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Selected Writings of Dr. Charles Phillips - Former Kaiser Permanente Physician
Please read all of this letter from Dr. Charles Phillips and if you have a chance see if you can make sure that all
elected officials, no matter what their party receives a copy. -
Dear George and Laura,
Thank you for the invitation that you sent for the President's Dinner on July 21st in Washington, D.C. And while I
don't have the $5000 for two tickets, I did appreciate being found so as to receive such a letter and a
personalized style that made me feel momentarily acknowleged. As an Independent, I get less mail than most
who are more formally aligned. You're probably picking up my name from a past registration. I am a Jeffersonian
in search of government for the people.
Now that our dialogue is open though, I do have to tell you that I am a fan of some of the things you are doing.
Saddam targeted 24 SCUD missiles - each on a separate night at about 3 AM - into Riyadh when I was trying to
run the ER of the leading hospital - the King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center. First the TV report
out of Colorado that missiles were on the way, then the choice of city next became clear on the screen, then the
popping off of two Patriots, then the boom of the poorly aimed SCUD in most cases, etc. And I became the
hospital's canary (yellow suit and duck tape) to test the air after each such explosion - sarin, mustard, etc. As a
non-Moslem I was expendable.
Saddam is forever thinking of mass destruction capacities. Mass graves of political opponents is a clue to
this. He needed to be replaced by someone who can help deliver a Bill of Rights for citizens of Iraq. (Freedom of
speech - like this letter to you is important in the Middle East - enshalla.) Ten years from now we will find out
whether more of the chemical weapons were stored in Syria or Iran; our delays in trying to wake up the UN
allowed Iraq camel time for transfer of materials out of Iraq or burying the same far below the sand. Don't stop
looking. Check unused waddis, they have softer soil; and look below each palace (the elevators also go down).
So you have done all right in this area. But in the health area of government you have been a complete
disaster! HMOs are abusing and killing seniors night and day. Your efforts with Senator Frist (a physician
morphed into a stock laden business man) and others to force more seniors in the HMO direction is either deeply
misguided or just premeditated evil. Rather that YOU go in without ID sometimes and be a recipient of an HMO,
as did Saudi Arabia's favorite King in one hospital. (Heads did not roll, but visas did.) See if you feel like a
subspeciated external customer" when you finally get seen - going home with your chest pain unresolved.
Your version of the Patient Bill of Rights is so awful that it is better nothing has yet passed out of the Joint
Conference Committee; patty cake penalties are a catalyst not a deterrent to greed. And why can't someone
remind the people that all these "rights" were once theirs and simply removed by the Kaiser-drafted HMO Act of
1973. So the debate is about restoring rights. Jefferson
noted that if politicians screw up enough government dissolves back to the people who always really have the
rights - push come to shove. And since you and the rest of the 1/3 of the country with a shoe string connection to
government can sue for wrong care, this is really a class question - potentate to peon. As a peon and a country
doctor, I object and thought I viewed my last caste system when I visited India. Do you see any parallel to the
Sunni minority ruling the Shiite majority in this health matter? You don't want to be the ace of spades on the health
care deck of cards.
It is really very simple. Patients who are run over by an HMO have must have the same rights to sue as drivers
who roll over in poorly designed Broncos. They also need the right to have a concurrent, duplicate of their own
records for instant second opinion, and the right to jump to another health plan when the first one forgets to test or
treat. Your own responsibility to keep HMO advertising honest through HHS, then CMS, then Medicare Plus
Choice, then Senior Advantage, and the desk of the person preapproving those same ads is clear - the buck
for false advertising stops on the oval desk. Kaiser Permanente, for example, is FOR PROFIT - the partner docs
getting over $100,000 in kickbacks each on a yearly basis for undertesting and undertreating; the ads you
approve say the opposite.
Since I can't come to your Presidential (kickoff campaign) Dinner for $5000, I thought I would invite you free to
my house for dinner a week before or after. I'm thinking of a cross cultural menu like lumpia and fries. We could
call it a business dinner so you could deduct Air Force One. I would invite Betty who lost her husband, Gary who
lost his leg, his wife Sharon who had to watch it and ran for Governor, Pat who lost her mother, Peter who lost his
child, Sandy who lost her near term fetus, Miguel whose Lyme Disease was missed, Vickie who lost her father,
Jupe whose cranial nerve was cut by an eager resident, Grant who was told he was terminal when he wasn't, the
family of the postman who died of Anthrax, Jerry's family who grieve for a man who couldn't get a GI appointment
for 8months until death did him depart, etc. You get the idea - extra chairs and all; gotta move the couch.
And you can't send any substitute - like Cheney to Reagan's funeral. Health is a big part of your discretionary
budget so big screwups are presidential in scope. Edwards and McCain had the right bill on patient rights, so I'll
check with them if you can't make it. Or we'll leave a chair for you and the light on. Turn left on Chance Avenue -
like take a chance on learning something new. (Kerry won't be invited unless he learns the difference between an abrasion and a war wound.)
Funny thing is, all these hurt patients and families want more than anything to make it better for the future for
others. So you won't need Zoloft after meeting them. Just be ready for a Saul to Paul epiphany experience -
translate that transculturally as needed. Then you better head back to the Beltway, our air in Fresno is full of the
smoke from San Francisco Restaurants (the Blue
Fox and others) and cars chugging up the seven hills only for the fun of going down the other side.
So, I'll keep working on the menu while I wait to hear from you. Sign a few non-health bills, and then lets talk.
Charles Phillips, MD - country doc CPhil49401@aol.com