WHO DO YOU TRUST

Philip Holder PhD.

Who do you trust to make your medical decisions: your doctor, or the government? This morning I was watching the news. An anti-drug group had lobbied politicians to change the classification of a drug called Vicodin. For anyone who doesn’t already know, Vicodin is a pain medication frequently prescribed by physicians for patients with severe pain that doesn’t respond well to over-the-counter drugs like aspirin or ibuprofen. As is usually the case, a group of politicians jumped on the bandwagon and are now trying to reclassify Vicodin as a class 2 drug, which would make it harder for patients to get and for physicians to prescribe. For decades I have said, “Getting the right answer to the wrong question is no more valuable than getting the wrong answer to the right question”. The legitimate question here is: Do you want your physician to decide what’s medically best for you, or do you want the government to decide what’s medically best for you?

After college, medical school, residency and untold hours of continuing education, not to mention tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars in college tuition and other training, the answer for me is clear… I would certainly rather trust a trained physician to make the decision about my medications rather than a government agency. Under what theory could anyone possibly conclude that the government is better equipped to make the decision about your medications then your physician? In the vast majority of cases, have you ever seen the government do something more efficiently and more cost-effectively than in the private sector?… I can’t think of many.

This Vicodin situation is not unique. It is emblematic of a bigger problem. When Obama care was being argued I told many colleagues and friends that it was going to be a disaster. With all the talk of cheaper costs without losing quality service, it was plain for any thinking person to see that this would not be the case. In Obama care’s stage as a bill, even those promoting it couldn’t tell you what was in it. The bill was so long and cumbersome that no one understood it then (You know what they say if you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bull …). It’s even more cumbersome now with exemptions, modifications etc.

Think about these two things. After years and years in school and thousands upon thousands of dollars in education, medical and health professionals certainly deserve to make at least a respectable living… Wouldn’t you agree? Secondly, with most things, supply and demand dictate value. (For example: There’s a lot less platinum on Earth than there is tin That’s why platinum is more valuable than tin.) Keeping both of these things in mind think about the following observations.

Government run healthcare is proving to become more complex, unmanageable, and expensive day by day. Medical professionals now incur more paperwork, less reimbursement leading to less income, greater liability, and greater expense in handling the paperwork. The bottom line is greater expense and greater liability with less benefit. Ask yourself, would you be enticed to go into medicine, or if now in medicine, would you be more inclined to get out of medicine in respect to direct patient care if after all those years and expense, you had greater exposure and less benefit? Many who otherwise would have been in the medical professions will choose not to be. When people are less enticed to go into the medical professions, and those in the professions move away from direct patient care, supply and demand will kick in. Through the principle of supply and demand, cost will then escalate. There are no freebies, it just comes down to who the government will shift the expense to. It will probably be you and I. While you are at it think of this… With the current trend in government regulation and more specifically Obama care, your healthcare records are now overseen by the IRS (Kind of invasive don’t you think?). As well, it has been revealed that often the ground-level people doing data entry etc. may have criminal records. They will see your private data.

Something to think about next time you go to the polls… Isn’t it.

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