This ball is in your court
There is activity in the news these days regarding Medicare and Medicaid. I wish to sum up some of my observations to lend a perspective of the situation.
A while back there was a discussion on The PBS News Hour about excessive testing by physicians.
A physician is generally assumed to be bound by such as the Hippocratic oath, that of Socrates and the Physician’s Code of Ethics. Excessive testing could be a unwillingness to make the effort to evaluate a patient’s condition, monetary considerations and the fear of liability lawsuits.
In the Patient’s Bill of Rights is the method of determining between the doctor and patient whether a test or whatever is necessary and if it is agreed to forgo same, the patient may sign off on the matter relieving the doctor of any liability.
About a month ago, on the same news media, was a discussion of the fact that administrators in hospitals are receiving $4 million, $6 million and even $8 million annually and that this is reflected in the cost of medical care. Being that the actual cost of said care is only a small amount of what is charged.
How many of these positions exist in a hospital is anyone’s guess. It leads one to assume that it is an easy way for the unscrupulous to muscle in and pilfer public money. An open piggy bank so to speak.
A week or so ago on the same news media was a discussion about so many doctors not being willing to accept Medicare and Medicaid patients.
It leads one to believe that if they can’t ‘gouge’ due to the mentioned agencies ‘cracking down’ on abuse, they are unwilling to comply with the responsibilities mentioned above.
Added to this is the pressure in Washington to literally dissolve that which is a legitimate part of our government and ignoring We The People in the process of doing so.
That would leave us ‘high and dry’ so to speak. As it stands, many other modern nations have a better system than ours.
In light of the inequity of the earnings of the majority of the people and the fraud and greed of the system as it stands, it would be a complete disaster.
Charles Samek
Mineola
