Home alone and flipping through the channels.
I am not really clear on popular TV, wants and desires and what viewers may want to view.
There is a Joy Behar Show?
Why?
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Feds Screw Medicine, Docs Say Enough. Feds Force Physcians?
Of course the libs will blame the doctors.
Texas doctors opting out of Medicare at alarming rate
The uncertainty proved too much for Dr. Guy Culpepper, a Dallas-area family practice doctor who says he wrestled with his decision for years before opting out in March. It was, he said, the only way “he could stop getting bullied and take control of his practice.”
“You do Medicare for God and country because you lose money on it,” said Culpepper, a graduate of the University of Texas Medical School at Houston. “The only way to provide cost-effective care is outside the Medicare system, a system without constant paperwork and headaches and inadequate reimbursement.”
If you put the federal government in charge of deserts you will have a sand shortage in no time. In 1965 my father, a doctor, said that the Medicare/Medicaid system was doomed to fail, but before it did, it would drive costs through the ceiling and quality down the crapper. Unfortunately for us, his family, and his many patients he died very young in 1967.
Unfortunate for his family, yes, but actually more unfortunate the patients who needed his considerable skill which was offered on need, not offered on one's ability to pay.He used to go to rural areas to treat farmers who not only felt they couldn't afford to pay, but more so because they couldn't afford to leave their farm work undone.
Once, my mother took a call from a farmer's wife who said her husband had caught part of his arm in a combine, had cut away tissue to get it loose and was now feverish and had a bad odor. As usual, my father looked across the dinner table, nodded to me and we headed out.
I could see his mind working through the flexing of his jaw as we drove. He was planning for the worst, but hoping for the best. Once there he reached into his bag and pulled out some alcohol which he poured onto to his handkerchief which he had pulled from his suit jacket and told me to hold it over my nose. I still remember the coolness of the alcohol on that hot August evening. And the flies.
The smell coming through the alcohol soaked handkerchief made me gag as we approached the back kitchen door to the farmhouse. Before we got through the door he told the wife to call family to help hold her husband down, to boil as many pots of water as possible and collect clean sheets. My job, I was 13, was to call for an ambulance and give them the address and have the company call the hospital and tell them "possible amputation due to gangrene" was coming in and then help the wife.
My father saved the man's life, most of his arm and almost lost his practice. First the lawyers came sniffing and promising the farmer's family that they could only save the farm by suing the doctor. Next came a medical review board and on and on. My father had been right, was proved right by the county medical board, the medical review board and the courts (after he was dead). He never charged the family a penny because he knew they were living on the edge of losing everything. The farmer never tried to sue, his very elderly parents had been coerced into signing the papers placed before them to save their son's farm as they were told.
Before my father died he was told he had to change how he practiced medicine because many didn't understand the new techniques he employed, that the government was so far out of touch with innovation that they were years away from okaying new techniques and that there would be no more house calls, if only to fend off the lawyers. This was told to him by his best friend, a lawyer.
It was a different time then before the government and lawyers took over medicine. That farmer didn't seek medical attention because he was too proud to negotiate paying the bill, not because he was stupid, ignorant or stubborn. He had pride. His family didn't take handouts. He didn't miss work. That farmer was a man of respect.
Well, Medicare/Medicaid had become the law and now some 45 years later it is the vehicle that the government uses to lessen medicine through their ridiculous notion that they know how to run a medical practice. If it wasn't for the ethics of doctors who have believe in "God and country" many patients wouldn't be treated, especially the old and the indigent. They are treated by a doctor, not some bureaucrat in Washington, DC. In an ironic twist, Medicare/Medicaid has a higher turn down rate for procedures than private insurance companies. Ah, but the private insurance companies are just in it for the money while the bureaucrat is in it for the good of the people and they will tell you that from their comfortable houses bought with their comfortable salaries and their ensured employment.
They are able to tell you that over a comfortable dinner because bureaucrats don't miss a meal or go on house calls. Not even for the dying. Office hours, you know. Oh, and government rules.
God help us from more government help, especially in the area of medical care. Just like the deserts, medical practices are becoming a shortage.
UPDATE: I was asked what happened to the farmer.
The farmer recovered and went on to make himself a success. His children now live comfortably in Florida on the proceeds from selling his land to a developer. My father died at a young age from 18 hour days and a fourth heart attack. He would have had it no other way because then, in his mind, he would not have done enough to help others. Yes, while alive my father made very good money which took care of my mother for another 33 years into old age and illness. My sisters and I do not live in Florida. I still have all of my father's records. At first we were told that we had to keep them for "legal reasons." Now I keep them to remember.
Texas doctors opting out of Medicare at alarming rate
The uncertainty proved too much for Dr. Guy Culpepper, a Dallas-area family practice doctor who says he wrestled with his decision for years before opting out in March. It was, he said, the only way “he could stop getting bullied and take control of his practice.”
“You do Medicare for God and country because you lose money on it,” said Culpepper, a graduate of the University of Texas Medical School at Houston. “The only way to provide cost-effective care is outside the Medicare system, a system without constant paperwork and headaches and inadequate reimbursement.”
If you put the federal government in charge of deserts you will have a sand shortage in no time. In 1965 my father, a doctor, said that the Medicare/Medicaid system was doomed to fail, but before it did, it would drive costs through the ceiling and quality down the crapper. Unfortunately for us, his family, and his many patients he died very young in 1967.
Unfortunate for his family, yes, but actually more unfortunate the patients who needed his considerable skill which was offered on need, not offered on one's ability to pay.He used to go to rural areas to treat farmers who not only felt they couldn't afford to pay, but more so because they couldn't afford to leave their farm work undone.
Once, my mother took a call from a farmer's wife who said her husband had caught part of his arm in a combine, had cut away tissue to get it loose and was now feverish and had a bad odor. As usual, my father looked across the dinner table, nodded to me and we headed out.
I could see his mind working through the flexing of his jaw as we drove. He was planning for the worst, but hoping for the best. Once there he reached into his bag and pulled out some alcohol which he poured onto to his handkerchief which he had pulled from his suit jacket and told me to hold it over my nose. I still remember the coolness of the alcohol on that hot August evening. And the flies.
The smell coming through the alcohol soaked handkerchief made me gag as we approached the back kitchen door to the farmhouse. Before we got through the door he told the wife to call family to help hold her husband down, to boil as many pots of water as possible and collect clean sheets. My job, I was 13, was to call for an ambulance and give them the address and have the company call the hospital and tell them "possible amputation due to gangrene" was coming in and then help the wife.
My father saved the man's life, most of his arm and almost lost his practice. First the lawyers came sniffing and promising the farmer's family that they could only save the farm by suing the doctor. Next came a medical review board and on and on. My father had been right, was proved right by the county medical board, the medical review board and the courts (after he was dead). He never charged the family a penny because he knew they were living on the edge of losing everything. The farmer never tried to sue, his very elderly parents had been coerced into signing the papers placed before them to save their son's farm as they were told.
Before my father died he was told he had to change how he practiced medicine because many didn't understand the new techniques he employed, that the government was so far out of touch with innovation that they were years away from okaying new techniques and that there would be no more house calls, if only to fend off the lawyers. This was told to him by his best friend, a lawyer.
It was a different time then before the government and lawyers took over medicine. That farmer didn't seek medical attention because he was too proud to negotiate paying the bill, not because he was stupid, ignorant or stubborn. He had pride. His family didn't take handouts. He didn't miss work. That farmer was a man of respect.
Well, Medicare/Medicaid had become the law and now some 45 years later it is the vehicle that the government uses to lessen medicine through their ridiculous notion that they know how to run a medical practice. If it wasn't for the ethics of doctors who have believe in "God and country" many patients wouldn't be treated, especially the old and the indigent. They are treated by a doctor, not some bureaucrat in Washington, DC. In an ironic twist, Medicare/Medicaid has a higher turn down rate for procedures than private insurance companies. Ah, but the private insurance companies are just in it for the money while the bureaucrat is in it for the good of the people and they will tell you that from their comfortable houses bought with their comfortable salaries and their ensured employment.
They are able to tell you that over a comfortable dinner because bureaucrats don't miss a meal or go on house calls. Not even for the dying. Office hours, you know. Oh, and government rules.
God help us from more government help, especially in the area of medical care. Just like the deserts, medical practices are becoming a shortage.
UPDATE: I was asked what happened to the farmer.
The farmer recovered and went on to make himself a success. His children now live comfortably in Florida on the proceeds from selling his land to a developer. My father died at a young age from 18 hour days and a fourth heart attack. He would have had it no other way because then, in his mind, he would not have done enough to help others. Yes, while alive my father made very good money which took care of my mother for another 33 years into old age and illness. My sisters and I do not live in Florida. I still have all of my father's records. At first we were told that we had to keep them for "legal reasons." Now I keep them to remember.
BWAHAHAHA: Dodd Speaks Of Lying Blumenthal's Honor "Bump"
Having Chris Dodd speak of honor is kinda like hiring Satan to speak about ethics. Wait. Okay, whatever.
Dodd Defends Blumenthal, Calls Vietnam Row A 'Bump'
"Dick Blumenthal and I have known each other for almost 40 years, and I've always known him to be the most honorable of people," Dodd said, just outside his office. "And nothing I read says anything differently about Dick Blumenthal. He's going to be a great United States Senator in my view. He's been a terrific Attorney General. So this is a bump but frankly I think that he's handled it well and as I said, I've known him to be nothing but the most honorable of human beings in public life."
Dodd (D-Ireland), real estate expert who also happens to be a US Senator and sandwich maker is a stalwart of honor and integrity and if he says this is just a bump he is actually saying more about the voters in Connecticut than Blumenthal.
Dodd Defends Blumenthal, Calls Vietnam Row A 'Bump'
"Dick Blumenthal and I have known each other for almost 40 years, and I've always known him to be the most honorable of people," Dodd said, just outside his office. "And nothing I read says anything differently about Dick Blumenthal. He's going to be a great United States Senator in my view. He's been a terrific Attorney General. So this is a bump but frankly I think that he's handled it well and as I said, I've known him to be nothing but the most honorable of human beings in public life."
Dodd (D-Ireland), real estate expert who also happens to be a US Senator and sandwich maker is a stalwart of honor and integrity and if he says this is just a bump he is actually saying more about the voters in Connecticut than Blumenthal.
Conservative Republican Caught With Pants Down Resigns
As he should. Once out of office he should go door to door and apologize for his lies and the shattering of the trust his supporters put in him.
Indiana Rep. Mark Souder to Resign Amid Allegations of Affair With Staffer
Some will say he made a mistake, which he did. More than just a mistake he has distracted from important debates about our future by living the lie of being a "family values" representative of the people. Now he needs to pay for that mistake before he can begin to rebuild his life. Good.
Indiana Rep. Mark Souder to Resign Amid Allegations of Affair With Staffer
Some will say he made a mistake, which he did. More than just a mistake he has distracted from important debates about our future by living the lie of being a "family values" representative of the people. Now he needs to pay for that mistake before he can begin to rebuild his life. Good.
Under Obama's Tutelage Iraq And The Middle East Spiral Back Into Brutality And Fear
What scared the left in America and terrorists worldwide was the success of Democracy in Iraq. Those in the Middle East who are pro-democracy are in a state of disbelief. How could something as hopeful as freedom be dashed by one man so fast, even by a man they supported. Obama has abandoned the promises he made in Egypt to Arabs about democracy and freedom, he has in fact thrown those who believed him overboard to be left on their own after believing the promises of support from American presidents.
Anti-Qaeda Sunni imams slaughtered in Iraq: military
Two Sunni Arab imams were brutally killed on Monday in Iraq, including one who was decapitated and had his head planted on a power pole, in attacks blamed on Al-Qaeda, military officials said.
The slayings in the province of Diyala, northeast of Baghdad, were against anti-Qaeda preachers who regularly railed against the terror network during Friday sermons.
Obama campaigned with a theme that he would bring respect back foreign respect of America. He would make America stand for something good, not evil and bad as the previous administration had done. That Obama created this love deficit out of whole cloth is beside the point. What is the point is that he has made America a country not to be believed by those that want to break the chains of history while maintaining the status quo of dictators, fanatics and self appointed power thugs.
Alas, it is the same strategy he is employing here. Not just broken promises, but promises made that were never intended to do anything more than sound good enough to fool some of the people for some of the time. Time enough to accomplish his hope and change which have little or nothing to do with the hope and change of the people.
Anti-Qaeda Sunni imams slaughtered in Iraq: military
Two Sunni Arab imams were brutally killed on Monday in Iraq, including one who was decapitated and had his head planted on a power pole, in attacks blamed on Al-Qaeda, military officials said.
The slayings in the province of Diyala, northeast of Baghdad, were against anti-Qaeda preachers who regularly railed against the terror network during Friday sermons.
Obama campaigned with a theme that he would bring respect back foreign respect of America. He would make America stand for something good, not evil and bad as the previous administration had done. That Obama created this love deficit out of whole cloth is beside the point. What is the point is that he has made America a country not to be believed by those that want to break the chains of history while maintaining the status quo of dictators, fanatics and self appointed power thugs.
Alas, it is the same strategy he is employing here. Not just broken promises, but promises made that were never intended to do anything more than sound good enough to fool some of the people for some of the time. Time enough to accomplish his hope and change which have little or nothing to do with the hope and change of the people.
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