rhode Scholar, paying huge educational costs which entitle them to practice in issues of life and death, but to manage their profits as a business entity. If we question their decisions or the effectivness of their treatments. some become irrate, while others from a newer scope allow such verbality by mere laypersons.
That we have allowed them to become arrogant and spoiled is maybe a notion of schooling or perhaps Mom & Dad should have just raised nicer children. Should you question them on a blog, or in a opinion piece expect to get an earful. I am accustomed to it. having been a nurse for many years. Being a patient of a certain age puts you in a position to see some of the myths, being ill places you in a vulnerable place outside of any geography you may have known.
I once identified Doc.’s as people with a head to toe definition of diseases. Able to weave a cause and treatment together. Today they are a much more disjointed group. Neither a God nor hero, doctors don’t much like joining the working world. When I describe them as talented technicians the sky falls.
The huge numbers of accessory staff are often completely ignored as doctors lay claim to low pay, long hours, bad conditions, over-priced education, and dealing with life & death decisions.
In truth the accessory staff does all those things too. In fact the doctor is brief in the encounters with such things, relying on the skilled professionals to lead them into decisions, implement the course of action, and to educate and explain out-comes.
Allow me a small rant as I say your kind hearted Doctor does not make your appointment with the specialist, does not call you with the result of a test, nor catch you as you go south after surgery. He or she does not call with orders as you enter the hospital, nor complete the majority of assessments that tell the medical model where to look for a problem. The doctor relies on staff, testing and patient complaint to do that.
Do we sympathize with this new technician? To some extent we do. And it is hard to define why. Like the master rope maker that is finding the craft becoming archaic, or the interchange of idea’s outside of pen to paper, the doctor is adrift. Squeezed between a discerning consumer and the reimbursements of Corporations. A doctor finds powers of awe diminished, and scope in question.
I am always reminded of the movie. ‘In the Heat of the Night.’ You feel something is slipping away, and that it might not be so bad to see it go.
The Doctor enters my hospital room and asks, “What should I call you?”
Oh, that all depends on what name you go by Doctor? For now I am using all my energy to just be a ‘patient.’
