Where Have All The Doctors Gone?
I have done no research on this topic other than personal experience. Being an old geezer, I regularly visit a number of doctors who specialize in various branches of medicine. Other than my G.P. doctor, I attend a cardiologist, an endocrinologist, a neurologist, and an urologist. Within the past year, the following has occurred: The endocrinologist sold his practice to another practice which has three locations in the area. The other three M.D.'s have retired. The endocrinologist's practice has been taken over by a group of Indian and Syrian doctors, who were educated overseas but got their board certifications and residencies in the USA. I have yet to find a replacement neurologist, however, my G.P. is doing a good job as a substitute. I have interviewed several urologists and so far, have I have not been satisfied. I did find a cardiologist. He is a young local man educated in Florida. He's not a M.D. but a D.O. However, his references are A1..
As my wife and I searched we had a revelation. There were in our area, hardly any American educated M.D.'s practicing in my here. As you all know, the internet is the mighty Wizard of Information who puts the whole world into my computer.At first, mainly out of curiosity, I tried to find American educated M.D.'s or at the very least a doctor who spoke English in a way that I could easily understand. I searched within my town, then adjacent towns, then cities further away. Finally, I wound up at the largest city in the area, but it was over 30 miles away.
Has anyone had a similar experience?Has becoming a M.D. lost its prestige or ability to produce income? Was Obamacare a contributing factor? What, if anything, is going on?
As my wife and I searched we had a revelation. There were in our area, hardly any American educated M.D.'s practicing in my here. As you all know, the internet is the mighty Wizard of Information who puts the whole world into my computer.At first, mainly out of curiosity, I tried to find American educated M.D.'s or at the very least a doctor who spoke English in a way that I could easily understand. I searched within my town, then adjacent towns, then cities further away. Finally, I wound up at the largest city in the area, but it was over 30 miles away.
Has anyone had a similar experience?Has becoming a M.D. lost its prestige or ability to produce income? Was Obamacare a contributing factor? What, if anything, is going on?
I saw all of this going on in the mid 80's because of government interference in their businesses. it certainly has gotten worse, much worse and it is going to get even "worser" as time goes by. socialized medicine may ultimately be the weight on the camel that breaks its back.
I am going to post your reply on Straight Line Logic later today if you have no objections.
I'm good friends with our doctor and he and I talk often of this - usually him sharing related stories. He is fighting to keep his own practice but it seems "the system" is fighting him tooth-and-nail.
"Now more than ever, people need to learn how to stay healthy, avoid toxic processed foods, and educate themselves about their health issues so they can make informed decisions on what limited care they will have access to." Exactly my take. I'm an engineer working in the healthcare industry. The general public has no idea how this system works. If they did, they'd all be saying what you're saying in those quotes. I tell people, "If you find yourself in a hospital, get the hell out as fast as you can."
Why would an honorable person volunteer to work as a slave?
Look for cash only business models. Concierge practice may set you free!
I imagined paying cash to fix together the damage from Mountain Dew, Taco Bell, and Xanax. I've given up Mountain Dew and Taco Bell, so two out of three.... I'm 42 y/o and still feel great. I need to start looking to some neighboring country (Canada or Mexico?) in case my youthful bad habits catch up with me.
We have as bad an educational system as can be achieved, so how many will want to be doctors since it is necessary to study for a long time even after graduation. the younger generation has no time to put in the time to actually learn. you may find a foreign person who is a doctor that is committed to the profession and if so hug him.
just think how bad our situation (I am 75) is if we are 20 years old now. If the 20 year olds make it to our age I will be very surprised, if I am here.
Most physicians here have no problem prescribing opiods. The only restriction is no more than a 30 day supply at one time, and pharmacies readily dispense the drugs (with a view of the driver's license or other government ID). Opiod abuse is a problem, but law enforcement and targeting distributors, rather than denying the meds to patients have been the chosen methods to reduce the problem.
We're seeing concierge doctor practice grow, as well as doctor co-ops with subscriptions that cover all non-emergency care. We also have the Surgery Center, that does not accept insurance, and advertises its charges for operations online. The state is becoming an experimental ground for returning the relationship to a doctor-patient connection.
For the first 15 years of our relationship, he ran a private practice and was a very happy and sociable person. Since I am quite healthy, our discussions were on Ayn Rand and Atlas Shrugged during my periodic visits. During my last visit, when he still owned his practice, he asked if I had noticed the nice two ladies just outside the exam room. He then told me "those nice ladies are Obamacare." They were hired, to the tune of ~100k in annual compensation packages, just to administer the red-tape of the PPACA. It would be the equivalent of injecting cancer cells into a healthy patient and then insisting, with the height of conceit, that 'cancer has needs too.' He lasted a year after the cancer injection. During my most recent visit, he did not smile ... he had visibly changed. The exam rooms had also changed. Instead of each room having a Theme... such as the American Southwest, or Ancient Egypt, etc ... all the photos and mementos from his travels were gone. Without blinking, he explained that the hospital demanded the removal of all objects that could be the harbor for the transmission of disease. The place had all the appeal of a 1960's Soviet-Era exam room. He is now just a paid employee of the hospital.
I share this anecdotal story with people that I meet, typically 'captive audiences' while on travel (flights). Most people have absolutely no clue how physicians, and their needs, play into the PPACA. When I conclude my story, their eyes light up a bit, having been exposed to another perspective.
To repeat DoctorObvious -- stay healthy. You do not want to become party to this broken and further deliberately destroyed health care system.
Health care has become such a hoax in the present paradigm that many doctors have just given up and gone on to something else.
He has asked for a specific opoid medication. Instead of a yes or a no, all he hears is that "the doctor has to write a prescription" and this has dragged on for days. "Yes" or "no" my son could understand.
If the doctor ever does write one, I'm to present my son's driver's license both to receive it and to have it filled at a pharmacy.
Yesterday, I had mid-afternoon business a half an hour away on the other side of Birmingham. Before I left, my son requested that I carry his license so in case he gets "the call," I could be advised on my cell phone to go straight to the hospital where the doctor is at.
Of course, "the call" never came.
Earlier, my son asked the doctor about crutches and was told that would have to be cleared by the insurance company.
Me the dino told my son "Screw that!" and bought him crutches at Walmart.
Those under the armpit crutches relieved a lot of pain and made it possible him walk a short way to the bathroom on the same day when he found he could not and all but panicked.
Later we went to see his doctor, who visibly viewed the crutches with some discomfort.
Oh, yeah, about that opoid medication, the doc said he had to write the prescription, whatever the hell that really means.
All this led to my son saying that doctors no longer make decisions. Insurance companies tell them what to do.
Even about stupid damn crutches . . .
You tell 'em, doc.
We fail to realize that Health Insurance is in no way the responsibility of government. Other than relatively small volunteer organizations, there is no way that one size fits all can accomodate all the variations in healthcare without excluding preexisting conditions without charging huge fees or having huge deductibles.Now that the stupids in Washington have committed us to this type of unfeasable insurance, the genie cannot be stuffed back into the bottle if the politicians desire re-election.
I remember being prescribed stuff like that for an arthritis flare-up. That was four or fiver years ago and other times further back, but I never became a druggie.
Addictionblog.org says it should be labeled that.
http://addictionblog.org/the-news/is-...
It's got to be an opium mixed with green tea or some such bland substance because on its own it doesn't do much more than baby aspirin. However, it does have withdrawal symptoms when you are delayed getting it. Damn! All this time and I didn't know I was a junkie.
I have my blood taken every three months which gives me a handle on what is going on. Liver is OK , kidneys OK but gotta be careful. I am aware of the side effects, but this is the compromise I have decided in order to deal with my pain. Ibuprophen is the alternative to acetaminophen but it causes bleeding. Thanks for the advice.
I long ago recall noticing that at about the age of 30 that I was maturely different upstairs than during my mid-20s.
I'm also a lifelong tobacco addict but I haven't smoked for five years thanks to a Chantix prescription. Couldn't' quit on my own.
As a kid I could buy a pack with chump change from a vending machine placed outside of a gas station back when someone filled the tank, checked the oil and cleaned the windshield without asking for a tip.
I should know. By 16 I was bad to the bone.
During the 60s in Dothan, Alabama, smokers liked to say that Marlboros would make you sterile.
Marlboro TV commercials played The Magnificent Seven music at that time.
A little later I joined the Alabama Department of Corrections for 21 years. Back problems do run in my family, though.
My health has been going south ever since.
No - honestly...Through medical issues with my son I came to know the staff at a local facility that does hyperbaric (pure oxygen) treatments. They treat retired NFL players, soldiers with lots of experience around artillery guns, and a local MMA fighter (Uriah Faber). They already set me as straight as they can and we are keeping an eye on the ole noodle. Thanks. And, I have been reading of gluten and joint pain(?) Learning every day...
Thanks.
I used to supervise such enterprising young men and would send them to their cells by shouting, "Lock down!"
Unfortunately, hooked up users were doing time in that prison too.
So if you #1 badly beat someone up for sleeping with your wife, #2 got scared and plea bargained a reduced sentence guilty for a burglary you're falsely accused of and then #3 got caught as a druggie because your life sucks--you get free room and board for the rest of your life! But no steak, baked potato or fried chicken.
I had a reputation for treating inmates fairly even though there was times I was forced to use force and I also fired three warning shots from towers.
As for that last warning shot, I would have shot the inmate if he had not stopped trying to escape.
That was the only time I took aim at a human being's center mass. But he decided that he was done that day.
"You can evade life, but Death you cannot evade. -- T.S. Elliot
"3:1 All things have their season, and in their times all things pass under heaven.
3:2 A time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted.
3:3 A time to kill, and a time to heal. A time to destroy, and a time to build.
3:4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh. A time to mourn, and a time to dance.
3:5 A time to scatter stones, and a time to gather. A time to embrace, and a time to be far from embraces.
3:6 A time to get, and a time to lose. A time to keep, and a time to cast away.
3:7 A time to rend, and a time to sew. A time to keep silence, and a time to speak.
3:8 A time of love, and a time of hatred. A time of war, and a time of peace.
3:9 What hath man more of his labour?
3:10 I have seen the trouble, which God hath given the sons of men to be exercised in it.
3:11 He hath made all things good in their time, and hath delivered the world to their consideration, so that man cannot flnd out the work which God hath made from the beginning to the end.
3:12 And I have known that there was no better thing than to rejoice, and to do well in this life.
3:13 For every man that eateth and drinketh, and seeth good of his labour, this is the gift of God.
3:14 I have learned that all the works which God hath made, continue for ever: we cannot add any thing, nor take away from those things which God hath made that he may be feared.
3:15 That which hath been made, the same continueth: the things that shall be, have already been: and God restoreth that which is past.
3:16 I saw under the sun in the place of judgment wickedness, and in the place of justice iniquity.
3:17 And I said in my heart: God shall judge both the just and the wicked, and then shall be the time of every thing.
3:18 I said in my heart concerning the sons of men, that God would prove them, and shew them to be like beasts.
3:19 Therefore the death of man, and of beasts is one, and the condition of them both is equal: as man dieth, so they also die: all things breathe alike, and man hath nothing more than beast: all things are subject to vanity.
3:20 And all things go to one place: of earth they were made, and into earth they return together.
3:21 Who knoweth if the spirit of the children of Adam ascend upward, and if the spirit of the beasts descend downward?
3:22 And I have found that nothing is better than for a man to rejoice in his work, and that this is his portion. For who shall bring him to know the things that shall be after him? "
We should be working on that. We won't solve in my lifetime, but I think we will eventually.
My thoughts on the examples you gave for the three strike law #1 that's like smashing your thumb and then sticking your hand in a meat grinder.
#2 maybe a burglar who is caught and another burglary is attributed wrongly, oh well. Kind of like a known liar who tells the truth about something and complains cause they are not believed.
#3 Huge business because of its illegalization.
Both on the trafficking and enforcement. It is obviously a war that is unwinable. They don't belong with murderers or rapists .
Just my thoughts.
And yet the idiots keep on living
Upon a peak in Darien
The sage renounced his fellow man
His fellow man he did renounce
And leapt and lit and didn't bounce"
Todd and wishing you happy memories.
Warm regards,
DOB
May your memories be glad ones offsetting any sadness.
So I strove to treat them all the same. I was not the judge, I was not the jury and almost all of those inmates could not wait to tell me how innocent they were.
Funny how you begin to nurse a special respect for the ones who admit they were guilty as charged.
I have never understood why anyone would want to compound the pain of rejection in a relationship by resorting to violence.
The only place an inmate on a usual day had air conditioning was in the infirmary. Come to think of it, that was not a usual day.
But the air conditioning was not working.
The next day I was assigned to the infirmary.
The air conditioning was still not working.
The next day I was assigned as rover to a cell block.
During that shift I stepped inside the infirmary to discover that the air conditioner was fixed and working.
And I was working for my least favorite supervisor. The day he transferred to another prison was a really good day.
Thank God. That's messed up.
It is legal for an Alabama corrections officer to shoot an escaping convicted felon in the back.
That's what I was aiming at and I swore to do my duty. Was mentally prepared to do.
There's also what a felon I allowed to escape may do to encountered innocents to consider.
Retired, I don't have to worry about that anymore.
To shoot to stop we are trained to aim at center mass. That way if you miss the center, you still might hit the target anyway.
You may really think is really messed up is how I was trained to be a killer when drafted into the Marines in 1969. I'll never forget the first time I fired a M1911 semiautomatic pistol. My target was rolled away like a running man. As ordered, I shouted "Halt!" twice and then shot the target seven times. That was the only time I fired a pistol in the USMC.
That's NOT at all how one becomes NRA qualified to shoot anything..
Yes. Just disgraceful. It cheapens the law, furthers the idea that laws are just a fig leaf for arbitrary power.
Medicare is single payer
Medicaid is single payer
VA is single payer
Robert Reich was honest when he declared:
" -Older people should just die- they're "too expensive"
-There should be "less innovation" in medical technology
-You should not expect to live longer than your parents."
Again, look for market options and solutions. If you give up and go with what the government gets you, then you are chatting in the wrong web site. Italy has socialized medicine but allows for cash health care. There is no way to have equal access for all unless everyone gets denied access equally. Those who can afford it will never settle for that.
Some tech guy will take his billions and buy up old cruise ships and Navy ships, refit them as medical facilities, and operate them just outside US territorial waters to avoid all this nonsense.
Ben C.