Posts Tagged ‘healthcare’
Healthcare: a Christmas Present of Epic Proportions
December 20th, 2009 | Author: Philip Miller
Half a loaf? No, worse. Here is your pre-Christmas present — a big lump of coal.  Let me simplify and make clear my assertion. You are ill, in need of medical care.  You want the best.  Whose wise counsel and help do you seek?  You want someone who is sympathetic, skilled and competent.
Dr. Howard Dean
Political HealthCare
This debate has never been about Health.  Certainly not your health. For the last six months I have steadfastly maintained the large insurance racketeers will not lose this one.  They have thrown all their money into the ring. It has paid off handsomely. Their paid surrogates have performed well. Like their Wall Street kin, the pirates have won again.  Robert Reich pulls no punches:
In other words, the private insurers are winning and the public is losing.
Pharmaceutical companies are winning as well.
end game or round 2
July 24th, 2009 | Author: Philip Miller
It has come to this. This deadline will come and pass. It will not be met. What happened?
Strategically, to frame health care reform as the defining and pivotal achievement of this administration was a setup. The new administration entered under a wave of jubilation and hope. I shared these sentiments.
In 1964, Lyndon Johnson entered the office of the presidency with a mandate for change. A mandate to finish what had been started in the three previous years under an inspiring but a feckless young president. Johnson was the consummate politician. He knew how to twist arms. He knew the Senate intimately. As so aptly put by Linton Weeks of NPR:
President Johnson was famous for staring down, shaming, cajoling, strong-arming, coaxing, sweet-talking legislators into doing his bidding. Johnson spoke directly to lawmakers. Sometimes very directly. Through manhandling and manipulation, Johnson was able to push through legislation affecting public health for the elderly, fair housing, voting rights and other programs that brought sweeping social change.
Obama came in with a new agenda. This was to be the reincarnation of Martin Luther King or Mahatma Gandhi. Leading by example. Without rancor. But Washington is a shark tank.
Posted in Medical Politics, recent entries | 
Tags: antiaging, Health care, healthcare, medicare, obama | 2 Comments »
Medicine and Business
June 21st, 2009 | Author: Philip Miller
Our goal is not to save insurance companies money. A most nefarious lot.  Our goal is to solve problems and make you whole again. Healthier and happy.  That is the goal of functional medicine and Anti-Aging Medicine.  Optimal Health and Well Being.
There is nothing inherently wrong with medicine as a business. There is nothing inherently wrong with any business in America.  We still aspire to capitalist principles. What is immoral and repugnant is rapacious business.
First of all, physicians will tell you, “I’m a doctor, not a businessman.”  But the very few of us dinosaurs left in solo practice are running a small business. And it is not an insignificant small business.
It is apparent why a fellow physician was so discouraged when he spoke with a number of Senators and Congresspeople on Capitol Hill recently. Politicians are clueless about medicine.  Most people do not understand the complexity of medicine. Senators are absolutely clueless about related medical issues such as steroids and sports. In the end, most are only interested in self-aggrandizement and self-preservation.