Comments on: let the battle begin… http://1boringoldman.com/index.php/2009/01/08/let-the-battle-begin/ All Mickey, All the Time Wed, 23 May 2012 16:35:21 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.5 By: Mickey http://1boringoldman.com/index.php/2009/01/08/let-the-battle-begin/#comment-100950 Mickey Thu, 08 Jan 2009 19:59:40 +0000 http://1boringoldman.com/?p=2794#comment-100950 I was delighted that I changed Specialties when I did. As an Internist, I just wouldn't have been able to become "industrialized." I might have gone to that Zen Monastery that was part of my fantasy life as a young man. I could have lived with being the modest income doctor of my childhood or a salaried cog in a socialized medicine wheel, but I couldn't have made it as a businessman-doctor, part of the health care industry. Our profession allowed me to live on the outskirts of all of that, which is the only place I could have survived. As for privatization, it conflicts with my rule for living: "<strong>Never accept an invitation to go crazy</strong>." I was delighted that I changed Specialties when I did. As an Internist, I just wouldn’t have been able to become “industrialized.” I might have gone to that Zen Monastery that was part of my fantasy life as a young man. I could have lived with being the modest income doctor of my childhood or a salaried cog in a socialized medicine wheel, but I couldn’t have made it as a businessman-doctor, part of the health care industry. Our profession allowed me to live on the outskirts of all of that, which is the only place I could have survived.

As for privatization, it conflicts with my rule for living: “Never accept an invitation to go crazy.”

]]> By: Ralph Roughton http://1boringoldman.com/index.php/2009/01/08/let-the-battle-begin/#comment-100930 Ralph Roughton Thu, 08 Jan 2009 17:55:07 +0000 http://1boringoldman.com/?p=2794#comment-100930 It's proven over and over that free markets and private enterprise, without at least reasonable regulation, lead to a widening income gap and class division. We need to be honest about that and force those who advocate it to admit that that is what they're trying to bring about. We're now seeing the same thing in the health care industry (and I for one regret that health care has become "an industry" and that "business" dominates doctoring). We're on the verge of separating health care from job benefits, as more and more employers cut back on insurance coverage for their employees. The only answer is for government to take it over -- and I, for one, favor that in some fashion, like a single-payer, universal care system. But along with that, the privatization/ free enterprise mavens should have to admit that they failed. It’s proven over and over that free markets and private enterprise, without at least reasonable regulation, lead to a widening income gap and class division. We need to be honest about that and force those who advocate it to admit that that is what they’re trying to bring about.

We’re now seeing the same thing in the health care industry (and I for one regret that health care has become “an industry” and that “business” dominates doctoring). We’re on the verge of separating health care from job benefits, as more and more employers cut back on insurance coverage for their employees. The only answer is for government to take it over — and I, for one, favor that in some fashion, like a single-payer, universal care system.

But along with that, the privatization/ free enterprise mavens should have to admit that they failed.

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