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TechnoratiDear AMA: I Quit!
Dear American Medical Association,
I recently had the opportunity to read your response to the Senate Finance Committee proposal for health care reform, and it is clear to me that I cannot remain a member in your organization. Please remove my name from your membership rolls, effective immediately.
In reading the response, I was frustrated and disheartened by the fact that you couldn't get through the second paragraph before bringing up the issue of physician reimbursement. This merely highlights how the AMA represents a physician-centered and self-interested perspective rather than honoring the altruistic nature of my profession. As a physician, I advocate first for what is best for my patients and believe that as a physician, as long as I continue to maintain the trust and integrity of the profession, I will earn the respect of my community. The appropriate financial compensation for my endeavors will follow in kind.
I encourage the AMA leadership to read Atul Gawande's recent article describing how physician culture drives up the cost of health care without benefiting patient outcomes. At the heart of this problem are physicians who have a vision of themselves as money-generating profit centers rather than professionals serving the public good. The AMA represents, and encourages, this mindset with its single-focus on physician reimbursement over all other health care reform issues.
However, the most disappointing aspect of the AMA's response to the proposed health care reforms was the opposition to the public health insurance option. I simply cannot support an organization that opposes the public health insurance plan for my patients. Instead of advocating for patients, the AMA is supporting the private insurance industry, which has been a driving force in creating the dysfunction health care system we have today.
But this should not have surprised me: when health care reform has been necessary, the AMA has always stood on the wrong side of history. The AMA opposed the creation of Medicare in the 1930s, when it was first proposed as part of Social Security. The AMA opposed Medicare again in the 1960s, going as far as to hire an actor named Ronald Reagan to read a script to the AMA Auxiliary declaring Medicare as the first step toward socialism, and concluding with the statement that if Medicare were to become law, "One day, we will awake to find that we have socialism.... One of these days, you and I will to spend our sunset years telling our children, and our children's children, what it was once like in America when men were free."
That was 50 years ago ... and none of that has come to pass. And yet this year, the AMA argues that a public health insurance plan will destroy the private insurance market. I challenge the AMA leadership to cite a single example of an industry where involvement by the government has lead to the elimination of private enterprise. This has not been the case with the creation of public police forces in the second half of the 1800's (private security companies still exist), we have a robust system of public and private colleges existing the same market, and bookstores still sell books despite the presence of public libraries. A mix of public and private enterprises in the market is a truly American solution to ensuring equal access, as well as competition to drive quality improvement. In fact, the creation of the public health insurance option will *increase* competition, as demonstrated by the AMA's own studies showing that 94% of health insurance markets only have 1 or 2 providers in the market.
It would appear that the AMA's position against the public health insurance market is driven by out-dated political ideology that blindly supports private industry rather than a careful examination of the facts of the current situation.
The AMA seems to be fixated on the fact that Medicare and Medicaid payments are lower than other payers. Let's go back to the history again: because the AMA opposed the creation of Medicare, physicians were not represented at the table when the system was designed. As a great policy wonk once said, "If you're not at the table, you're on the menu." And thanks to the dismal leadership and short-sightedness of the AMA in the 1960s, physicians were not a full partner in the creation of Medicare. And we're still feeling the reprocussions of that today. And yet now in 2009, the AMA is going to repeat that mistake by opposing the public plan.
The health care system is broken, and physician leadership is needed now more than ever to help direct the reforms that are desperately needed. However, the AMA has not shown itself to be the organization to provide that leadership in restoring the profession of medicine. New physician leadership is needed to fully achieve a reformed health care system that works for our patients and for our country.
Sincerely,
Chris McCoy, MD
51 Comments so far
Show AllGOOD MOVE, Dr. Chris McCoy, leaving the AMA behind, just as they have left us behind.
I'm old enough to remember doctors coming to my home, knowing the state of health of my family, and accompanying it. THEY were what HMO-speak today calls Primary Care Physicians
No need, however, Dr. McCoy, to apologize for wanting public health care by arguing that public policy does not harm private business. Because the Private Business Model for Health Care DOES HARM us!!
The Private Business Insurer "Health Care" is management, not care, and in the U.S. it damages our health, security and economy! And actively so. We get sicker, and poorer, putting a huge drain on the public coffers to compensate for the unnecessary deaths, diseases, lack of production and bankruptcy that result from Insurance Company ME-FIRST hypocrisy and highway robbery.
Besides this practice which makes physicians hand-maidens of accountants and bankers, keeps throwing shovelfuls of dirt on what's left of democracy.
Those take-it-to-the-bank "health" mafiosos are the ones who make Americans "not free." The People are not allowed to "sit at the table" of health care reform!! Just like Cheney did not allow(!) the Public to know how America's first "Public Energy Policy" was developed. That, my friend, IS dictatorship, dressed up as "Father Knows Best."
Our fight is to SAVE America from these folks, including the AMA!
Let us fight for -- and GET -- Single Payer public healthcare by making our case going through the FRONT DOOR, not apologizing for what we want and need and CHALLENGING the LEGITIMACY of the Insurance-Pharma-Financial lobbiosos
Ah, the irony of a trade union preaching the evils of socialism.
health care in the u.s. is mostly an oxymoron anymore.... for years i've found infinitely better care from acupuncture STUDENTS than i've gotten from ama docs... this guy's the 'real mccoy', it seems (sorry, just had to say that).... hopefully many others will follow suit and distinguish the difference between hypocratic and hypocritical and get past the pretensions and greed of a potentially noble profession in this country....and take on apprentices so that there are options besides the gouging med schools for students wanting to learn how to give decent health care. dang... where's this guy from? cuba or somethin?
Excellent letter Dr Chris McCoy to send to the AMA, and I appreciate the history lesson on the AMA.
Bunch of aristocratic, bourgeois, capitalistic, covetous, ... SELFISH brats! Associotion of [fiends].
Americans who still believe all of the fearmongering about people of other countries, Muslim ones anyway, hating the USA, "freedom" in the USA, its democratic (phantom democratic) system, etcetera and that this hate is to the point that we should really fear terrorist attacks in the USA again; NOW these [idiots] should realise that the AMA [is] a terrorist organisation, rather association, and it, as Dr Chris McCoy well explained, has been committing such terrorism against Americans for ... it will be a century in 20 years, now. Sure, it's not with attacks employing military weapons, for the AMA's terrorism is clearly economic, as well as political, working to try to make the government of the USA more dictatorial-corporatist than it already is; and this has likely lead to "excess deaths".
What they historically have been doing is like an attempt to commit genocide against Americans who aren't "elites", economically; an attempt committed by Americans who are supposedly ethical as professionals and who people are supposed to be able to [trust]. They took the Hypocratic Oath; hypocritcally, that is.
Their GREED is "enemy within" for Americans and many "elites" don't care, for whatever the best health insurance costs, it's a "drop in the bucket" for the "elites" anyway. It definitely is not even a barely, much less really, noticeable amount for them, albeit they'd surely write it off for income tax purposes, if they can or could (whichever of the two represents today's reality with their income taxes).
Literally terrorism; economic and political terrorism! I think that fits for an additional description of the AMA anyway.
Since the trend is to outsource our healthcare (non emergency surgery) to places like India and Thailand, I am puzzled by the AMA's attitude to health care reform. I would think outsourcing overseas would be a big concern to the AMA.
Medical tourism is growing. The major health insurers like Blue Cross and Aetna have already started pilot programs to encourage and incentivize patients to travel overseas for less expensive treatment. U.S. hospitals are also making investments in this new business model.
The whole thing is nuts. Americans don't realize the day is coming when offshore health treatment may become the norm. If the "for profit" insurers are allowed to control where our health care future goes, people need to understand their "in network" plan may include a 24 hour flight.
Just google medical tourism or outsourcing health care. When you read articles titled "The Future of Health Care: Outsourcing the Patient" it is startling.
Dear Dr McCoy,
I'm a primary care physician who left the AMA years ago, because they don't represent me. They are captive by the higher priced subspecialists. However, I note that you are an instructor at the Mayo Clinic. With all due respect, you have never had to pay the bills to keep a clinic open. My wife and I run a rural clinic that sees about 12,000 patient visits a year. We have 18 employees including the 3 doctors. We have 70% overhead, before any of the doctors take home a penny. My patients are my friends and neighbors. Please don't suggest that you care about your patients more than I do mine, just because I have to pay the bills that keep our clinic open. It sounds like academic arrogance. Walk a mile in my shoes first, please. By the way, I strongly support Obama's public option plan for healthcare reform. I do so even though Medicare only pays 2/3 of what the private insurances pay.
Thank you for your comments. I hope you are using nutritional medicine in your practice. If not, I hope you will contact JV Wright, M.D. in Tacoma WA to learn about it. 425/264-0059
This is how health costs will be reduced and physicians like you will flourish.
Oh, my - a physician who really wants to heal and help. Please, come to San Francisco - good climate, great food, many opportunities for excellent satellite practice opening, and, most compelling, overwhelming need for men and women like you.
Here's hoping that there are thousands more like Dr McCoy who will resign from the AMA over this issue.
As for his feelings about single payer, I see no hint one way or the other. He was responding only to the AMA's recently publicized position regarding the public option.
I feel strongly that single payer is the only means by which the system can truly be reformed while still providing the level of care to which Americans (so long as they have Cadillac insurance plans) have become accustomed. However, I think Dr McCoy is disingenuous when he faults the AMA's logic regarding the possibility that a public option might eliminate the private health insurance industry. Properly designed, I think that it most definitely would. Polls indicate that at least 40 percent of the public favor single payer, and it is fair to assume that the vast majority of them would "vote with their feet" and move to the public option. Many others would follow, and I'd venture that a majority of employer health benefit providers would move for the cost savings.
The private insurance industry adds NOTHING of value to the provision of health care. Being insured is NOT the same as having care, or even access to care. The mainstream media continue to conflate health care and health insurance, and allow pundits and guest experts to do the same. The fact is that insurance is totally inapplicable as a model for providing health care, and our system will continue to circle the bowl so long as it's held captive by the industry. Germany and Switzerland may have effective private insurance components to their systems, but only because they are strictly regulated and operate in an atmosphere of social solidarity. America has no such atmosphere, and our health insurance industry will withdraw from the business rather than accept strict regulation and the attendant limitations on their profits.
Finally, I agree with Gary A ... we will get no meaningful reform, because the public option will not be properly designed, but rather, and as usual, politically compromised so as to be totally worthless as policy.
A man of integrity!
The good news is that the American Medical Student Association is working toward removing the conflict of interests between Big Pharma, Medical Schools and the medical profession.
Check out their website: http://www.amsa.org/
Is the AMA a democracy?
Are they representing their members?
i watched a british car show and they measured drinking and driving vs smoking and driving.
people did not lose their reflexes while driving on pot . this was done on a race track
and under controlled conditions. it doesn't mean you should it means you can.
gary a this is not a new phenomena the wealthy have been exploiting the other groups
since money was invented.identify and then don't buy hit where it hurts in the wallet!
Sioux Rose
TELL: According to Carlos Casteneda's teacher, Don Juan, we all possess what he termed "a second attention." I call it instinct or intuition. Pot opens the door to that level of sentience and since most people only function on left brain logic, it's practically a revelation when this enhanced capacity for a far more holistic sentience takes hold. Pot assists, or should I say, opens that door. To me it's a sacred herb and I don't smoke on a daily basis like MANY people I know. I think that would take the sacred out of it; but if I need a clearer view of something, or as an assist in Yoga I like having a few tokes. I also think it's outlawed because if this form of awakened understanding REALLY took hold over people, they'd be less wanting to go to war or give their money to those who are ruining so many aspects of life (and ecosystems) here and abroad.
Huh?
I'll second that. Huh? Huh?
What problem with Medicare? I've been on Medicare for 21 years and had excellent care for a knee replacement, a ditto for hip, double pneumonia, life-threatening pulmonary emboli and ditto breast cancer. Now I'm a healthy independent 86 year old, despite my arthritis.
It's true that I could afford the increasingly expensive supplement to Medicare, which by itself covers mainly hospital care. If I didn't have that I would be up to my neck in debt. But Medicare gives me virtually complete choice of doctors and they don't have to ask any MBA working for an insurance company if I can have a test---or a treatment. Yes, I do know it's going to go broke and the system was designed when people were obliging enough to die a lot sooner. But if the government had half of what people are paying now for private insurance premiums and annually inflated drug prices---I think we'd be fine.
I can't say its true, but many years ago I read that the problem with Medicare was that LBJ wanted to pass it so badly that he let the AMA and hospitals write the rules. Dr. Cox says the opposite and he may be right, but the idea of corporations writing our laws for their benefit is not unknown.
Additionally, the monopoly power of doctors has to be broken. Doctors are getting worried that there will be no one to pay them. If they allowed colleagues to practice nutritional medicine, and learned from them, costs would plummet, the greedy would not be able to make the big bucks and, as Dr. McCoy calls them, the money-generating profit centers would mostly disappear. They would have much less to do.
BRAVO, Dr. Chris. How about opening a satellite medical practice in Vermont? We have a crisis in medical care here.
(Yes, it would have been better if the good doctor had used the words 'Single Payer' - but no-body's perfect.)
As a practicing physician and an observer of how Big Pharma lobbyists controlled the pharmaceutical bill such that it's greatest beneficiary is/was the pharmaceutical industry, not poor patients; how lobbyists for big bankers controlled, and continue to control, the banking bailout such that wealthy bankers, and not the poor dispossessed by their shenanigans, benefitted; how lobbyists for military contractors control military spending such that military industrialists are protected at obscene expense to the lower and middle classes, I've got some news for everyone:
When the dust finally settles, it will be health insurance companies and hospital corporations that are the greatest beneficiaries of whatever Obama finally accomplishes on health care. It won't be the poor or the lower and middle classes; they'll be the chumps.
How could things be otherwise? Bill Moyers recently explained that lobbyists for the "health care industry" - insurance companies and hospital corporatons - have spent about $500 million dollars lobbying congress in the past year.
Our representatives enjoy their jobs. If they don't bow to the will of those who fund their election campaigns, they're out of a job.
In the USA it's not one man, one vote; it's one dollar, one vote.
So just get used to it, folks. There's nothing you can do about it.
For as economist James Galbraith has shown in his excellent new book, "Predator State," wealthy and powerful corporations have learned how to manipulate the political process to fleece the poor and middle classes for the benefit of wealthy, powerful corporations.
Why should health care be any different than banking, military industrialism, etc.?
GaryA
Don't want to throw cold water on this story, but this doctor was NOT advocating single payer.
And as far as praise for his professional attitude toward patients, community and compensation - I thought all doctors took an oath to this effect. Even civil engineers ar supposed to hew to such ethics - maybe I'm naive, but that is what being a state - licensed "professional" is supposed to be about.
I see no way that merely having a "public option" is the least bit helpful. Comparing it to public libraries or public schools is comparing apples and oranges. The latter are actually publicly funded, this "public option" would be purely self paying, deliberately hobbled so it couldnt compete with private plans.
Attaboy Doc!!! Personally I think you should remain a member and work for change from within but I understand your reasons for leaving.
Thanks, Doc., good diagnosis.
The latest Ben Sargent cartoon also says it very well.
http://cartoonbox.slate.com/bensargent/
Thank you. You are a tribute to your profession.
The AMA (Acquisition of Money Association) has always been a Republican outfit dedicated to ransacking patients' wallets as they lie on the operating table under anesthesia. During the eight year reign of terror of the George Wanker Bush regime, they branched out into credit card and identity theft as well as new sources of entrepreneurial opportunity. This is what the AMA spends the majority of its time doing. For everyone else, take two Ibuprofen and call me in the morning.
as most insurance money is spent in the waning years of one's life, battling the conditions that threaten to end it, one might argue that a great enemy of conventional medicine would be the knowledge that better personal health maintenance throughout one's life, via diet and exercise and avoidance of known harmful practices (and, perhaps, engaging in healthy alternative ones), might lessen the need for expensive emergent care at the end...if you die in your sleep (or commit suicide, for that matter), neither you, nor your dependents, have to pay back the hundreds of thousands of dollars for the treatments insurance didn't cover, losing your (their) home in the process, even though the treatments only made you feel sicker, and you still died shortly thereafter, anyway...
oh, and as to marijuana...not only is it beneficial treating the symptoms of a number of conditions after they've arrived, it also does a great job of making the average day in a life just a little more warm and sparkly and special...and pot doesn't drag your brain and body down like alcohol, so you can still think and create and exercise...you can even eat it!
Sioux Rose
DUBET: This is my grass litmus test: drink a glass or two of red wine (I like one glass with dinner) and try to do Yoga. It's VERY hard to balance or hold a move. Contrast that with smoking one-third of a joint and execute the moves. Pot is GREAT for sustaining balance, and in my view that means that the left logical brain and the right side intuitive brain are in near perfect alignment. Decisions reached in that state of equipose tend to be good ones.
Ray Berthiaume
I've never heard that grass promotes balance! I'm so glad you are contributing to this site. (I am serious.)
Sioux Rose
RAY: I can't speak for others, far as I know no university study has been done with 30 young persons smoking a joint and executing Yoga, and 30 drinking two glasses of a decent red wine and executing Yoga and vigorous peer-reviewed observations thus tallied up. A few carpenters I know tell me they do better work under the influence (pot), and some of my best writing has come through via automatic dictation. I contribute to this site because having done hundreds of articles, radio & local television, as those venues closed off to me under the new rightwing takeover of media, I missed having a forum. So here it is! I hope I provide new insight(s).
As a once-upon-a-time mechanic, I can testify that being stoned and working at tasks requiring concentration and oraganization aren't mutually exclusive. Some of the best work, and some of the sweetest-running engines I built, were accomplished while "under the inflence". Having practiced Yoga and played with gymnastics, I can also say that both were enhanced after a toke or two. Balance is both physical and mental.
Sioux Rose
EMAHO: I was a high school gymnast and my 2nd daughter was AMAZING at it. I remember doing mushrooms in Gainesville and heading to the green fields of a cemetary to almost fly with tumbling! I wish I could that now!
last I heard, it was illegal to do any scientific studies involving marijuana...has that changed? seems to me marijuana dominated the contests the way Mark O'Connor dominated flat-picking and fiddling, or Michael Jordan dominated the NBA...no one else stood a chance...too bad about Bo Jackson's hip...that would've been a fun ride...
ha! and, for me, anyway, it's really great for longriding sex, too! Take that, Viagra...!
Sioux Rose
DUBET: Are you under 45? The guy I date can get pretty YIN on the peace pipe... it has a lot of estrogen in it, doesn't it? Or some simulator to that affect? I guess it depends on how comfortable a person is in their body, and how much they like the "preliminaries" of coming into Tantric synch with Other.
I'm aware that there's this rep about pot affecting male sexual performance negatively...all I know is, for me, it's kind of the opposite...helps me stay 'balanced' at just the right 'attitude' to go and go...I'm exactly 45, soon to be 46...truth be told, I'm kind of a sexually-oriented workout nut naturally, anyway, so maybe that's part of it...
Celebrate the living world!
Sioux Rose
DUBET: He's 44...
In any case, lucky you (and/or the feminine co-pilot)! And borrowing from Frank Zappa, "Would you trade what he has in his genes/jeans for what's behind this curtain? Let's ask our studio audience!"
It seems weed promotes neuron growth too.
http://news.healingwell.com/index.php?p=news1&id=528519
Sioux Rose
I wonder where holistic practitioners, chiropractors, and nutritionists stand on this? Will they be cut out of insurance programs? If these were written to provide a menu of service options so that the non-smoking vegetarian who prefers a holistic approach is given access to that option, rather than the conventional medical tests and drugs approach, it would be better than what no doubt is being not offered, but demanded by the big insurance firms at virtual political gun point.
And yes, it is refresting to see a doctor with some principles that transcend the profit motive. Dr. Robert Mendelsohn who wrote, "Confessions of a Medical Heretic" referred to the practice of modern medicine (in the U.S.) as a priesthood. He called it the Mdeity. I agree.
Hello Sioux Rose,
In Germany a friend of mine is paid by the national health plan to do massage. It can happen.
Sioux Rose
LAURENCE: Back in l997 I had a major car wreck and twisted my right ankle. I was very glad to learn that my CAR INSURANCE would pay for acupuncture on that leg. After the cast came off I had NO mobility in my ankle and I was afraid I'd walk with a limp and never be able to practice Yoga again. (I had gotten pretty good.) Thanks to acupuncture I got about 95% mobility back in that ankle and am SO grateful! I have often seen alternatives work, and even if I were diagnosed with a serious condition, I would make further modifications in my already pretty good diet to avoid surgery or drugs. There are very few big pharma drugs that are NOT recalled some years after they have drawn a huge profit, and the public at large has served as the actual guinea pig population that TESTS the efficacy (and side effects) of that "cure."
By the way, I love your screen name. It has a ring to it.
Wow. Dr Robert Mendelsohn. Haven't heard his name in years. He knew the real score in the underbelly of the medical monopoly.
Sioux Rose--your question is more than valid. It is central to the debate. During the campaign, on Obama's website there was a 64 page "manifesto". On health care he promised not to fund any "unapproved" therapy. That, in itself, was scary.
I believe the end result of this health care legislation, whatever form it takes, will be to eliminate all alternatives. Ironically, those "unapproved" therapies are often quite effective and relatively low cost. Basically, we're screwed. Everytime a nutritional supplement or non-patentable medicine is demonstrated to be effective (see pyridoxamine) the FDA declares it a drug and takes it off the market. In 1988 they got rid of magnesium orotate, including the sublingual form which could put anyone to sleep in 5 minutes. In the early 90's, people suddenly died from a contaminant in manufacture of tryptophan. A friend of mine was controlling his manic-depression with tryptophan and B6. Shortly after tryptophan was pulled from the market, Prozac appeared. Recently, Prozac went off patent and guess what, tryptophan is back.
Sioux Rose
CASSANDRA: Every day I ask myself if this is really America, and if I can afford to remain here. Every policy increasingly resembles something organized crime would execute. It seems that maybe the Chicago Mafia INVENTED Milton Friedman and decided to "go straight" by funding think tanks and university professors who advocated for a lawless kind of behavior dressed up as savvy capitalism, a new success ethos; and just to make sure that the public has NO other options, they began to utilize the "Chicago School" tactics (as powerfully depicted by Naomi Klein in her masterful book, The Shock Doctrine) which are blatantly criminal in everything BUT name (minus the law enforcement muscle needed to rope these practices into alignment WITH bona fide laws).
Can you imagine being forced into treatment programs like people lined up for foodstamps that are absolutely generic and all about cutting costs, but have deleterious impacts on your body, mind and spirit? It's the medical version of Soylent Green and it could be coming soon.
By the way I am not up on all the named drugs, I avoid them all like the plague. The only thing in my medicine cabinet is aspirin for a very occasional headache usually brought on by not eating enough or reading too much.
Congratulations and thank you, Dr. McCoy. While I was thrilled to read of your position in favor of patients instead of the AMA, I am heartbroken at the fact that yours is the first and only comment I have seen anywhere in print in such a vein.
It speaks volumes about what our medical profession is really chasing after - MONEY!!! FOR SHAME!!!
"As a physician, I advocate first for what is best for my patients and believe that as a physician, as long as I continue to maintain the trust and integrity of the profession, I will earn the respect of my community. The appropriate financial compensation for my endeavors will follow in kind."
A mostly excellent, principled stand by a doctor against the AMA, of the kind I was wishing for in other CD comments today. Let's see thousands more of these from doctors. Also very enlightening on AMA history.
Unfortunately, there's still a basic ideological focus here on:
"mix of public and private enterprises in the market is a truly American solution to ensuring equal access, as well as competition to drive quality improvement"
Therefore, for this guy, also, single payer is truly off the table.
In the fifth century B.C. Plato said that a physician who is primarily interested in money is not a physician. Apparently it takes some time for the word to get around. Thank you Dr. McCoy.
Physician membership in the AMA has decreased to lower than 19% of practicing physicians, according to Wikipedia. When even more doctors resign, these anti-health reactionaries will no longer have a platform, and the real majority of physicians (and of the American people) who favor single payer, will be impossible to ignore.
Is there an active program to lead doctors away from the AMA and towards more progressive associations? There should be, and Dr. McCoy's op-ed is a good start.
Thank you Dr. McCoy for finally standing up to this gross injustice.
The Medical Establishment(including BigPharma)is actually undermining the health of our citizens. Rather than doing no harm, they are profiting from pushing dangerous and obscenely expensive drugs rather than healthy life-styles. They profit from the misfortunes and ill-health of the people. An integral member of the Vampires, Parastites and Vermin of our society. It is very sad as the overall system damages the image of good doctors.
Bravo Dr McCoy!! Every bit as caustic as Bones. Thank you for filling out what I posted about the AMA. Perhaps a new organization named the American Healthcare Association can displace the very outdated and frankly reactionary AMA.
i wonder if this guy is taking new patients
i would like the surreal experience of visiting a doctor who is not "on the clock" and who is not functioning as a conduit to get big pharma candy into the hands of the public
if only this guy was the model........
Because I have issues with chemical sensitivities, I have been going to a naturopathic physician. He has spent quite a bit of time with me during several visits trying to get a serious excema outbreak under control. I have never felt pressure to finish with my case to rush off to the next patient.
People would have far less illness if they stopped using all that toxic crap to clean their house, their clothes ... and their body.
Americans need to wake up and realize that Big Oil, Big Pharma and the Chemical Industry are slowly killing us with all the toxins we pump into our environment every day.
I was laid off from my job and am no longer sitting in a fog of toxic Lysol that others in my office insisted had to be sprayed into the air in a small bathroom whenever someone used it. My skin problem started healing within two days of getting laid off.
Now the problem isn't just finding another job, but being sure that whatever I find isn't one that is going to poison me.
If they dont support medical cannabis they are frauds anyway
If you are a member of an organization that advocates that "health care reform" more closely resemble the biggest corporate welfare scam in history, it is your turn to follow Dr. McCoy's lead and depart from the offending organization pronto !
I quit the AARP when my membership came up for renewal in February and advised them that their support for the 2003 Medicare pharma extortion legislation and their support for a NO INSURANCE COMPANY LEFT BEHIND program in the current debate worked against the needs of a majority of their membership and I could no longer remain a member.
Corruption is like an infection. It requires a systemic "failure" to thirve.
The miserable conditon of health care in the USA is a result of not enough Doctors like this one, and too many of the 'others'---------------
After all, are not the Doctors the 'delivery personnel' for services? Without them, there would be not health care---whether anyone could afford it or not. So, if the Doctors have been participants for so long, they are as much to blame as anyone; and the beginning of reform should begin with the "delivery personnel"-------
On a personal level I lost respect for the majority of the Medical Profession long ago.
Good Luck America, you really need it.