Thursday, November 14, 2013

Propaganda in Medical Schools

An EPJ reader writes:

I am currently a Medical student at a very well known Medical School in the Mid-Atlantic, I would prefer to not say which one[...] One issue is our school gives many one-sided presentations on why government intervention in the health care market would be a great benefit to all, especially doctors.  We have been given presentations on how single payer systems would fix all our problems and the need for the expansion of the FDA among others. 

6 comments:

  1. Glad you are awake. Now wake up just two of your classmates

    ReplyDelete
  2. I hope your reader is sowing seeds of dissent amongst his fellow students and directing them to this blog.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Along with all the nutritional propaganda courtesy of the government, e.g. saturated fat is BAD! Cholesterol is BAD! Eat your grains, red meat is bad, eggs are bad! All BS!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Here is something to ask your professors. How do they think Americans, especially the elderly, disabled and workers with great health insurance (namely union members, professionals and government workers) deal with the way huge reduction in benefits? The government has no means to offer the kind of insurance benefits these groups have to the masses. Its just not feasible even for our financially reckless government. Right now the government is back pedaling on its health insurance scheme to satisfy a small group of vociferous citizens. If they can't take that kind of heat, how on earth are they going to have the political fortitude to deal with the dissatisfaction of at least 40% of the population that will be extremely upset with the lesser benefits and probably greater cost.

    Keep in mind that many proponents of single payer think that medicare represents what single payer healthcare would be like in the US. That is where they are very, very wrong. Medicare is exceptionally generous to its beneficiaries and is far more liberal in spending, especially end of life situations, than any socialized system on the planet. We don't have the resources to fund the current system, let alone an expanded version of it. Medicare is exactly how not to run a socialized system -- that's because its a political tool for buying votes. A single payer system would be more similar to medicaid at best.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Guys, don't worry I have been fighting the intellectual battle while in school. Most of my peers see the morality and logic in the libertarian arguments. There is a clear reversion back to the old way of thinking from time to time, however, they are clearly incapable of denying the morality and logic. Most of the presentations we receive actually make it easier to explain the libertarian philosophy as the presenters have not through out their arguments well and have essentially no answers to the big questions and their arguments are fundamentally flawed with respect to logic and morality. Thereby, making it easier to point out the benefits of zero government intervention. There will be at least 2 really solid seeds planted every year, guaranteed.

    The professors, on the other hand, are basically a waist of time. They are too set in stone sitting in their Ivory Towers, most are the opposite of open minded as they have never experienced the real world and seen the horrors of government. Further, they incapable of observing the inefficiencies of bureaucratic monsters as they see no need to be efficient, as they are academics.

    ReplyDelete
  6. The only good thing to come out of single payer would be that chronic cronies like Stephen Hemsley would have to find some other sector to bleed dry. No consumer, and certainly no doctor, would benefit from it in the long run.

    I would encourage the med student to ask professors for an explanation of how something like CMS's mandatory RBRVS system benefits doctors. At least with our current crony-based system, providers don't have to accept Medicare patients, and if they can aacurately know and document their cost of services they can still negotiate RVUs with commercial payers. Imagine trying to do that with CMS--or single payer!

    ReplyDelete