06-18-2004, 10:37 AM
I have often thought that our 'fee for service' model lies at the heart of the problem.
But good luck, Don Quixote, on tilting at that particular windmill. There are few organizations with the power of the C.M.A. And they would fill our minds and hearts with more terror and propaganda than you could imagine if that particular 'right' of theirs were threatened.
I am somewhat familiar with their responses to threats to 'their turf' by dint of being long married to a Chiropractor. I have watched the efforts to limit and/or eliminate patients rights to consult a Chiropractor without the 'gateway' of referral by a Physician. It is only within the past 15 years that there have started to be meaningful partnerships between Physicians and Chiropractors in delivery of heath care to their patients. (Chiropractors do not prescribe drugs.)
And I also believe that the current (at least in Ontario) serious shortage of Family Physicians (who do act, in general, as gateways to the rest of the specialists in medicine) is a direct result of politicking within the C.M.A. and the O.M.A. (here in Ontario) over what fee structures there are. Any time there is a 'raise' proposed for fees, it is not the Family Physicians who get allocated the increase. Elitism is everywhere, eh?
Delivery of good health care is a complex and thorny issue. Much as I would like to see some major reforms to our health care paradigms, I am not sanguine about the chances of meaningful reform in my lifetime.
But good luck, Don Quixote, on tilting at that particular windmill. There are few organizations with the power of the C.M.A. And they would fill our minds and hearts with more terror and propaganda than you could imagine if that particular 'right' of theirs were threatened.
I am somewhat familiar with their responses to threats to 'their turf' by dint of being long married to a Chiropractor. I have watched the efforts to limit and/or eliminate patients rights to consult a Chiropractor without the 'gateway' of referral by a Physician. It is only within the past 15 years that there have started to be meaningful partnerships between Physicians and Chiropractors in delivery of heath care to their patients. (Chiropractors do not prescribe drugs.)
And I also believe that the current (at least in Ontario) serious shortage of Family Physicians (who do act, in general, as gateways to the rest of the specialists in medicine) is a direct result of politicking within the C.M.A. and the O.M.A. (here in Ontario) over what fee structures there are. Any time there is a 'raise' proposed for fees, it is not the Family Physicians who get allocated the increase. Elitism is everywhere, eh?
Delivery of good health care is a complex and thorny issue. Much as I would like to see some major reforms to our health care paradigms, I am not sanguine about the chances of meaningful reform in my lifetime.
And you may call it righteousness
When civility survives,
But I've had dinner with the Devil and
I know nice from right.
From Dinner with the Devil, by Big Rude Jake
When civility survives,
But I've had dinner with the Devil and
I know nice from right.
From Dinner with the Devil, by Big Rude Jake