INTERESTING TIMES

The Oregon Association of Naturopathic Physicians is one of the best state associations for my profession. Ever since the ACA was passed they've been working to force insurance companies to cover ND primary care in the same way that they cover MD primary care. I'm happy to hear that they're going after this particular company. If a licensed ND provides basic medical care in a competent fashion, that care should be covered just the same.

I do have mixed feelings about the ACA and negative feelings about insurance in general. I wish that we had a different system.

Link to press release: http://c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.oanp.org/resource/resmgr/Docs/Lawsuit_Press_Release_FINAL_.pdf

Apparently 39/50 states have laws protecting the licensed apologizer. To find out if you are safe to say you're sorry, google your state name and "apology law". Here in Oregon, licensed medical practitioners may express regret and make direct apologies when it feels right. I am glad. I want to be able to communicate openly with my patients, and not to feel that I am constrained by risk of liability. If I make a mistake I'd rather talk it through than clam up in fear.

There is a neverending discussion in the medical world about malpractice suits. Doctors who take the time to talk to their patients, and actually care and connect, are not the ones who get sued. Hurried docs who treat the patients as unimportant are the ones who earn malpractice suits from regular people. Of course there are exceptions. There are a few patients who simply wander through life looking for someone to sue; you can't do anything about them except pass them on, and not to a good friend...

MORE INFO
http://mississippimedicalnews.com/legal-perspective-the-ongoing-debate-over-apology-laws-cms-959
( The Oregon law )

This is today's headline in the business section of the local newspaper, The Oregonian. The sectors that took the biggest hits were finance and managed care. This supports my conviction that Obama will serve big business interests less than Romney would. Suits me, even though my tiny retirement fund is shrinking again.

Repealing Health Care
http://edsteinink.com/2012/07/11/repealing-health-care/
Posted on July 11, 2012
by Ed Stein

This just in: the House voted to repeal the new health care law. That is, the Republicans in the House went through the fruitless exercise of once again voting to do something the Senate has no intention of going along with. This makes sense for Republicans, because it must be really embarrassing for them that Obama managed to pass a law that was almost entirely their idea. The whole notion of the mandate to buy health insurance was cooked up by the Heritage Foundation and endorsed by Mitt Romney when he gave Massachusetts citizens nearly universal coverage. It’s really funny to hear them denounce it all now as a big government intrusion into our lives, and as a–gasp!–tax, which nobody thought to mention until he Supreme Court decided that’s what the penalty for not buying it really is. What troubles me most about the repeal effort is that I don’t hear any Democrats asking the obvious question: WHAT PART OF THE LAW DO YOU WANT TO REPEAL? The part that allows your kids to stay on your plan? The part that prevents insurance companies from denying coverage for pre-existing conditions? The part that ends lifetime limits on coverage? The part that closes the donut hole in Medicare? The part that prevents insurers from kicking you off your plan if you get sick? The part that establishes the state insurance exchanges (another Republican idea)? Or is it just the part that Obama passed it and not Republicans.

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/
There's truth here. And a nice business idea.

At least, that's what I heard on the radio. Whenever I hear that "Everybody" says something, I am immediately suspicious. Everybody? OK then, what jobs do we want? Jobs with health insurance, and a paycheck, right? How about a desk, a telephone, and a computer? A window? A coffee maker? Boy now we're talking about the kind of job I could go for. But is that really what we need? I mean WHAT DO WE NEED?

I think we need a bunch of adventurous entrepreneurs to figure out what it is that we really need, and get busy developing the means of production. I went to naturopathic medical school because I see natural medicine as a sustainable and beneficial profession in which I can continue to serve no matter what the economic condition of my community. I am going to offer my assistance, and I trust that my knowledge and service will be of adequate value to allow me to live a good life.

I don't want a job!!! Jobs for me have been dead ends, places where I can get comfortable while my life drains away doing someone else's work. When do I get to do MY work? To be creative? To do my good for the world?? I saw this culture headed for the brink a long time ago. And it's still headed that way. I want to create a window to a better future.

What do we really need after all? A safe and comfortable place to call our own. It doesn't have to be fancy. We all need shelter, somewhere to keep our pillow and toothbrush. We all need fresh water, and good food, and we all need touch and love. That's about it! Jobs and insurance are figments of this paradigm that's headed for the drink.

( today's news: U.S. poverty rate rises to 15.1 percent, number of uninsured Americans hits record high  )

Cardiac devices. Yep. Most of them are covered by insurance. All those fancy gizmos that they are so eager to install in us, whenever we have a little heart trouble, those gizmos are increasingly suspect. The situation has gotten so bad that the GAO is pushing the FDA to take a more active role in overseeing devices used by the cardiac care medical industry.

During the period covered by the report ('05-'09), medical-device makers initiated 3510 device recalls, which cover everything from "field corrections" to revised labeling to retrieving a device from customers. The agency categorized about 83% of these recalls as class II, indicating the devices may cause temporary adverse health consequences, and 14% as class III, indicating the device is not likely to cause any adverse consequences. Only 4% were class I recalls, deemed by the FDA to have a reasonable risk of causing serious adverse health consequences or death.

During this time, cardiovascular devices were the most commonly recalled products: 532 recalls, making up 15% of all recalls during this period, while the 40 class-I recalls of cardiovascular devices represented 31% of all class-I recalls in the period. The largest number for cardiovascular devices involved automatic external defibrillators.

The next most common category is radiological devices, which accounted for 484 total recalls but only two class I recalls, followed by general hospital and personal-use devices, which accounted for 388 recalls overall, including 31 class I recalls.

SOURCE
http://www.theheart.org/article/1244193.do?utm_campaign=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_source=20110627_EN_Heartwire

It's going to pass because Kucinich signed on. I've become more amenable to it myself though I still chafe at being required to purchase insurance from any provider. In the current version of the bill I will be coerced to pay a private insurer. But at least Obama is going to strip away some of the tax advantages of insurance companies. Even out the playing field as it were. At this point I hope they get the government insurance "public option" plugged back in, to further strip away the power of the insurance companies. I know it's very unlibertarian of me, but I am a compromiser for the greatest good for the greatest number of people. So mote it be.

We are at the point now where this has become the classic legislative process of trying to get a fig leaf that everyone can hide behind. And I don't want to do that.
--Lieberman

This man is part of the solution. Freed of adherence to either party line, he can do what he thinks is right. We need more representatives who are willing to play the rascal.