I think that part of the problem is with the patients themselves.
I agree with you. Many patients don't take responsibility for their health care and the health care of their children.
Often patients will go to the emergency room (where defensive medicine is widely practiced due to malpractice liability concerns) without calling their primary care physician, or when such care is not indicated. An example is a child seen in the office where the parents are worried about an apendicitis, and the diagnosis is constipation. A treatment plan is explained...easy, and low cost "treatment" that can be handled by the parents. Not happy with the diagnosis, the parents head to the E.R., where after numerous tests, Sonogram, and CT Scan....they have the same diagnosis. (Only thousands of unnecessary dollars spent in a situation that is fairly common in children, and doesn't warrant a trip to the E.R.)
I was kidding about the mention of a tonsillectomy. Pediatricians do not do tonsillectomies, and they receive absolutely no financial "reward" for recommending a referral to an ENT to one of their patients. (Tonsillectomies are rarely recommended, and only warranted in specific cases.) For Obama to say that the Pediatrician sees a child with a sore throat, and that leads to his doing a tonsillectomy since he will make more money, only shows that Obama has no understanding of medical care. His remarks were insulting to every practicing physician who is working hard, and trying to
"do the right thing" for every patient seen.
The lack of addressing the issue of medical malpractice concerns is another issue which shows Obama's lack of insight into the costs of medical care. |
