A day in the life of a family doc. How much will this health reform package really help? And how can a civilized country tolerate the rhetoric of the Republicans and the Tea Party folks?
So I went to the office today.... I had to inform my first patient that she had breast cancer, allay her fears and worries, and lay out the plan for evaluation and treatment options. Then I had to chat with her husband and their fear that their life together would never be the same. Fortunately, this is early in her disease and she most likely will be cured.
Greeting my next patient, we spent a half hour together while he cried about the recent death of his wife. He showed me the first love letter he wrote her over 50 years ago and told me he could not get the vision of her lying in her casket out of his mind. That was just this morning.
These are difficult tasks, but after over thirty years in family medicine I find it to be a privilege to help and lend my strength and spirit at such times.
What I want to know is what the recently passed health reform legislation is going to do to help me do this service without worrying about the dysfunctional system I must function in and how I'm going to get paid and take care of my overhead and staff. It seems all the politicians in Washington think that practicing good medicine is something akin to repairing cars.
Then I have to listen to the Republicans and the opponents of health care reform. What planet do they live on? How can the proposal to pay for the difficult time I spend dealing with personal tragedies and life threatening disease get perverted into "mandated death panels" - and how can this rhetoric float not just among angry protesters but also be carried forward by experienced Congressmen? How can an incremental improvement in abortion restrictions for yet to be created lives trump any effort to extend health insurance and the benefits it brings to 30 million more Americans with the potential to save more than 30,000 lives of real living people each year? Where is their moral compass? How can their vituperative stand be considered moral or religious? How can the media stand by and just "report" this horrible rhetoric?
If you know, let me know.