“Don’t worry, doc. It’s just one eye. I’ve got two.”
My stomach lurched to hear this statement. A guy who has done nothing wrong aside from choosing self-employment (and perhaps inheriting less-than-stellar genes) is left with the choice: financial devastation or blindness in one eye. He works hard, has served the country, didn’t complain to me at all, yet here he is about to be swallowed by the ever widening maw of impossible medical expense.
Why do patients feel like they are treated like cows, not humans? Why does our system produce more sick people getting more procedures? Why are things so different for the patients in my new practice? It all comes down to one thing: the basic financial transaction of the healthcare system. From it flow all of the bad things doctors and patients experience. From my rejection of it flow all of the wonderful changes to the care I can now give. There is no meaningful reform that can happen without changing this basic transaction.
I am holding a contest on my Facebook page to come up with a haiku about healthcare. I honestly don\’t care what it\’s about as long as it is clever (including llamas does not give you an advantage, though). Head on over there and give me your best haiku! You know what is at stake …
It\’s the American way: invest your money to secure your future. Put money into your IRA, 401-K, 529; invest online and maybe you can strike it big. Publicly held companies are increasingly under pressure to produce in the short-term to keep their investors happy. The bottom line is to achieve as high of profits as …
