HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT:
THE DETERIORATION OF
MEDICINE
by John Tedeschi,
MD
(Robbinsville,
NJ) – It’s happening so gradually you hardly notice it at first. It’s a slow and
deliberate erosion, targeting your family doctor, someone who will soon become a
thing of the past.
Thanks to
politics, insurance companies, special interest groups and other organizations,
medicine is changing: the way it’s provided; who it’s provided to; exactly who the providers
are and their qualifications; how much it costs and, literally, “who lives and
who dies.”
The old saying “follow the money” has never been
truer than today.
On the surface, the bureaucrats are
pretending to have the best interest of the patient in mind when it comes to
medical coverage and healthcare.
One wonders, though, when the architect of the
Affordable Care Act questions the quest for life after
75.
In reality,
Ezekiel Emanuel says it’s a matter of saving money – and where the money IS
ultimately spent, it’s directed to special interest, profit-making
organizations. Benefit to the patient is secondary.
It’s all carefully
choreographed -- better than a Broadway musical.
As a result,
physicians around the country are up in arms over unsafe and unethical insurance
and federal regulating policies.
These policies remove the trusted, precious and
irreplaceable ‘doctor/patient relationship’ in favor of healthcare “rationing’
that is based on previously established Third World standards. And
physicians have nowhere to turn for help. The AMA
(the American Medical Association), long the advocate for the nation’s doctors,
abandoned the needs of the physician years ago and has its own
agenda.
Today, only 14% of the nearly 400,000 licensed
physicians are still members.
Doctoring just
isn’t the same. The practice of medicine, its costs and medical policies, are now
dictated and controlled by groups that don’t know the first thing about
medicine, nor the people it serves. At one time, the practice of medicine
in America was the envy of the world. Unfortunately, it has now been
radically segmented.
The individual
human rights and patient care needs are completely eroded and purposefully
ignored. And
more and more great doctors and educators, whose hands are tied, are simply
giving up or leaving the country altogether.
It’s a national disgrace.
Getting a flu shot at Wal-Mart or CVS, for
instance. Do
these walk-in-off-the-street retail stores even know -- or care -- about the
history of the patient and whether or not it’s safe to administer medicine of
any kind?
Flu shots are not for everyone, but they have no way
of knowing.
You find yourself in the hands of pharmacists who’ve
just recently received a ‘crash course’ in how to immunize, a process mandated
by the companies for which they work.
And even TV producers are realizing it’s a
joke. In a
recent episode of one sitcom, a son asks his father, “Hey, where have you
been?”
The father replies, “I got a flu shot at the
pharmacy, because who better to administer medical care than the guy who puts
price tags on flip-flops?”
Did I already use the words “national
disgrace?”
Then, there are
the rapidly emerging, drive-thru urgent care centers. Do you see a real
doctor, or are you treated by a nurse practitioner or physician assistant who
‘looks and acts’ like a doctor? Plus, it’s an uncontrolled data
collection center of your personal information.
Regardless of issue, doctors
are now told how much time we can spend with each patient;
what tests we can and cannot request. We are now forced to
re-certify more frequently and answer questions, in many cases, unethically,
just to serve their financial needs.
We are told what
kind of treatment can be provided to older patients, a type of “too old to treat”
approach because of the life expectancy of the patient and the cost to the
federal government.
Even prescription medications that will effectively
help the patient are routinely rejected by insurance companies and Medicare in
favor of less expensive, ‘generic’ drugs that are archaic and simply don’t
do the job. And we are aware, of course, of the conflict of interest of
insurance companies having stock in the drugs that they do approve. It’s
really sad.
The entire emphasis is not
just based on saving money, but also ‘making money’ at the expense of human life
and quality care.
We saw what
happened to the VA under government control. Now the government
wants to administer and control all of healthcare, nationwide?
The Affordable Care Act, neither
‘affordable’ nor ‘caring.’
Not a political statement; a fact. Ask any
‘real’ doctor.
The so-called “watchdogs” are not
watching. The
government agencies established to “protect American citizens” from these abuses
are not doing their job. Where are our protectors? Where
is today’s Paul Revere who can set out to “warn
us.”
Why does society
accept this? Are we ignorant, naïve, apathetic? Probably.
One thing’s for sure: We’re
on our own.
Think about
that. But not
for too long; you’ll give yourself a headache.”
-0-
Doctor John
Tedeschi is a primary care-family doctor in Robbinsville, New Jersey, who has
been practicing medicine for more than 30 years. He lives in Morrisville,
Pennsylvania.
