Thursday, June 25, 2009

Solid Principles

A very nice gentleman from Australia contacted me recently asking me if I would submit to an interview regarding Obama's health care plan as handed down from on high at a Green Bay, Wisconsin event. I did the interview with him and he disguised my voice and put together a very interesting piece. I sound like Sandy Squirrel from Sponge Bob but that's fine. You can check out the interview at this link or you my download it from Itunes starting tomorrow. Interested in your take, but beware, I do go on a bit and the whole thing is about 35 minutes long. Thanks to Mr. Edwards for the opportunity and please check out his site (Solid Principles, linked above).

911doc

34 comments:

  1. That was great to hear (once I got used to the sound of your voice). I wish your perspective could make it out to the MSM -- you are absolutely right that we never hear doctors' voices in this "discussion." I was thinking about distributing this interview to my liberal friends and family so they could hear another point of view, but then I sadly realized that reality doesn't count for them unless it matches their desires. Too bad for us.

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  2. Just to let you know, this has can now be found at iTunes http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=319760854

    Episode 3

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  3. before i blow my top and start cursing can someone verify the following as sent in by a reader?

    Dear MDOD

    This is really really weird, and I have to share it. I only caught the end of the Diane Sawyer Obamacare informercial but I'm glad it flopped. The one full answer I did hear was to the final question in which Obama responds to a suggestion that those in administrative positions who will be displaced by the streamlining of our system be immediately retrained to provide primary care as NPs and PAs.

    That's all. Take it for what it is. We're fucked.

    Here's the transcript:
    Q Dr. Tim Johnson, our medical editor. We started this with you outlining the parameters of this. Observation?

    Q Observation would be, if you're successful in getting rid of some of that 30 percent of unnecessary care, you're going to dislocate a lot of people. Now, some of them are criminals committing fraud and they ought to go to jail, but a lot of them are real people with real jobs. Why not, right now, start talking about retraining these people for primary care jobs -- nurse practitioners, physician assistants? I hear no talk about that.

    THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think you make a reasonable point that if you're going to change this health care system over time, then, to be very specific, the amount of person power that goes into billing, administration -- all the things that we hate about the health care system, even though those are wonderful people who are doing great work -- they're over time hopefully going to be moving into the actually providing care side of the health care industry as opposed to the bean-counting side of the health care industry.

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  4. 911DOC: Let me see if I understood you correctly on that last bit: The power tripping front desk Nazi won't be needed because of the fantasized reduction in paperwork and so will be retrained as a nurse or physician's assistant? WTF is even remotely reasonable about that idea? How's that going to save money? How's that even going to work?

    I'm thinking of a receptionist I know who doesn't even make a good receptionist. Completely lacking in any sort of people skills and not overly bright. Oh yes, please give her a syringe and a sphygmomanometer. Are they planning on reducing demand by scaring people away?

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  5. well peggyu that's my question. did this exchange actually happen? if it did then i will comment and it will be profane.

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  6. Perhaps the displaced admin people could be put to work, collecting the money from ER users, or overseeing the community service reqirements?

    (slight tongue in cheek, there)

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  7. The exchange happened.

    Just goes to show you how much Obama understands the health-care field (and it should scare the wits out of anyone who supports HIS reform....unfortunately those people must have no wits to begin with).

    It also shows how much Tim Johnson understands the actual practice of medicine these days! What a boob.

    If you retrained a clip-board Nazi to be a useful healthcare worker, would there be a class on how to work in comfortable shoes?

    ---------------

    Hey, maybe I could reform the legal system! I see a lot of things I think are wrong. I have the necessary qualification in that I don't really understand it. I could assemble a whole group of "experts" with impressive titles and no practical experience and I know I'd have no trouble finding hundreds of "sob-story exceptions" to concentrate on rather than tell any of the millions of success stories. I could hire firms to set up focus groups and write sound bites for me to get the wit-less on my side. They make it look so easy......

    -85

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  8. I used to work in a lab...I have quite a bit of clerical experience under my belt...Does this mean I can be a PA now because that sounds really cool...

    I can learn the skillz with on-the-job-training. Screw school.

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  9. I love you 911doc. I wish you were my uncle.

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  10. Giving credence to Tim Johnson's idea of retraining non-patient medical care providers which somehow will be "free at last" (and thank God almighty) under a Government system which offers NO tort reform wasn't my favorite part of the infomercial.

    That moment came in the form of question from a neurologist who asked the world's greatest orator about whether he'd be happy placing HIS family's care in a government run system where healthcare was rationed for the good of the whole (Socialism 101). Here was his rambling non-answer (um's and ah's deleted in the interest of time).

    "I think it's a terrific question, and it's something that touches us all personally, especially when you start talking about end-of-life care. As some of you know, my grandmother recently passed away, which was a very painful thing for me. She's somebody who helped raise me. But she's somebody who contracted what was diagnosed as terminal cancer. There was unanimity about that. They expected that she'd have six to nine months to live. She fell and broke her hip. And then the question was, does she get hip replacement surgery, even though she was fragile enough that they weren't sure how long she would last, whether she could get through the surgery. I think families all across America are going through decisions like that all the time. And you're absolutely right that, if it's my family member, it's my wife, if it's my children, if it's my grandmother, I always want them to get the very best care. But here's the problem that we have in our current health care system, is that there is a whole bunch of care that's being provided that every study, every bit of evidence that we have indicates may not be making us healthier."

    I know Bush was terrible in public speeches, but I don't think Obama is any better. At least I knew what Bush meant, and I knew Bush meant what he said.

    Without his teleprompter, Obama can't form a coherent argument at all, but he can obfuscate better than anyone.

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  11. If you retrained a clip-board Nazi to be a useful healthcare worker, would there be a class on how to work in comfortable shoes?

    That sort of shit gets done all the time in public education.

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  12. They call it "continued education", and teachers get to partake of these sorts of classes during the summertime. This guy's description should give you some idea of the crap they have to put up with.

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  13. I loathe professional development classes, at least in my district, as I seldom actually learn anything. And I just got a new job where I have to 40 hrs/yr. of this crap (old job was 18 hrs)

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  14. My wife is a teacher. It's amazing the time and money that's wasted with "professional development" and "in-service".

    She has yet to learn anything useful even after almost 20 years in the classroom. She and her friends have finally just learned to take puzzle books & their Kindles, sit in the back, & collect their paychecks.

    This Spring, she was paid to attend a mandatory half day "in-service" on a Saturday to get her room assignment and class schedule for her Summer school kids! (sure, they also went over grading & stuff...which was no different than during the regular school year).

    All of this could have been done in a 1 page memo freeing up a Saturday, and more importantly FREE to the taxpayers!

    But I'm not complaining. I loved that extra $20 in the bank account (actually I enjoyed the 1/2 day of quiet).

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  15. erdoc85: I would love to zone out, but I'm a lip reader, so I'm always afraid I'll miss something. I do zone out and play Tetris on my Iphone, though, and one of my friends will throw a post-it pad at me to give me the heads-up.

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  16. I guess there are worse things to have thrown at you than "post its"!

    Every time I try to lip read, I'm convinced that the words "cottage cheese", "squirrel", "red bandanna", and "Napa Valley" end up in the sentence.

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  17. The squirrel wearing the red bandana enjoys a Napa Valley wine with his cottage cheese.

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  18. Last time I read one of my partner's lips, I could have sworn he said: "that squirrel in the gyn room from Napa Valley has so much 'cottage cheese' oozing from her happy hole that she has a red bandanna stuffed in her shorts".

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  19. There are three parts to lip reading: 1) Wishing people would floss 2) reading lips 3) syncing what you thought you saw with what if would be reasonable for someone to be saying. This last part is tough going with some morons.

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  20. here's one for you dev and all you aspiring lip readers out there. mouth the words, "i want a fudgesicle (sp)" to someone and see what they say.
    always aiming for the gutter.
    911doc

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  21. Also tough in my line of work.....many of the folks don't have teeth! Many of their words look something like "gumbo", "Gumby", or "Bubba". (That last one they probably ARE saying a lot).

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  22. Cool experiment 911.

    I tried it and a dude dressed like the plumber from the Village People slipped $100 and his phone number into my pocket!

    I think he said that he wanted a fudgesicle too, 'cept I think he wanted his with "corn holders" or something like that.

    I'm on my way to WalMart now........

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  23. dear anon 6/26 I AM A GAY ROBOT

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  24. http://www.noisebot.com/communist_obama_t-shirt.htm

    Check the shirt! Required part of the MDOD underground army uniform.

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  25. 911DOC, every voter in America needs to hear your interview. Why oh why is the public so ignorant on this?

    Transcripts of the ABC crap:
    Part I
    Part II

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  26. DaffyDoc...I mean 911Doc,

    Great interview. Sadly, I really don't have much more to say today. Probably for the best.

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  27. H,Y

    Good question. They're ignorant because it's a very complex issue. There are so many factors involved and so many consequences that it boggles one's mind.

    The politicians try to make it sound so simple that people gravitate to to the simple answers and believe these amazingly impossible promises.

    It baffles me why anyone believes a politician in the first place. Even if their intentions are good, by the time a bunch of bureaucrats get involved in writing "policy" and "law", it will never be what was promised.

    I fear that they will rush through a health care bill without reading it just like they did the stimulus bill, because it's "an emergency". Unfortunately, there's no viable 2 party debate in Congress right now, and any changes in health care will have very long-lasting effects.

    Before we overhaul the best healthcare system in the world, I hope the public demands an honest appraisal of the unintended (or veiled intended) consequences.

    911's interview is spot on. I only regret that he had to have his testicles removed for the discussion. I hope they were able to successfully reattach.

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  28. Funny how one gets used to that squirrely voice after 20mn.
    Of course,it would make sense to have on board the people who actually do the job (ie physicians)when discussing the Health Care Reform, but insurance companies have more lobbyists and financial clout, so they win.
    One question though:
    Will the Health Care Reform dictate what kind of treatment/tests are acceptable for a given illness/symptom? If so, on the one hand it probably would be a disaster - even though private insurances already use that red tape method - but on the other hand, wouldn't it save you from many malptractice lawsuits?
    If you can't do Test A because you are told it is neither covered nor authorized, and your patient dies because you did not do Test A, does not that take you off the hook?

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  29. dear amy65c,
    i have heard no mention in the debate about tort reform. if there is anything like it in the bill then i would be surprised. and as to how particular test or treatment regimens will be doled out and 'approved' may i direct you here...

    http://docsontheweb.blogspot.com/2008/03/can-i-get-prior-authorization-to-kick.html

    only the person on the other end will be a 'retrainee' who failed at clipboard carrying.

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  30. No, no, no. :-)

    This is how it already is now.

    How much worse will it get?

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  31. Well, it looks like we won't have a chance to see what is in this bill before the house votes on it.

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  32. Jan 23, 2009 Obama said: “My Administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government”.

    Maybe Pelosi didn't get the memo? Or, maybe she was briefed on it by the CIA so she wasn't paying attention!

    I know you can't be surprised PeggyU.

    They don't WANT anyone to read it.

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  33. Wonderful interview....helium voice not withstanding. Can we make this mandatory listening for anyone who wants to do ANYTHING with health care policy???

    Interesting...back when we were in the Army [and by "we" I mean DH and I, both of us were Army Officers a million years ago..] the clinic on post (European Theatre) got tired of the bs evening and holiday visits, and started charging $2.00 (two whole US dollars) for all visits during "off" hours. Visits dropped about 45%,,,suddenly the colds and rashes could wait for the next clinic day, and two bucks was nothin' if your kid had a 103 fever!

    My last job in Florida was as a nurse discharge planner, and I therefore had occasion to look at financial statements in the Business Office. Amazing the number of Deborah Peals and Jose Garcias who had totally no income. The hair weaves, cell phones, and airbrushed nails were always a "gift" and they lived with an anonymous "friend". Sure. And I am a size 2 member of Mensa with 17 billion in the bank in the Caymans--take my word for it.

    Keep fighting the good fight...please. Otherwise I'd think I was the only crazy person in American who believes in personal responsibility.

    Pattie, RN

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