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(USA) Medical Expert: ‘The Power Of The Doctor Is Becoming Subsumed By The Government’ 6/14/15 Daily

*GG*

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Concord, NH
As America hears of more doctors leaving the profession, the head of a patient-centered national health care organization based in St. Paul, Minnesota, sees both political parties in Washington making matters worse.


“Huge things are happening under the surface that people don’t understand,” says Twila Brase, a public health nurse and the founder of the Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom in this 33 minute video interview with The Daily Caller. “The power of the doctor is becoming subsumed by the government.”

America is moving, from Brase’s perspective, from the charitable human “mission of medicine” to a cold, sterile “business of health care.” Doctors face increasing “ethical dilemmas” as their Hippocratic Oath requires them to do no harm to their patient and keep confidence.

txt

She calls the secret newborn screening happening in every state without true parental consent “the baby DNA warehousing” issue. Few parents understand when blood is taken from their newborn and goes into the largest genetic testing program run by state governments. An expert on the controversial storage, use and dissemination of baby DNA, she frequently testifies and helps patients know their state laws with this website, ItsMyDNA.org.

cont'd


Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2015/06/14/m...ing-subsumed-by-the-government/#ixzz3dAG2uRhe
 

barbc56

Senior Member
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3,657
Our health care system is certainly not perfect, by any means. I think we could collectively write a book about this.

However, to keep things in perspective, The Daily Caller is a very conservative/libertarian news outlet which depending on your view of politics is good, bad or somewhere in between.

So I kept that in mind when reading and IMO, this expert is just too politically loaded.

Barb
 

alex3619

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Location
Logan, Queensland, Australia
Government is not the big issue in the US in my view, though it does not help.

There are two big issues here.

The first is, globally, doctors have surrendered their independence and authority, to a large extent, to those who fund them and managed health care.

The second is, depending on where you are, health is funded mostly by insurance or government. That insurance funding is a huge issue. Both dictate medical procedure, and both use bureaucrat methods to determine what is allowed.

Government is part of the problem, but only one part. The medical profession needs a plan, and then needs to act on it. In the end they may become glorified medical technicians, delivering third rate health care, if they do not act.

This is in a time with diminishing media scrutiny due to the slow demise of investigative journalism.

It was the managed health care and Maggie Thatcher who started things on this road.

Yet the government is following messages of economic management from the health management lobby. They are driving the bad advice. They are owned, funded or supported by managed health care and insurance for the most part. The governments, whether UK, US or anywhere, are becoming their puppets on health policy.
 

barbc56

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I'm not sure about other countries but the US spends a lot more than other countries per person on healthcare, yet many health statistics such as the number of infant deaths, etc. are apalling compared to other nations.

Barb
 

alex3619

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Logan, Queensland, Australia
I'm not sure about other countries but the US spends a lot more than other countries per person on healthcare, yet many health statistics such as the number of infant deaths, etc. are apalling compared to other nations.

Barb
Yes, the US achieves no better results on average than many countries with far cheaper health care.The US has a divided health care system though. If we separate what happens to those with no medical insurance, compared to those with at least partial medical insurance, or really good medical insurance, what happens? Its impossible to say with any certainty.

There is no question that aggressive monopolistic pricing occurs within some parts of the US medical system. The Times had a several part expose of it several years back. So far there is no indication of this being controlled or limited. This kind of thing may drive prices up and up without improving care.

The US hospital system also requires hundreds of times more clerks to manage insurance claims than, for example, Canada. A single reporting code system, standardized forms, would massively cut overheads for health care, and this includes individual doctors who lose days a month doing this stuff when they could be treating patients. Insane bureaucracy can be driven by private concerns, not just government (although government are really practiced at it).
 

WillowJ

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WA, USA
I'm not sure about other countries but the US spends a lot more than other countries per person on healthcare, yet many health statistics such as the number of infant deaths, etc. are apalling compared to other nations.

Barb

If we separate what happens to those with no medical insurance, compared to those with at least partial medical insurance, or really good medical insurance, what happens? Its impossible to say with any certainty.

It's also tricky because something that seems straightforward like "infant death" may be counted differently from country to country. Everyone counts things differently, from what counts as "overhead" to what counts as "cancer survival" to how old an infant has to be before it is logged as an "infant death". It's enormously complicated to try to compare health statistics from country to country. Some try to sort it out, but some articles take the numbers at face value and report those.

There are some studies that check different kinds of insurance compared to each other and to no insurance. Turns out Medicaid has worse outcomes even than having no insurance. Private insurance has best outcomes. No surprises. Roughly along the lines of usual health correlates like money and age (a lot of uninsured people are young adults, working, and healthy--though of course there are unhealthy people and other age groups in there, too).
 

JPV

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There are two big issues here.

The first is, globally, doctors have surrendered their independence and authority, to a large extent, to those who fund them and managed health care.

The second is, depending on where you are, health is funded mostly by insurance or government. That insurance funding is a huge issue. Both dictate medical procedure, and both use bureaucrat methods to determine what is allowed.
Don't forget pharmaceutical industry corruption.
 

alex3619

Senior Member
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13,810
Location
Logan, Queensland, Australia
Pharma doesn't set the rules, they just take advantage of them. Its a problem, and a major problem, but its a different type of problem.

Its surprising that Medicaid has worse outcomes, but in the theme I have been working on that the subgroup matters, who exactly gets Medicaid more often? This might distort the stats.

There is not much doubt that a few hospitals in the US and a few in Europe are the best in the world. IF you have the money. People come to these hospitals from all over the world.

This makes it hard figuring out US data. Average or best medical care, or no medical care?

If I had something difficult but conventional wrong with me, and I researched the best options in the world, a lot of those would be in the US. Yet if I were a US citizen, and had no health insurance, even getting inadequate free care could be a major issue.

The sad thing is though that this no medical system I am aware of that is not in some kind of crisis. While it might be difficult to pin down issues in individual countries aside from vague stats, I wonder if its possible to identify the main issues affecting the profession everywhere. I do think bureaucratization of medicine is a huge issue, and its global. Pharma marketing practices are also a global issue. What else?
 

barbc56

Senior Member
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3,657
Things are always more complicated than they may first seem. It helps sorting things by getting others imput. It doesn't always lead to solutions, if there even are any, but can certainty lead to insights.

I would add interest groups/lobbyists. I'm not sure if there are lobbyists or their equivalent in other countries, but here it equates money with power.

I would also add Big Pharma as well as Big Supp. Both groups have very powerful lobbyists groups.

Hope this isn't too political.

Barb
 

WillowJ

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who exactly gets Medicaid more often?
That's exactly what I was trying to say. The sickest and poorest patients have the worst outcomes. Medicaid concentrates these variables.


, I wonder if its possible to identify the main issues affecting the profession everywhere
I would guess so. At least some of the issues, then keep working on finding more.