I am sure that County Health Officer Peter Beilenson, Victor Broccolino, Ken Ulman, and others have nothing but the best intentions for the health care choices available to County residents, but the recent criticisms of so-called “concierge medicine” that these guys are making are completely misguided and ignorant:
"I understand these physicians' motivation -- they all want to provide better patient care," Broccolino said. "But I am concerned about this trend and its long-term consequences for the general public."
Dr. Peter Beilenson, county health officer, echoed those concerns. He said he knows most of the physicians involved in these conversions and was confident financial gain is not their motivation.
"But I really have a problem with concierge medicine," he said. "It will stratify health care and then only the real 'haves' can continue to get the best care."
Ken Ulman was later quoted in the same article making similar statements.
What these folks are saying is that they would rather see everyone get mediocre health care than to allow some people to get exceptional health care. Concierge medicine is a way of segmenting the market between those who expect to need a high degree of care that they are willing to pay up front for, and those who do not expect to need a lot of medical care and would rather pay as they receive medical services. To say that this is somehow elitist is completely ridiculous. Does Beilenson and friends think that it is elitist that some people who watch a lot of movies join Netflix, whereas others have to rent movies one by one from iTunes? Concierge medicine allows doctors to spend more time with those patients who demand it.
Health care is expensive. The reason it is expensive is because of politicians like Ulman and health care experts like Beilenson and Broccolino who think that heavily regulating the health care industry makes patients better off. If either of these guys know of a way of giving everyone top notch health care at rock bottom prices, I would like to hear how they plan to do it. Otherwise, all three are acting like ignorant politicians when only one of them has an excuse for that.
2 comments:
Ditto. Once again, you've hit the nail right on the head. This is all part of a mentality that nobody should have something better than somebody else. All outcomes in life must be equal. It's called socialism, and this recent election is an indicator that (apparently) that is how the majority of citizens want this country to be run, unfortunately.
If the capitalists would stop hitting on taxpayers via elected officials who those same capitalists paid to have elected, then we might have a chance to stop the rampant "all must be equal" mantra.
Also, Obama has Bush to thank for his new position.
None of them support capitalism. We have the party of tax-and-spend, and the party of tax-and-borrow.
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