oracle
07-06-2001, 03:12 PM
Bad medicine (http://enquirer.com/editions/2001/07/01/loc_bronson_bad_medicine.html)
Dying for a doctor
Peter Bronson
Cincinnati Enquirer
In my nightmares, I go to see my doctor and Ted Kennedy walks into the exam room wearing a lab coat. I check the diploma on the wall: “Doctor of Spendology” it says. “M.D. - Mendacious Demagogue.”
He waves a toy stethoscope in my direction and mumbles, “You need a wallet-ectomy followed by copious bleeding.”
I demand a second opinion - and he brings in Hillary Clinton and a swarm of trial lawyers who say it will cost me an arm and a leg. Yes, literally.
Welcome to Marx Brothers Hospital, where the quack medical staff has a new cure for health care pains - the Patients' Bill of Rights.
The main ingredient is distilled extract of litigation. It works on the principle that there is no medical problem that cannot be made more painful and costly by an injection of lawyers. Got an ache? Sue your HMO. Still hurting? Sue your boss, too.
And if your employer drops health care coverage to avoid lawsuits, Dr. Ted and Nurse Hillary are hoping you will get sick and desperate enough to beg for brain surgery with a butter knife: nationalized health care.
Many employers are already thinking of dumping health care, according to Dr. Derek van Amerongen, medical director for Humana/ChoiceCare, our region's biggest HMO.
“They wonder, "Why are we spending billions on health care? That's not our business.'”
So corporations tighten the screws on HMOs, and HMOs cinch the bolts on hospitals and doctors.
The bread-and-water diet doesn't apply to everyone in health care. Bill McGuire, CEO of United Health Group, parent of United Health Care in Cincinnati, was paid $54 million last year ($1.7 million salary, $3 million bonus and about $48 million in stock options).
But Cincinnati leads in cheap reimbursements - and nursing shortages and doctors leaving for Indianapolis, Columbus or other cities that raise their salaries 50 percent or more. Many new doctors won't even consider Cincinnati.
...
Click here to read more (http://enquirer.com/editions/2001/07/01/loc_bronson_bad_medicine.html)
Dying for a doctor
Peter Bronson
Cincinnati Enquirer
In my nightmares, I go to see my doctor and Ted Kennedy walks into the exam room wearing a lab coat. I check the diploma on the wall: “Doctor of Spendology” it says. “M.D. - Mendacious Demagogue.”
He waves a toy stethoscope in my direction and mumbles, “You need a wallet-ectomy followed by copious bleeding.”
I demand a second opinion - and he brings in Hillary Clinton and a swarm of trial lawyers who say it will cost me an arm and a leg. Yes, literally.
Welcome to Marx Brothers Hospital, where the quack medical staff has a new cure for health care pains - the Patients' Bill of Rights.
The main ingredient is distilled extract of litigation. It works on the principle that there is no medical problem that cannot be made more painful and costly by an injection of lawyers. Got an ache? Sue your HMO. Still hurting? Sue your boss, too.
And if your employer drops health care coverage to avoid lawsuits, Dr. Ted and Nurse Hillary are hoping you will get sick and desperate enough to beg for brain surgery with a butter knife: nationalized health care.
Many employers are already thinking of dumping health care, according to Dr. Derek van Amerongen, medical director for Humana/ChoiceCare, our region's biggest HMO.
“They wonder, "Why are we spending billions on health care? That's not our business.'”
So corporations tighten the screws on HMOs, and HMOs cinch the bolts on hospitals and doctors.
The bread-and-water diet doesn't apply to everyone in health care. Bill McGuire, CEO of United Health Group, parent of United Health Care in Cincinnati, was paid $54 million last year ($1.7 million salary, $3 million bonus and about $48 million in stock options).
But Cincinnati leads in cheap reimbursements - and nursing shortages and doctors leaving for Indianapolis, Columbus or other cities that raise their salaries 50 percent or more. Many new doctors won't even consider Cincinnati.
...
Click here to read more (http://enquirer.com/editions/2001/07/01/loc_bronson_bad_medicine.html)