In recent years, our medical care is being hijacked by the federal government. More mandates rolled out in recent years than past decades combined. Big Brother tells us he is doing it all for our own good. Patients and doctors do not possess the astuteness the government does in making medical decisions. That is why they needed to step into exam rooms all across the US and take medical visits hostage from ruthless physicians and clueless patients. But what happens when the government commits medical malpractice?
Healthcare spending in the US is off the charts and represents one of the biggest expenditures in our economy. Few would argue the need to rein in those dollars. However, this should not be done at the expense of the health of American citizens.
Obamacare rolled out despite much public protest from patients and doctors alike. But, the government knows much better than the rest of us what goes into the practice of medicine. So, instead of weighing opposing opinions, they just put it into law anyway. By the year 2020, it will have cost taxpayers approximately 10 BILLION dollars. If it improved medical care then this spending would be justified. But, it has worsened it for many. Patients struggle to pay the premiums they are forced to buy and many forego medical care because of the high deductibles that they are now laden with. In the US, it is estimated than 25 million patients do not take their medications as prescribed because they are trying to reduce costs. Thus, we are given a 10 billion dollar invoice and given less service. Patients are suffering because of this. When the federal government stepped into the exam room and enacted forced reform, they caused very real harm to patients and should be held responsible for this medical malpractice.
Last year, Congress yet again passed laws affecting medical care in the exam rooms. MACRA is now law of the land, yet, they have not actually decided what this law completely entails. But, they did declare it a new regulation. What many people missed in the pages of minutiae that were a legal document was the coming MIPPS program. This basically is a program that will base reimbursements on clinical outcomes. While this may be a noble goal, its enactment is flawed. Doctors will be penalized for medically caring for sicker patients, the ones who actually need more of our time. This will evolve into medical care for the élite and the poor and middle class will find it difficult to access the medical system. And the chronically ill will be the biggest victims and come to rely on the emergency room as their primary care doctor. When patients suffer because they are excluded from care, this is an outrage. And the government set it into motion.
Yes, we need to rein in healthcare costs. But, spending billions of dollars to set up mandatory faulty decrees is not the way to do it. This will only bleed more money out of the system and harm patients. When doctors harm patients, we are called on the carpet and liable for malpractice. When the government passes laws that harm patients, they are exempt from responsibility. They often receive partisan applause for their work and everyone forgets about the patients. Washington needs to be called on the carpet for the malpractice they committed. Politicians must be made responsible for politicizing medicine and pushing through their agendas at harm to Americans. It is time to make American medicine great again.
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2016 Linda Girgis, MD, FAAFP
I think that Nancy Pelosi knew full well how bad the Unaffordable Care Act was going to be. That’s why she said “We have to pass it before we can find out what’s in it.” The fact that it was also a 2,500-page monster was discouraging for the average citizen to try to figure out how it might affect them. Also, in the past, when bills were up for consideration, interested citizens could read some [relatively] plain language regarding the bill and comment on it to their elected representatives. However, Pelosi, Reid and company were committed to making the bill as opaque as possible while it was being considered and debated. Now U.S. citizens are trapped by it unless we get a new president with some common sense and REAL compassion for people. That’s why electing either Hillary or Bernie would be a disaster and pretty much the end of real health care in the U.S. Just take a look at California Governor Brown’s budget proposal to provide $5,400 per patient for drugs to kill Medi-Cal patients (supposedly according to their desires, but I don’t believe that for a minute). According to a National Review article, palliative care is not available to these patients and their chances of getting treatment for cancer is about 1 in 3. This seems to be deliberate extermination of the sickest patients if they can’t pay their own bills.
Well said!