Part of the Solution

Here’s a great article about how some doctors are creating ‘micropractices’.

The concept is simple: the doctor greatly limits patient load and has no nurse, receptionist, insurance specialist, office manager, nurse’s aid, or answering service. These practitioners have sacrificed a little income for greater sanity – and patient satisfaction. I think this is an encouraging trend, and I hope to see more of it.

Right now our country is asking, “Why don’t we have Universal Health Insurance?” As usual, we are asking the wrong question. We should be asking, “Why is insurance needed to see a doctor?”

The billion-dollar insurance industry doesn’t want you asking this question.

So, if you hear a story about how I bled to death by the side of the road because some ambulance driver refused me service because my insurance card could not be ‘located’, you’ll know it was a cover-up. They WANT me dead. I have an insurance card in my wallet. Really.

However, Michael Moore, whose new documentary Sicko was just screened at Cannes, had something of interest to say in June first’s Entertainment Weekly.

When asked, “What do you say to the Canadian and French people who claim you paint a far-too-positive picture of their health-care system?”, Moore replied, “Wanna switch systems? The answer is always no…”

That’s the best reply I’ve ever heard to my concerns. But sorry, I still don’t support socialized medicine.

Moore somehow feels we could set up a system that recognizes their shortcomings and fixes them. Possible? Certainly. The probability of the United States getting it right? Absolutely zero.

That’s why we need the Michael Moores of the world. Perhaps he is truly an idealist. Wants to make things better. Or, maybe, just maybe, like me… he knows this country is going to crash and burn, and just wants to be able to say I TOLD YOU SO.