It is frightening how much of this society devotes itself to making things more complex than they need be. Sure, a great portion of this is simple parasitic graft, legions of government employees, swarms of consultants, and the entire accounting industry whose economic survival depends on leaching cash out of those who earn it. Yet beyond these…
Combine the expertise and philosophies of the federal government and organized medicine, and you wind up with something about as nutritious and appetizing as Thanksgiving dressing made from last year’s salmon mousse. The self-deluded at the AAFP have cranked out another joke disguised as farsighted thinking in their Primary Care Patient Protection Act of 2019 (cue…
“Whatever the Party holds to be the truth, is truth. It is impossible to see reality except by looking through the eyes of the Party. That is the fact that you have got to relearn, Winston. It needs an act of self- destruction, an effort of the will. You must humble yourself before you can…
There is a lot wrong with health care, most of it in fact, from my very jaded perspective. But there is one component that is still very good and decent. Some of the truly finest people I’ve met since entering medicine have been the nurses. As a class of professionals, they hold themselves, and the rest of the…
“Waste in the U.S. health care system ranges from $760 billion to $935 billion per year, or more than total annual federal defense spending, according to a new study.” For my money, the U.S. military is too big, way too expensive, and should be pruned back. Yet all of that wasted money is expended under the permission…
As major universities continue to crank out heavily indebted graduates increasingly incapable of self-sufficiency or even independent thought, so our medical schools are trying to customize their graduates to care for them. Or rather, their fragile self-esteem. Not content with bothering the rest of us with their ill-informed views on gun control, medical academicians now want to…
After getting his proposed budget cuts to Medicare stuffed in March (cuts to doctors and hospitals, of course), Pres. Trump zoomed down to hit the Florida hustings to cheer on the continued survival of this beloved program. He hit the premier gray ghetto in The Villages, promising to protect Medicare from “socialism,’ which is akin to…
Often writing for this site, I am reminded of the fantastically apt Jeff Goldblum line from “Jurassic Park”: “YEAH, BUT YOUR SCIENTISTS WERE SO PREOCCUPIED WITH WHETHER OR NOT THEY COULD THAT THEY DIDN’T STOP TO THINK IF THEY SHOULD.” Amen. Right out front, let me cheerfully admit that I don’t like much of what…
The chief executive for Blue Cross and Blue Shield for North Carolina has resigned, following an arrest for drunk driving earlier this summer. Dr. Patrick Conway, “a prominent federal official before he came to Blue Cross of North Carolina two years ago,” was spotted weaving between lanes, and he sideswiped a tractor-trailer. His two children were in…
See, now this is the kind of thing I’ve been talking about: today’s headlines regarding medicine and health care are often so stupid, so incomprehensibly ridiculous, that it’s getting tough to tell whether or not I’m being had by well-crafted parody. Take for instance, the opioid “CRISIS.” Apart from inviting state officials to further meddle in practices…