(Snippets from the frontline)
The circle of life
We have our place in the circle of life. Apart from lessons taught to Simba by his father Mufasa in The Lion King, there exists human hyenas that upset the balance in our society.
That circle starts with hiring special interest lobbyists who influence legislators allowing self-serving laws to be passed. Creation of business loopholes gives them financial advantage over those in need of healthcare, jeopardizing survival.
Insurance affordability becomes impossible as premiums and deductibles increase, while the cost of medication skyrockets. Hospitalization selects out elder seniors disposing them into nursing homes or hospice.
Then comes bill collectors, bankruptcy, loss of mortgage, and homelessness picking off stragglers.
With their extra money, the hyenas control the media and crush whistleblower dissent.
Their white collar crimes are recognized, but only met with a slap on the hand and monetary fines without imprisonment. This allows them to move forward paying more money to lobbyists, and continue their circle of life…while the rest of us lay by the wayside.
Let’s find the strength of Mufasa and Simba and rid ourselves of the hyenas, so we may restore a balance in the circle of life.
Gene Uzawa Dorio, M.D.
Thank you for your article, Dr. Dorio.
You illustrate why corporate American health business is so corrupt in parables, but the truth is too complicated to write in a blog. Insurance companies are exempt from anti-trust laws, so they can fix prices and not allow us to participate in a competitive marketplace. In about 2007, United Health Care was taken to court in NY by then Atty General Andrew Coumo and were forced to give up Ingenix, a company that was was set up years earlier to give suggested rates of what are Reasonable and Customary Fees in zip codes across the country. It was a safe and legal way for me to find out how to set my prices, without running the risk of getting arrested for conspiracy by talking to another private practice clinican. Now that UHC had owned that company for a few years, they were forced to give it up and Ingenix became a non-profit. But 2 years later Ingenix was bought by Optum the parent company of UHC and many other companys. They do other horrible things to patients and providers.This is why I am for a SIngle Payor System which will allow payment to providers and more services to patients, without all the middle-profiteers sucking up health care dollars.