What to expect

I am a first year medical school student with interests in politics, medicine, and sports. You can expect posts on all three of those subjects but with no real rhyme or reason to when each is posted about. I will say up front that I am a conservative/libertarian, Yankee fan, PSU fan, and Denver fan and for the most part will try to stay unbiased, but no guarantees. So off we go...


Over the past weekend, Congress passed a health care reform bill that was signed into law by President Obama. As a future doctor, I had a certain interest in this. I do believe that people should have access to care and a way to pay for it so people aren't put into massive amounts of debt to get an appendix removed. I do wonder though how the government plans to "fix" this. All they have done is force everyone to get insurance which will just put a strain on the system since there are already not enough doctors in this country. Most countries with socialized medicine do not like it and have to go elsewhere for care (i.e. the Canadian Prime Minister coming to the US for heart surgery). Everyone likes to cite statistics such as infant mortality rates and less quality outcomes. What people need to realize is that other countries have different standards for what is a live birth and the US has care that can keep premature infants alive for longer periods of time and may not be able to save all of them which is then an infant death. Optimal clinical outcomes are also very skewed because it is completely arbitrary. When someone tears a bicep, surgery is required to fix it, and if not corrected in time, function of the muscle can be partially or completely lost. Hey, that might be the reason Canadians go to the US for that surgery and pay cash for it. If the arm heals itself, but function is lost, is that an optimal clinical outcome? That is the question that needs to be asked.
The health care bill did more to just reform insurance more than anything. It keeps insurance companies from denying pre-existing conditions. That is all well and good, but just remember, health insurance is like car, home, or life insurance, and the company will use your data to assess risk and how much health care dollars you will use. This will lead to higher premiums for people with existing conditions and if they can't hike rates on high risk people, then low risk people will bear the rest of the cost. Honestly, I could go on for hours about how this bill does nothing but increase government interference in the private sector while doing nothing to decrease cost or premiums or lower the deficit. Keep in mind that any money assumed in the bill has to be accounted for by the CBO so when they use unrealistic projections, that is what the CBO accounts for in their tally.
I find it amazing that this bill does not cap malpractice suits and allow for insurance to be sold across state lines, because that is what will drive down costs (no defensive medicine to avoid lawsuits) and decrease insurance premiums. So for everyone for Health Care Reform, a few thoughts...

1. The post office is a monopoly on mail delivery yet can not turn a profit.
2. When has government ever increased efficiency and established a bureaucracy that works.
3. Why is it that more and more doctors do not take government run medicaid and medicare.

Take care and until next time,

A voice of reason