Monday, November 1, 2010

Practice makes perfect? Or: That’s why they call it the practice of medicine. 0080

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Doctors amazed me. In fact, the entire medical establishment amazes me. think about it. Nurses care for you. They take care of you. nurses treat you. One says, “I am a nurse.” Or, one may say, ”He or she is a nurse.” But you never hear anybody say, “She practices nursing.” on the other hand, you often hear of a cardiology practice or in internal medicine practice, or “She practices internal medicine.”

Frankly, I don’t want someone who’s going to practice on me! I want someone who knows what they’re going to do. I want somebody who practiced on somebody else. Or, at least I want somebody was being supervised by somebody who doesn’t practice any more! Practice on the other guy. Treat me.

While I am at it, I have another bone to pick. If I need a plumber, I look up plumbers, and I select the best price with the best experience for the job I need done. I pay for it. The same goes for the people who cut my grass, clean my carpets, replace my Windows, and sell me car insurance. My employer doesn't pay my car insurance. (I wish they did.)

Now, I am typically not placing my life in any of those peoples hands. Sometimes, I may opt for the cheapest price. Sometimes, I may opt for the best price with the right level of experience. However, when it comes to medical care, in this country, we usually leave it up to someone else. This typically, we have the customer. We aren't a liar. Our employer is.

How many of us have employer paid health insurance? How many of us have HMO or PPO plans? How many of us have someone else tell us what Dr. we can see or what medical procedure or test we can have done? It’s a life-and-death decision which is handled by organizations that are looking for the cheapest price and are paid by somebody else, somebody else who isn't sick, injured or dying! The person footing the bill doesn't have a stake in the treatment. They wanted cheap, not good, not excellent. They are happy with people at practice.

We wonder why health care and health insurance is so expensive. Well, it's simple marketing. If I have one guy competing to sell me a peanut, and he's the only guy with a peanut, and all my neighbors want to buy that same one, the peanut is going to go to the highest bidder. But if there is thousands people selling peanuts, thousands of peanuts, and millions of buyers -- there is more competition. Peanuts get cheaper. We need millions of individuals to be competing for cheap healthcare and cheap insurance, not just thousands of companies. There are approximately 300,000,000 people in the United States. 300 million shoppers can definitely get a better price than 300,000, or the Fortune 1000, or the Fortune 100. There is very little economic incentive to cut medical costs in this country.

By the way, is everybody entitled to a $500,000 or million Dollar medical procedure? Is everyone entitled to the best possible care, the best care they're willing to pay for, or the best care they can afford ? Good question! Nobody is willing to pay me $1 million a year right now -- however, some insurance company might end up having a $1 million in medical expenses! That's just weird.

We maybe the doctors patient, but we are certainly not the doctors customer. That bothers me!. I don’t let my employer pick my grass cutter or my plumber -- and they’re not even going to kill me if they screw up! do I really trust corporate America with my life? Something is  definitely wrong with this picture.

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