MEDICAL TUESDAY . NET |
NEWSLETTER |
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Community For Better Health Care |
Vol IV, No 16,
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In This Issue:
1. Featured Article: The Winning Edge: Passion and Perseverance
Are More Important Than Talent
2. In the News: For Americans, Getting Sick Has Its Price
3. International Medicine: Teeth Tourism
4.
Medicare: VA Medicine Is Not a Good Model for Medicare
7.
Overheard in the Medical Staff Lounge: My Insurance Cost My Laboratory 80% Of Their Charges!
10. Hippocrates & His Kin: That’s His Real Name. He’s Not an Anal Cipher
11. Related Organizations: Restoring
Accountability in Medical Practice and Society
* * * * *
1. Featured Article: The Winning Edge: Passion and
Perseverance Are More Important Than Talent by Peter
Doskoch writing in Psychology Today
Summary: We're primed to think that
talent is the key to success. But what counts even more is a fusion of passion
and perseverance. In a world of instant gratification, grit may yield the
biggest payoff of all.
In
the summer of 1994, in the tallest of
Wiles
was 10 years old when he encountered the theorem. "It looked so simple,
and yet all the great mathematicians in history couldn't solve it. I knew from
that moment that I had to." When classmates were flocking to rock
concerts, he was studying how geniuses of prior eras approached the problem. He
abandoned the quest after college in order to focus on his budding academic
career, but his obsession was rekindled in 1986, when a fellow mathematician
showed that proving a certain mathematical hypothesis -- this one unsolved for a
mere 30 years -- would also prove Fermat's theorem. He set aside all but the
few classes he was teaching - and revealed his quest to no one but his wife. To
disguise his single-mindedness, he rationed the publication of previously
completed work.
Despite
long hours of focus -- his only source of relaxation was playing with his two
young children - the next few years produced little concrete progress. "I
wasn't going to give up. It was just a question of which method would
work," says Wiles. In 1993, after seven straight years of intense work -
more than 15,000 hours - Wiles stepped up to the podium at a conference in
A
media frenzy followed. The shy mathematician found himself named one of People
magazine's 25 Most Intriguing People of the Year, alongside Oprah and Princess
Diana. But a handful of peer reviewers poring over the 200-page proof found
several small errors. Wiles set to work addressing them. After a full year of
frustrating struggle, Wiles had the insight that allowed him to fix them.
Wiles'
intellect is inarguably impressive; one of his colleagues told The New York
Times that only 1 in 1,000 professional mathematicians were capable of understanding
Wiles' work. However, the
It
is likely that somewhere, at this very moment, a parent or coach is declaring to
a discouraged child that "quitters never win." But perseverance has
come to seem like quaint lip service against the tide of interest in talent and
aptitude, flashier gifts that nature, or genes, seem to inarguably confer.
And
yet grit may turn out to be at least as good a gauge of future success as
talent itself. In a series of provocative new studies at the
Indeed,
experts often speak of the "10-year rule" -- that it takes at least a
decade of hard work or practice to become highly successful in most endeavors,
from managing a hardware store to writing sitcoms -- and the ability to persist
in the face of obstacles is almost always an essential ingredient in major
achievements. The good news: Perhaps even more than talent, grit can be
cultivated and strengthened.
How Much
Does Talent Count?
Many
of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to
success when they gave up," opined Thomas Edison, a man almost as famous
for lauding perspiration as he is for inventing the light bulb. If effort is
the bedrock of success, what role do intelligence and other abilities play?
"IQ counts for different amounts depending on the task and
situation," emphasizes intelligence expert Robert Sternberg, dean of arts
and sciences at
Manly
large-scale analyses, however, suggest that a mere 25 percent of the
differences between individuals in job performance -- and a third of the
difference in grade point average -- can be attributed to IQ (personality
factors, creativity and luck are said to contribute to the other 75 percent).
Angela Duckworth, a graduate student at Penn who, together with Seligman, has
conducted several key studies on grit, argues that the precise number isn't as
important as knowing that intelligence accounts for only a fraction of
success….
Altogether
Different
Not
that researchers have ignored it altogether. Louis Terman, the legendary
psychologist who followed a group of gifted boys from childhood to middle age,
reported that "persistence in the accomplishment of ends" was one of
the factors that distinguished the most successful men from the least
successful. And in the most-cited paper in the giftedness literature,
University of Connecticut psychologist Joseph Renzulli, director of the National
Research Center on the Gifted and Talented, argued that "task
commitment" -- perseverance, endurance and hard work -- is one of the
three essential components of giftedness (along with ability and creativity).
Indeed, Renzulli says, the evidence that these nonintellectual factors are
critical to giftedness is "nothing short of overwhelming."
For
the 95 percent of humanity that isn't recognized as gifted, Duckworth and
Seligman have an egalitarian finding: Grit has value for people at all levels
of ability.
In
fact, their initial studies show that grit and intelligence are completely
independent traits . . .
The Power
of Passion
Certainly
character was a tremendous asset to Andrew Wiles, who says he has a "single-mindedness
that I don't see in most other people." But he also had "a special
passion" for Fermat's Last Theorem. It is this sort of fervor and
fascination that might just be the cornerstone of grit.
The
idea that passion fuels perseverance has crucial implications: If grit -- and
hence high achievement -- hinges on passion, then it's especially important for
parents to expose their children to the broadest possible range of academic,
artistic and athletic activities, to maximize the chances that something will
capture the child's imagination. Helping children find their passion may turn
out to be more important than addressing their academic weaknesses . . .
Perseverance,
he insists, "is purely a state of mind" that depends on one's
happiness and level of discomfort. But because people are influenced by their
environment, a person's grit may vary as circumstances change. Enduring the
rigors of selling books door to door is a lot easier for someone hungry to
prove themselves. "I don't think I'd make it if you sent me out today to
sell books door to door," he offers. Diligence has not deserted him; it's
just moved to a fancier address.
[Likewise,
in health care we think that the talented administrators, economists and
theoreticians have the key to success in our health-care challenges, and that
we should have a single payer forcing health-care workers to follow the rules.
But, as health care continues to deteriorate, primarily because of these
restrictive rules, it will take the determination of someone in the community
of doctors, nurses and patients to bring about the biggest payoff in
personalized health care. Welcome to the forum.]
Peter
Doskoch is a science writer based in New Jersey, and he is the former executive
editor of Psychology Today.
To
read the entire article, please go to http://cms.psychologytoday.com/articles/index.php?term=pto-20051017-000003.xml&print=1.
* * * * *
2.
In the News: For Americans, Getting Sick Has Its Price by Rob Stein,
[Comparisons across national boundaries
with diverse health-care systems are usually fraught with great inaccuracies
because of the definition of terms involved. Please see note at the end.]
Americans pay more when they get sick
than people in other Western nations and get more confused, error-prone
treatment, according to the largest survey to compare U.S. health care with
other nations.
The survey of nearly 7,000 sick adults in
the United States, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Britain and Germany found
Americans were the most likely to pay at least $1,000 in out-of-pocket
expenses. More than half went without needed care because of cost and more than
one-third endured mistakes and disorganized care when they did get
treated.
Although patients in every nation
sometimes run into obstacles to getting care and deficiencies when they do get
treated, the
"What's striking is that we are
clearly a world leader in how much we spend on health care," said Cathy
Schoen, senior vice president for the Commonwealth Fund, a private,
nonpartisan, nonprofit foundation that commissioned the survey. "We should
be expecting to be the best. Clearly, we should be doing better."
Other experts agreed, saying the results
offer the most recent evidence that the quality of care in the
"This provides confirming evidence
for what more and more health policy thinkers have been saying, which is, 'The
American health care system is quietly imploding, and it's about time we did something
about it,' " said Lucian L. Leape of the Harvard School of Public Health.
The new survey, the eighth in an annual
series of cross-national surveys conducted by Harris Interactive for the fund,
is the largest to examine health care quality across several nations during the
same period. The survey was aimed at evaluating care across varying types of
health care systems, including the market-driven
[With due respect to the prestigious
Commonwealth Fund, it should be noted that it is precisely the fact that
patient responsibility is what reduces health care costs. We do not at this
time have a market-driven health care system in the
[What constitutes medical error is widely
variable across health-care systems and national boundaries. At a meeting in
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/03/AR2005110301143_pf.html
* * * * *
3. International Medicine: Teeth Tourism
More
Americans are joining Eastern Europeans on visits to the dentist. This fast
growing phenomenon known as “teeth tourism” has increased in popularity over
the last few years due to soaring medical costs and dwindling insurance
benefits in the
This
relatively young trend finds that travelers, typically from wealthier
countries, are visiting lesser-developed nations for medical care mixed with a
vacation—all at cut-rate prices. The most popular destinations are situated in
The
reasons for their success: cheap manpower, cheap prices and inviting
incentives. Moreover, businesses have supplied “dental week” packages that
include airport transport and a free massage.
The
difference in cost is outstanding:
Of course, there are potential downsides.
Locals may know some English, but German is the dominant second language.
Dining can be difficult for sensitive teeth. Many businesses don’t accept
credit cards. The term “buyer beware” is very much in play since there are
fewer options after treatment, if the procedure has not gone well.
Those
concerns aside, dentistry and tourism seem an ideal match, says USA Today.
Source:
Mary Beth Marklein, “The
Incidental tourist,” USA Today,
« Europe's
Forgotton Youth | Europe's
Population to Fall »
* * * * *
4.
Medicare: VA Medicine Is
Not A Good Model For Medicare
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)
does good work, but it is not a viable model for Medicare, says Frank Lichtenberg,
professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Business.
In a recent report for the Manhattan
Institute, he says veterans receive poor care because the VA discourages access
to new drugs in an effort to control overall pharmaceutical costs. Consider:
In an interview with Investor's Business
Daily, Lichtenberg explains why the VA's drug-price bargaining is wrong for
Medicare. He believes it is a fallacy to say that just because you can give a
low price to a relatively small segment of an entire market, that it should be
the price everyone pays. If all Americans got the same price, he explains,
total revenue of the pharmaceutical industry would be reduced and would
undermine development of new drugs.
Pharmaceutical innovation plays an
important role in reducing hospital and long-term-care use, and at $2,000 a
day, even a small reduction in hospitalization means considerable savings.
Lichtenberg does not think drug prices are high relative to value they deliver.
Source: Peter Benesh, "Want Cheap
Drugs? Don't Scrimp on Quality, Says Prof," Investor's Business Daily,
For Press Release: www.manhattan-institute.org/html/mpr_02_pr.htm
For Lichtenberg Report: www.manhattan-institute.org/html/mpr_02.htm
For more on Health: www.ncpa.org/iss/hea/
Government is
not the solution to our problems, government is the problem.
Ronald Reagan
* * * * *
5.
Medical Gluttony:
You Should Have Come to My Office and It Would Only
Cost $100 Instead of $600 for the Average Emergency Room Charge. No Doctor! The
Emergency Room Evaluation Was Free!
An asthmatic patient called me on Saturday
because her asthma attack was into the third day. I reminded her that I didn’t
see her in my office on Thursday or Friday to evaluate and treat. She said that
she went to the emergency room instead and got a “shot.” But the asthma was
getting worse.
I reminded her that the emergency room visit
costs $600 on average; an office call to see me costs only $100. She said, “No
doctor, I have a PPO insurance policy and the emergency room was free.” After
making sure she had taken all her bronchodilators, started the antibiotic that
all my asthma patients keep on reserve for when green phlegm occurs, and then
added enough prednisone to break the asthma attack, I suggested she come in on
Monday for an evaluation. I also reminded her that this phone call was free and
the $600 ER charge was really not free - the insurance company would eventually
get it back from her by increasing her premium. She agreed.
She did come in on Monday and was much
improved as a result of the recommendations from the free telephone
consultation. She was worse after the $600 emergency room consultation. In our
working model of the ideal health plan for the
This patient was one of three that
utilized the Emergency Room needlessly this week. When patients think that a
$600 medical evaluation is free, it should be painfully obvious that
third-party health care is always gluttonous and unaffordable in the long term.
Until we decide that there should never be any medical care that is totally
free from a percentage co-payment, which gives the patient an index as to the
total cost she incurred, health care will continue in its spiral increase
without limit. The tragedy is the populist notion that a single payer will
solve this problem, when in reality it will bring about medical rationing and
denial of care. And some of that denial of necessary care will prove fatal.
[It should also be noted that on our
recent trip to
* * * * *
An executive in
organized medicine recently wrote an OpEd article stating: We need a new
approach to financing universal access that is more practical and affordable,
while still socially responsible and ethical. Though many details remain to be
worked out, the goal of instituting an individual health-insurance requirement
to cover all Americans is admirable. Nothing could be more critically important
for business and medical professionals in every state to consider. http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB112441503277917429.html.
The Supreme
Court of Canada ruled that being on the waiting list of a country with
universal health care was not the same as having access to health care. People
in any country with socialized medicine have universal coverage and access to a
waiting list but may never have access to health care.
[Charles]
Munger, as usual, was more succinct [than Warren Buffett]: "The cause of
reform is hurt, not helped, when an activist makes an idiotic suggestion."
At the
* * * * *
7.
Overheard in the Medical Staff Lounge: My Insurance Cost My Laboratory
80% Of Their Charges!
Dr Rosen: I just
received the printout of my Blue Cross payment for my laboratory work. The bill
was $404.25 and Blue Cross disallowed $332.40 and paid $64.68 and my co-payment
was $7.17. I’m so embarrassed to face my friends in the laboratory that I will
have to have my laboratory work done at a different laboratory in the future
where I’m unknown.
Dr Ruth: I’ve
had a similar experience. But you know my patients think it’s great. They feel
that those laboratories must really be gauging sick patients with exorbitant
charges. They think the government and Blue Cross is protecting them from
excessive charges since they are able to reduce the charges to about 20 percent
of the fee. They have no concept that laboratories must quietly eliminate some
expensive tests so they won’t be forced to do them at a major loss, eliminating
an important item from some patients' diagnosis or treatment.
Dr Rosen: They
have no concept of the free market and how much more ruthless it is to reduce
charges. The important difference is that in the free market, the final charge
will always be enough to sustain the laboratory and the health care system. But
it isn’t only our patients that suffer this misconception. A large percentage
of the general population also believes this. Basic economic principles no
longer seem to be taught in our schools.
* * * * *
"
Warning: movie spoiler alert. If you have
not seen
[Note: James Murtagh has spent 20 years
as an Intensive Care Unit physician at a major Southeast hospital. Murtagh is
also a founder of the medial ethics consulting group "Team
Integrity." Murtagh recently chaired a congressional forum, "The
Health Integrity Project," as reported in Time Magazine, in collaboration
with Tom Devine at the
I just got
back from the magnificent film
I don't agree with either the extreme right or left, but I will defend to the
death any Speaker, and I will protect the speaker's family as if it were my
own.
Do not be fooled. This film is not just
Our society has to address the horrors brought on by hardball legal mind-rape.
Nuts and sluts. Attacks on the family lives of witnesses. Big tobacco did
exactly this to Jeffrey Wigand, Big Nuclear to Silkwood, and Nixon to
reporters. In fact, Nixon commissioned the Malek Manuel, the still-classic
"nuts and sluts" textbook used by Enron-type corporations to
"screw their enemies." First, paint your adversary as a nut. Every
single person alive has a skeleton that can be rattled, magnified, and
distorted until the person looks nutty. Second, every human being, even Gandhi,
is vulnerable to sexual innuendo, real or fabricated. Even a saint can be put
into a "he-said, she-said" situation.
In
When there is smoke, it is not true there is always fire. Big legal thugs burn
money and blow the fabricated some anywhere they please. McCarthy knew this.
Frankly, I cringe when Rush Limbaugh derides our mothers and sisters asking for
equal rights as "femin-nazis."
Look at the Karl Rove- Plame affair.
Look at health care and drug companies and Vioxx. This spring, I had the
privilege of hosting a Congressional forum on health integrity. The country's
bravest health care workers testified to shocking hardball corruption in HMOs.
HCA, an HMO operated by the family of Senator William Frist, actually admitted
shaking down the American public for two billion dollars. First-hand
testimony from thirty doctors showing that HMO hardball causes thousands deaths
and costs billions of dollars is posted at www.semmelweis.org.
Americans need to see
Time to round up the usual suspects,
To read the entire review, please go to www.HealthCareCom.net.
_________________________________________
"Constant Gardener" - Time for Medical
Whistleblowers to come in from the cold! by James J Murtagh, M.D
Warning: movie spoiler alert. If you
have not seen Constant Gardener, consider seeing the film before reading
further.
The Constant Gardener proves once again John le Carré
is the master not just of spy novels, but also of the most basic human drives.
And the central moral problems of our times. Some fans despaired that the fall
of the
Le Carré once wrote on fighting communism. Now, he writes
on the evils of unbridled capitalism, and on bad faith in medicine.
The Constant Gardener begins with murder of the wife of a
British diplomat in
James Bond, no longer needed to fight S.P.E.C.T.E.R.,
becomes a mercenary in the fight against medical whistleblowers. In an earlier
book, a secret agent with a conscience, such as George Smiley, might have
restored balance. But no more.
But does le Carre write fiction? Constant Gardener is tame
compared to non-fiction headlines. Real life doctors daily battle bad faith
that harms real patients. Actual whistleblowers, including James Alderson,
exposed the mammoth Health Corporation of
A congressional forum I moderated this spring concluded the
nation can't afford poor quality, unsafe medicine with jacked up prices. Bad faith
in for-profit HMOs and drug companies leads to billions being diverted in
high-profile political scams. Good faith in medicine is now an important matter
of national security.
Reality is more sobering than a le Carre novel. HCA,
controlled by the family of Senator William Frist, played a key role in the
Texas Ranger purchase that put George W. Bush on the map. Karl Rove, in turn,
helped Senator Frist to become the majority leader. Could even le Carre have
plotted the scion of the world's largest HMO leading the US Senate, and then
becoming a front-runner for president in 2008? Remember Godfather's Vito
Corleone dying wish that Michael could have become Senator Corleone, or Judge
Corleone? The real interdependence between HMOs, drug companies and
Could even George Smiley thwart such a plan?
The Constant Gardener is a magnificent film about real
humans standing up to the terror of drug cartel thugs. It could just as well be
about the real life terror inflicted by government agencies against
whistleblowers standing up for the public good, and for human decency. In an
age when we have given unprecedented power to Big Brother, and to agents of the
patriot act, we must insist those who wield this power aid the weak and the
innocent. In the fight to preserve human freedom, it is good to have John le
Carré as the master of all spymasters chart the dangers of bad faith in
medicine, research, and politics.
Because this
issue of Sonoma Medicine focuses on memory and
the brain, I asked some of my favorite “brains” to briefly expound on their
favorite movies about the brain and its functions. I invite you to rent or buy
these movies and send yourself on a gleeful mind-trip. They are listed in no
particular order.
Frankenstein (1931). According to
Dr. Allan Fishbein, radiologist at
Awakenings (1990). Dr. Richard
Mendius, neurologist, recommends this classic and comments: “How can you go
wrong with a movie based on a book by a neurologist (Dr. Oliver Sacks),
starring Robin Williams and Robert De Niro?” He has a point. De Niro is
brilliant as a man who has been in a coma since he was a teenager. The good
doctor secures permission to try out a new drug that revives such patients.
Apparently, both De Niro and Williams spent time with Dr. Sacks, observing
patients on his ward.
Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
(2002). A guilty pleasure, I must admit this is one of my favorites. Was this
millionaire game-show creator also a double-agent? Or are we let in on some of
his fantastic imaginings? Or was he simply mentally ill and delusional? We will
never know. The tag line: “Some things are better left top secret.”
Memento (2000). Guy Pierce
stars as a man who loses his short-term memory while looking for his wife’s
murderer. The tale is told in reverse order, in a film-noir style. The film is
complex, suspenseful, and creative. Just keeping it all together is a workout
for the mind.
Being John Malkovich (1999). John
Cusack is a puppeteer who discovers a secret door in his office that dumps out
into John Malkovich’s brain, allowing visitors 15 minutes of experience in the
movie star’s life.
Charly (1968). Cliff
Robertson won an Oscar for Best Actor as Charly, a mentally retarded man who is
brought to a near-genius but emotionally immature state by an experimental
drug. Bring tissues.
A Beautiful Mind (2001). Everyone mentioned
this one, so I included it! The true story of Nobel Prize-winning mathematician
John Ash, who starts out working in game theory and descends into
schizophrenia. Many film-goers thought he really was a government spy,
believing his delusions to be real.
Mindwalk (1990). Book-lover and
world-traveler Betsy Lanning, who works with me, spent much of her adult life
in
Koyaanisqatsi (1982). A barrage of
time-lapse cinematography hits your mind and puts you in a trance. See how many
commercials and music videos used this as their original template. Mind-blowing
for its time.
What the Bleep Do We Know?
(2005). Family physician and homeopathist Dr. April Hurley says this movie
changes the way we think about how our minds work and shows how little we
really know.
You may want to peruse the original at
www.scma.org/magazine/scp/Fall05/foy_sterling.html.
To read a symposium on The Brain, go
to www.scma.org/magazine/scp/sp02/sp02_toc.html.
* * * * *
9. Book Review: The Tipping Point - How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference - by Malcolm Gladwell
The Tipping Point is a book about change and
presents a new way of understanding why change so often happens quickly and
unexpectedly. Gladwell says the best way to understand the emergence of fashion
trends, the ebb and flow of crime waves, the transformation of unknown books
into bestsellers, or the rise of teenage smoking or any number of other
mysterious changes that mark everyday life is to think of them as epidemics.
Ideas and products and messages and behaviors spread just like viruses do. The
three rules of the Tipping Point - the Law of the Few, the Stickiness Factor,
the Power of Context - offer a way of making sense of epidemics. They provide
us with direction for how to go about reaching a Tipping Point.
The Law of the Few: On the afternoon of
When the British
finally began their march toward
The Tipping Point For
Hush Puppies - the classic American brushed-suede shoes
with the lightweight crepe sole - came somewhere between late 1994 and early
1995. The brand had been all but dead until that point. Sales were down to
30,000 pairs a year, mostly to backwoods outlets and mall-town family stores.
Wolverine, the company that makes Hush Puppies, was thinking of phasing out the
shoes that made them famous.
But then something strange happened. At a
fashion shoot, two Hush Puppies executives - Owen Baxter and Geoffrey Lewis -
ran into a stylist from
By the fall of 1995, things began to
happen in a rush. Designers called wanting to use Hush Puppies in their spring
collections. In
In 1996 Hush Puppies won the prize for
best accessory at the Council of Fashion Designers awards dinner at Lincoln
Center, and the president of the firm stood up on the state with Calvin Klein
and Donna Karan and accepted an award for an achievement that - as he would be
the first to admit - his company had almost nothing to do with. Hush Puppies
had suddenly exploded, and it all started with a handful of kids in the
To read the entire review, including the
story of Bernie Goetz and the rise and fall of New York City Crime, please go
to www.delmeyer.net/bkrev_TheTippingPoint.htm.
* * * * *
10.
Hippocrates & His Kin: That’s His Real Name. He’s Not An Anal
Cipher.
At
last week’s Medical Grand Rounds at the University of California at Davis,
the Professor of Infectious Disease was discussing Clostridium difficile
diarrhea. This is frequently a complication of multiple or prolonged
antimicrobial usage. He referred to a paper by Dr Aas. The standing room
audience of doctors let out a chuckle. The professor immediately responded, “No
that is his real name. Not his stage name.”
Do
you suppose his research interest may have been determined by his real name?
Instant graphic medical notoriety?
Nobel
Laureate Richard Smalley sat in front of Congress with no hair, as
a result of his chemotherapy, and talked about the promise of nanotechnology
for cancer and other diseases and how it would pay off for his children. Some
thought it was absolutely riveting. Congress authorized the National
Nanotechnology Initiative. Federal spending for the initiative
amounted to more than $1 billion this fiscal year.
Now
we know how to conquer all diseases: Have someone with the disease sit in front
of our impressionable Congress and bewitchingly tell them of the horror and
hope of their disease. Can you imagine someone with Huntington’s Chorea with
uncontrollable hemiballistic movements of all extremities attempting to sit on
a chair in front of a committee trying to explain the horror of what he’s going
through to these lay people? They would immediately start a National
Huntington’s Chorea Initiative and fund it with the lowest amount that Congress
can recognize--One Billion Dollars--to conquer the syndrome. This should give
impetus to about a thousand other disease sufferers to do the same. With a
paltry One Billion Dollars to a thousand diseases, Congress could spend an
extra One Trillion Dollars per year. That kind of spending would indeed be an
orgiastic experience for Congress. To paraphrase George Carlin, “I might never
leave DC—even if I’m not reelected.”
The
kindly looking pharmacist tells his patient: "You can save hundreds of
dollars a year by signing up for the new Medicare prescription-drug
benefit.” Such commercial are part of
the publicity barrage that is occurring to market drug coverage to older
Americans. The campaign being aided by extensive research on what appeals to
older people -- they tend to trust pharmacists, for example -- and by
government recommendations on the best language to use. The drug benefit is the biggest expansion in
the history of Medicare, the federal health program for the elderly and
disabled. Most of the cost will be picked up by the government. (See Sarah
Lueck in WSJ http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB112405750206112756.html.)
Wouldn’t
it be more accurate to say the costs will be picked up by present, future, and
even unborn generations of working Americans?
At a
recent managed care meeting, the pharmacist was expounding on the pharmacy benefit
program expansion of Medicare, now known as Medicare Part D. She pointed out
that this program carries a price tag of $720 billion over 10 years, or about
$72 billion per year. She also mentioned that the marketing budget for Medicare
Part D, to convince seniors to participate, is $300 billion over the next three
years, or about $100 billion per year.
It is
only in government that a product promotion can exceed the product cost.
To read
more Hippocrates columns, please go to http://www.healthcarecom.net/hhkintro.htm.
The US
Treasury must be some bank account with unlimited overdraft capabilities.
Of course. It
reaches into every citizen’s personal bank account.
Do you suppose we could serve Congress vinegar in
champagne glasses to restore reality?
* * * * *
11. Restoring Accountability in Medical Practice and
Society
•
John and Alieta Eck, MDs, for their first-century solution to twenty-first
century needs. With 46 million people in this country uninsured, we need an
innovative solution apart from the place of employment and apart from the
government, which has caused
•
Michael J. Harris, MD - www.northernurology.com - an active member in the
American Urological Association, Association of American Physicians and
Surgeons, Societe' Internationale D'Urologie, has an active cash'n carry
practice in urology in Traverse City, Michigan. He has no contracts, no
Medicare or Medicaid, no HIPAA, just patient care. Dr Harris is nationally
recognized for his medical care system reform initiatives. He lists his CV and
publications on the website. To understand that Medical Bureaucrats and
Administrators are basically Medical Illiterates telling the experts how to
practice medicine, be sure to savor his article on "Administrativectomy:
The Cure For Toxic Bureaucratosis" at www.northernurology.com/articles/healthcarereform/administrativectomy.html.
•
Dr Vern Cherewatenko concerning success in restoring private-based medical
practice which has grown internationally through the SimpleCare model
network. Dr Vern calls his practice PIFATOS – Pay In Full At Time Of Service,
the “Cash-Based Revolution.” The patient pays in full before leaving. Because
doctor charges are anywhere from 25–50 percent inflated due to administrative
costs caused by the health insurance industry, you’ll be paying drastically
reduced rates for your medical expenses. In conjunction with a regular
catastrophic health insurance policy to cover extremely costly procedures,
PIFATOS can save the average healthy adult and/or family up to $5000/year! To
read the rest of the story, including some great testimonials, go to www.simplecare.com.
•
Dr David MacDonald started Liberty Health Group. To compare the traditional health
insurance model with the
•
Madeleine
Pelner Cosman, JD, PhD, Esq, has made important efforts in restoring accountability in health
care. She has now published her important work, Who Owns Your Body. To
read a review, go to www.delmeyer.net/bkrev_WhoOwnsYourBody.htm. Please go to www.healthplanusa.net/MPCosman.htm to view some of her articles that highlight the
government’s efforts in criminalizing medicine, as well as her latest article
on Bird Flu.
•
David J
Gibson, MD, Consulting Partner of Illumination Medical, Inc., has made important contributions to the
free Medical MarketPlace in speeches and writings. His series of articles in Sacramento
Medicine can be found at www.ssvms.org. To read his "Lessons from the Past," go to www.ssvms.org/articles/0403gibson.asp. For additional articles, such as the cost of Single Payer
and for Health Care Inflation, go to www.healthplanusa.net/DavidGibson.htm.
•
Dr
Richard B Willner,
President, Center Peer Review Justice Inc, states: We are a group of
healthcare doctors -- physicians, podiatrists, dentists, osteopaths -- who have
experienced and/or witnessed the tragedy of the perversion of medical peer
review by malice and bad faith. We have seen the statutory immunity, which is
provided to our "peers" for the purposes of quality assurance and
credentialing, used as cover to allow those "peers" to ruin careers
and reputations to further their own, usually monetary agenda of destroying the
competition. We are dedicated to the exposure, conviction, and sanction of any
and all doctors, and affiliated hospitals, HMOs, medical boards, and other such
institutions, who would use peer review as a weapon to unfairly destroy other
professionals. Read the rest of the story, as well as the post hurricane
addresses and phone numbers, and a wealth of other information, at www.peerreview.org.
•
Semmelweis
Society International, www.semmelweissociety.net, Verner S. Waite MD, FACS, Founder; Henry Butler MD, FACS, President;
Ralph Bard MD, JD, Vice President; W. Hinnant MD, JD, Secretary-Treasurer; is
named after Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis, MD (1818-1865), an obstetrician
who has been hailed as the savior of mothers. He noted maternal mortality of
25-30 percent in the obstetrical clinic in
•
Dennis
Gabos, MD, President of
the Society for the Education of Physicians and Patients (SEPP), www.sepp.net, is making
efforts in Protecting, Preserving, and Promoting the Rights, Freedoms and
Responsibilities of Patients and Health Care Professionals.
•
Robert J
Cihak, MD, former
president of the AAPS, and Michael Arnold Glueck, M.D, write an
informative Medicine Men column at NewsMax. Please log on to review the
last five weeks’ topics or click on archives to see the last two years’ topics
at www.newsmax.com/pundits/Medicine_Men.shtml. Be sure to read this week’s column on New Medicare Drug Plan Offers Few Meds and Little Care
before you sign up for a disaster. www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2005/11/3/112135.shtml.
•
The
Association of American Physicians & Surgeons (www.AAPSonline.org), The Voice for Private Physicians Since 1943,
representing physicians in their struggles against bureaucratic medicine, loss
of medical privacy, and intrusion by the government into the personal and
confidential relationship between patients and their physicians. Be sure to
review News of the Day, paying special attention to the November issue on how
the Medicare Drug Plan may leave patients without their medications, by logging
on at www.aapsonline.org/nod/newsofday226.php.
The “AAPS News,” written by Jane Orient, MD, and archived on this site,
provides valuable information on a monthly basis. Be sure to read the October
issue on Paying for Medical Care at www.aapsonline.org/newsletters/oct05.php.
Scroll further to the official organ, the Journal of American Physicians and
Surgeons, with Larry Huntoon, MD, PhD, a neurologist in
* * * * *
Stay Tuned to the MedicalTuesday.Network and Have Your Friends Do
the Same.
Please note:
Articles that appear in MedicalTuesday may not reflect the opinion of the
editorial staff.
Del Meyer
Del Meyer, MD,
Editor & Founder
Words of Humor
Warren Buffet: "I didn't say it was your fault. I
said I was going to blame it on you." Quote from the Boss... Corporate
Humor
Warren Buffet: Quote from the Boss after overriding the decision of a
task force he created to find a solution: "I'm sorry if I ever gave you
the impression your input would have any effect on my decision for the outcome
of this project!"
Words of Wisdom
Lee Iacocca, developer of the Ford Mustang before
becoming Chairman of Chrysler Corporation of
Earl Nightingale:
Every business must
have a man on a white horse to be successful.
Edward Langley,
Artist 1928-1995: What
this country needs are more unemployed politicians.
P.J. O’Rourke,
Civil Libertarian: Giving money and power to government is like
giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.
Voltaire: The art of government consists of taking
as much money as possible from one party of citizens to give to the other.
Nobel Laureate Richard Smalley, a Rice University professor who shared the 1996 Nobel Prize in chemistry with fellow Rice chemist Robert Curl and British chemist Sir Harold Kroto for the discovery of the new form of carbon, helped discover buckyballs, the soccer ball-shaped form of carbon, and championed the field of nanotechnology, has died at the age of 62 on Friday, October 28, 2005, at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center from his leukemia. Nanotechnology, for things measured in billionths of a meter, involves manipulating materials on an atomic or molecular scale to build microscopic devices.
"In my view, this was a singular
event in the history of nanotechnology," said
"These
little nanothings, and the technology that assembles and manipulates them —
nanotechnology — will revolutionize our industries and our lives," he told
the U.S. House of Representatives in 1999 while arguing for the creation of the
National Nanotechnology Initiative to support the research. "Rick
overwhelmingly carried the day," said Caltech chemist James Heath, a
former student of Smalley's. "He sat there in front of Congress with no
hair, as a result of the chemotherapy, and talked about the promise of
nanotechnology for cancer and other diseases and how it would pay off for his
children. It was absolutely riveting." Federal spending for the initiative
amounted to more than $1 billion this fiscal year.
www.latimes.com/technology/la-me-smalley30oct30,1,2688226.story?ctrack=1&cset=true
[What
seems to be overlooked, even in obituaries, is that technology will always be developed
and promoted by the entrepreneurs making some industrious people very wealthy.
We should not lead people to think that ‘riveting Congress” to extract money
from the citizenry, is a “Nobel” thing]
On this date in
1906, SOS was adopted as the international distress signal. We still haven’t come up with an
international greeting signal!
On this date in
1963, President John F Kennedy was assassinated.