A Doctor Writes...

We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.
~~~~~John F. Kennedy


It's been a very unsettling time these last few days. The Health Care Reform has been signed into law. Revised, passed and signed again...All against the wishes of a major part of the American public. Doctors, Nurses, Hospitals and now companies whom this catastrophe of a bill will impact to the tune of trillions of dollars have tried to be the voice of reason. To no avail. Our government would not listen.

Today, as part of that bill, the President has signed into law, government take over of all school loans. So...they are now able to tell us the type of health care we receive and since they will hold the purse strings to educational loans, college education as well. Nice of them, huh? While the bill is supposed to cut out the middle man: the private bank, school loans will be administered by government approved performance based private companies. This part of HEALTH CARE REFORM, will supposedly free up 68 Billion dollars in the next 11 years for more minority school loans and deficit reduction. Can someone please tell me when anything ran by our Federal Government has reduced the deficit?? Isn't it nice to know that part of the 2,700 plus pages of the HCR also deals with school loans. Hmmm... insurance equals education. Wonder what else we will find in those many pages? I'm sure everything will be made transparent real soon. Aren't you? I also wonder if those loans will have somewhere in the fine print, a clause of mandatory "National Service"?

It's not looking very much like the America I grew up in. Yes, there were hard times. But...you know what? We persevered and it didn't hurt us. In fact, it made us work all that much harder to insure that we could get over the next hump that much easier.

There were years where we didn't have insurance to cover the cost of a Doctors visit. You know what else? We didn't die. But we also didn't go to the Doctors office or the emergency room every time we had a sniffle, cough or fever over 99 degrees.
If we wanted a college education, we studied our butts off in High School for a high GPA so colleges would offer scholarships and grants. Then you worked part time jobs during the summers to help accumulate the needed monies. You also worked before or after classes to pay for what you needed or wanted. THAT was YOUR decision. Unless you had Daddy Deep Pockets or a rich Uncle Joe. Reckon we'll now call him UNCLE SAM. Here's the interesting part... IF after college, you can take 10% of your discretionary income, make your payments on time, then after 20 YEARS, all is forgiven. Yup, somewhere around age 45. Reminds me of that song Tennessee Ernie Ford sings, "Sixteen Tons"

My elder sister who has been a Registered Nurse for longer than she cares to remember, understands exactly how this Health Care Reform will impact all of America. Her son, my nephew is in pre-med studies right now... but for how long? O'Wise One also sent along this short letter to the President from a young Doctor, giving his opinion of what he has determined to be the root of the problem of the Health Care Crisis. I hope you read it and pass it along.

Dear Mr. President:

During my shift in the Emergency Room last night, I had the pleasure of evaluating a patient whose smile revealed an expensive shiny gold tooth, whose body was adorned with a wide assortment of elaborate and costly tattoos, who wore a very expensive brand of tennis shoes and who chatted on a new cellular telephone equipped with a popular R&B ringtone. While glancing over her patient chart, I happened to notice that her payer status was listed as "Medicaid"! During my examination of her, the patient informed me that she smokes more than one costly pack of cigarettes every day and somehow still has money to buy pretzels and beer.
And, you and our Congress expect me to pay for this woman's health care? I contend that our nation's "health care crisis" is not the result of a shortage of quality hospitals, doctors or nurses. Rather, it is the result of a "crisis of culture", a culture in which it is perfectly acceptable to spend money on luxuries and vices while refusing to take care of one's self or, heaven forbid, purchase health insurance. It is a culture based in the irresponsible credo that "I can do whatever I want to because someone else will always take care of me". Once you fix this “culture crisis" that rewards irresponsibility and dependency, you'll be amazed at how quickly our nation's health care difficulties will disappear.

Respectfully,
STARNER JONES, MD

And so it goes......