Posted on 09/23/2009 6:06:34 PM PDT by Chickensoup
Physicians Are Talking About: The Million Med March on Washington
"I'm tired, mad as hell, and just not going to take it anymore," says Richard Chudacoff, MD, a gynecologist from Las Vegas. "I am going to Washington, DC. At noon, on Thursday, October 1, 2009, I will be on the Mall with a few other physicians."
Dr. Chudacoff is not talking about vacation plans. Rather, he intends to unite with other physicians in what he calls the Million Med March.
"We simply decided that we will not work that day and perhaps the day before and maybe even the day afterward," says Dr. Chudacoff. "Perhaps we will show the country that physicians are worth more than a $5 copay; that physicians are more important than a mid-level healthcare worker; and that our profession is needed, our services are required, and our practice is a calling to be respected, not a trade that is to be negotiated to the lowest bidder."
A letter posted by Dr. Chudacoff on www.obgyn.net in June has been spreading like wildfire across the Internet, finding its way to personal blogs, discussion groups, and professional forums. On June 23, it was posted to Medscape's Physician Connect (MPC), a physician-only discussion group, where it sparked a flurry of responses. A number of MPC postings suggest that Dr. Chudacoff will have plenty of company on October 1.
"Finally, something constructive," says a dermatologist. "I'll see you in DC on October 1. Some of the office staff, including our nurse, expressed a wish to be there too. Bring spouses and friends and anybody else who actually cares about healthcare in the US."
"I have cleared my schedule and plan to attend," responds a vascular surgeon. "I think this type of grassroots action, unaffiliated with hospitals, insurance companies, or the AMA, is likely to get the most sympathetic attention."
"This is the best proactive effort I have heard from physicians," says an MPC family medicine physician. "Actions speak louder than words."
"I can be there without changing my schedule," adds an anesthesiologist. "I was just terminated from my office-based practice where I have been for 7 years."
One physician's decision to take a stand and unite with his fellow colleagues has given doctors a simple way to show the public and elected officials that healthcare, for them, is not a political agenda. It is their life and livelihood. And in recent weeks, the partisan discussions in the Senate and House of Representatives on healthcare legislation have seemingly marginalized -- and at times even maligned -- physicians.
"I was for nationalized healthcare," says a family medicine physician, "but I thought that meant providing a safety net for needy Americans. But this monster of a bill is something quite different."
"Politicians and payers have turned our profession into a political football," retorts an anesthesiologist.
President Obama's recent tonsillectomy remark, in which he insinuated that doctors make medical decisions based on what they would be paid for a procedure rather than the best treatment for the patient, has further incensed physicians. "As a hard-working, conscientious physician, I am offended. It's like racial stereotyping. Only now it's about a group that is mostly overworked, tired, and saving people's lives," retorts a family medicine practitioner.
If the president is looking for greed within the healthcare system, Dr. Chudacoff suggests that he not take aim at primary care physicians. Chudacoff adds, "Medicine is going corporate, and we physicians are just flipping burgers so corporations have an improved bottom line."
Although fair compensation is an important issue among the organizers of the Million Med March, it is not the only issue. Medicine has become a toxic environment in which to work. Dr. Chudacoff underscores the situation. "Quality of care suffers with less time to see patients and less reimbursement received when we do see patients. We cannot do pro bono work as we have in the past because we have to see an ever increasing number of patients. This extra work is forced upon us when insurance companies, especially Medicare and Medicaid, constantly refuse to pay us in a timely fashion for our time and efforts. And then once we do see patients, our clinical acumen is stifled as we must follow a cookbook approach to patient care. It is time that we stand up for ourselves."
A vascular surgeon comments, "We can lead the way to real reform. Now is clearly the time to act, not just type."
On July 10, an MPC contributor and one of the supporters of the Million Med March launched a Website, www.millionmedmarch.com, to build support for the October event. The site announces a physician grassroots movement to re-establish honor, dignity, and worth to the medical profession. "The Million Med March movement has taken off, on so many sites, and within so many communities. Why now? The debate on national healthcare has forced this conversation, and this conversation has pushed us over the tipping point."
The mandate as stated on the Million Med March Website includes the following points:
Services must be adequately reimbursed so that we may spend more time with our patients and not be forced to see an unsafe number of patients to pay for increased business costs.
Less money must go into the hands of insurance companies' administrative costs, and more money must go towards patient care and medical research. We must abolish third-party payers or prevent a single-payer system for office visits and medical services; these services are costly to the patient, physician, and society as a whole.
Our patients need access to brand-name drugs that are as affordable in the United States as in Canada and Mexico. We must have medical malpractice reform, with caps on all damages, so that we can practice without the fear of needless and unwarranted lawsuits that only benefit attorneys.
Some MPC contributors voice concern that the Million Med March scheduled for October will occur too late to have any meaningful impact on healthcare reform. "The health reform bill is going nowhere," says an anesthesiologist. "Let's make a major statement between its failure and the next attempt to marginalize the docs."
A plastic surgeon adds, "Stand up for our profession and come to DC."
BETTER LINKS UPTHREAD
This is kind of like watching the French Revolution develop. Overtaxed, overworked, and ignored by the first and second estate. The first estate being the media and the second being the government.
Now marching, protests, pissed off town hall citizenry, and now everyone is getting riled up and doing something.
This is great!
I was wondering when the Docs and nurses were going to get moving. My sis and mom are nurses and they’re not very happy at all of the mis-information being thrown around by the Dems on this.
WOW!!!!
I Know I will pay for this comment later....but- this guy makes my nipples hard! GO GO GO!!!
I will be there in DC to join him....
Atlas shrugged, MD edition.
“BETTER LINKS!!”
Much better. Thank you so much.
Hank
I guess I won’t be there. My daughter is getting married on Friday, Oct 2.
I guess I won’t be there. My daughter is getting married on Friday, Oct 2.
Kleon, I am assuming your response is fecious and not to be taken seriously about “impoverished”. I am in FULL support of this march. People who criticize - just remember the years of sacrifice and study these doctors have gone through. The student loans to pay back. The occasional abusive patient and the occasional litgeous patient. And how about those monumental liability insurance payments. That’s to say nothing of some of the specialties that don’t give a doctor a full night’s sleep on many an occasion. I’m not a doctor, but I am a retired nurse. I am HUMILIATED at the token amount medicare pays my doctor for my annual physical. Unless an individual is totally selfish and blind, certainly you can see the exhaustion on many of the doctor’s faces today as they go about their job. If there is any way I can get to that march from Atlanta, you bet your bippie I’m gonna be there and take my family and/or friends with me. It’s a disgrace for the condemnation Obama has spoken in the past few months. I’m so disgusted. We have to fight and fight hard. Pravda (the Russian newspaper) said last week “the americans don’t know how to do it - you have to be in their face everyday, all day” Let’s show the Russians we DO know how to do it and have one rally after another and support this very important cause. Cheers and best wishes to all the doctors
More power to them!! I hope 2 million show up, just like the DC912 Rally!!!
And I’ll be there, pushing each one to STAND UP!!
LOOK UPTHREAD.
More of Pelosi’s astroturf.
facetious, litigious?
No, there can’t be any doctors objecting to this plan. Some rude little phonemonkey from Max Baucus’ office told me the New England Journal of Medicine published a poll showing that 77% of doctors support single payer health care. Nothing to see here...move along.
As for the first of final two comments in the second video:
Regarding government schools:
The moment government schools were created in the mid 1800s to when the last states mandated them in the early 1900s, in that instant of state mandate, **THAT** is when Obama became inevitable!
Government schools must be **eliminated** because they **are** an object lesson in socialism. The moment the very first students in the mid 19th century and early 20th centuries stepped foot in their government school they learned that the government had the power to take money from their neighbor to pay for something that their parents wanted for free! It is short step from thinking education is a right to believing retirement, disability, medicine, transportation, food, clothing, housing, etc. are also “rights”.
It is my belief that FDR was elected and his New Deal approved precisely because 1 to 3 generations of voters had learned to be comfortable with socialism in their tuition-free socialist government schools! It's been downhill every since.
Government schools can NOT be reformed because they **are** socialist, and socialism can not be reformed!
If we are to save the next generation of children, we **MUST** have PRIVATE conservative schools that are tuition-free. And...We must work shut down every government school in this nation. Regardless of the curriculum **all** government schools teach children to be comfortable with taking money from their neighbor by government threat of force. While charity would fund private conservatives schools, the children would learn gratitude instead of entitlement, and would instead be given an object lesson in Christian generosity.
We must make the private conservative schools tuition-free because this is the competing price being offered to parents by the government. If we are to get students out of the government schools we have to match their price.
Again!
Government schools can NOT be reformed because they **are** socialist, and socialism can not be reformed!
thanks - it’s late here!
Got it...thanks...
Good job docs and nurses. Obam and the Dems will destroy your profession just like they do in communist countries. Also work to elect conservatives and get your checkbooks out.
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