Letter to the Editor
A voice crying in the medical wilderness.
This Christmas season many Christians will hear scripture readings about “the voice of one crying in the wilderness.” Such a one is my colleague, Dr. Jay Brock. His “cry” for national health insurance, Medicare 4 All, crashes up against one basic fact; the US economy is capitalistic. Those who voted in November for the US government to be run like a business should remember that businesses have a fiduciary obligation to their shareholders & investors to maximize profit, & NO obligation to provide value for their customers. United States health insurance companies are big business.
Dr. Brock has more than adequately detailed how the US healthcare “system” spends more money for poorer results than any other developed country in the world. I know three things automatically about anyone who stands up & asserts that the US healthcare system is “the best in the world”:
They’ve never worked in it
They’ve never suffered from it
They didn’t do enough research before they stood up & made such an asinine comment!
I can think of no more apt indictment of the US system than this. In the “old” days, if you called a medical office, you got a live person who answered the phone with; “Dr. Brown’s office. Nurse Jones speaking. How can we help you?” Call that same office today, though, & you hear a recording tell you; “You have reached the office of Dr. John Q. Brown, MD, Ltd, LLC, PC, Inc. If this is a medical emergency, HANG UP! CALL SOMEBODY ELSE!”
Leaves me feeling like they really care about my health.
About the only “positive” I can see in American medicine going forward is that a lot of pediatricians in training will learn to manage complications of diseases like measles, whooping cough, & possibly polio.
Jesus told a story about health care. It involved a traveler who was injured on a dangerous road. A stranger paid the equivalent of two days’ wages to provide the traveler with health care, & would have paid more had it been required.
Imagine how we could take care of our fellow citizens if every American, from His Majesty Emperor Elon I (who, by the way, cut $190 million of funding for childhood cancer research from the federal budget; childhood cancer!!) to the lowest wage earner paid two days’ worth of their wages to provide medical care for all!
Donald E. Bley, MD
Fredericksburg
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