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