November, 2013 The Unfolding Disaster That Is Obama Care Update, Guest Speaker 3: Mr. President, I am Leaving the Health Profession

Over the past two weeks we have done an extensive review of the unfolding disaster that is Obama Care. Skyrocketing premiums, skyrocketing deductibles, millions of Americans losing their health care insurance coverage, millions of Americnas losing access to their favorite doctors, a $600 million data systems process that basically does not work, a data systems process that is riddled with security flaws, identiy thieves already trolling the faulty systems for identify theft information, bad training for Obama Care navigators, increases to the naitonal debt, failure to address the true root causes of our high health care costs, Washington politicians cutting special deals and subsidies for themselves to avoid Obama care pain, the list seems endless.

The first set of our reviews of the Obama Care disaster was a compilation of our research and analyses of what is going on. That extensive review started at the following link:

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2013/11/november-2013-unfolding-obama-care.html

The past two days we have presented the opinions of industry experts of what is going on. Two days ago we presented the analysis of a newspaper writer from Augusta who did a great job reviewing all of the Obama Crae disasters in succinct article. Yesterday, we reviewed Congressional reactions to the high level of cyper security threats inherent in this poorly designed and poorly implemented Obama care website.

Our final Obama Care update for this month comes from a doctor whose open letter to the President is presented in its entirety below. One of the major negative effects of Obama Care is that 1) its idiocy and lunacy are driving doctors out of the medical field and 2) it never put together a plan to increase the number of doctors in the country to handle the increased number of Americans who could have newly acquired health insurance. 

Both factors are now leading to the potential nightmare of "the operation was a success but the patient died." In other words, Obama Care was able to get health insurance coverage to millions of more Americans but those Americans could not get health care because of a acute shortage of doctors.

As you read the following letter, keep in mind the results of doctor's surveys that we have already covered in this blog, results that are confirmed by a doctor survey recently completed by the Deloitte Center For Health Care Solutions: six out of every ten doctors in America today plan on retiring within one to three years. 

Obama Care: the legislaton that keeps screwing up lives:

**************************

Barack Hussein Obama

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue N.W.

Washington, DC 20500

Mr. President,

I was born at Centennial Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee. My mother would later take a job delivering babies in that same operating room only a couple years later. My parents got a divorce when I was young. There were many times during the summer when she would be forced to take my sister and I to work with her. I vividly remember the child version of myself walking the halls of the same floor I was born on in fascination as the years passed. The anesthesiologists use to bring us candy and watch movies with us. When the holidays came, a nurse by the name of Patty Vaughn (we called her Granny), would have bags of presents for my sister and I. Donna Smith, a surgical first assistant who came to America from Canada to work in a free-market healthcare system, use to babysit us.

Donna’s two-story town-home became a 3rd home (2nd was the hospital). We spent countless nights at her house.

Patty passed away when I was ten. I still remember the last box of moon pies she gave me for Halloween that year. To this day every time I see a moon pie I think of her. Donna helped me through my undergrad at Belmont University. With tuition at $30k/year money was tight. Donna never let me go without a meal.

You see Mr. President, the smell of sterile operating rooms, horrible coffee, crisp white coats, and cold metal was my destiny. The first time someone ever asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up I responded, “Anesthesiologist”. I had no idea what they even did, but it was the first big word I learned to pronounce as a 6-year-old. The hospital is my family. It’s all I’ve ever known.

Twenty-one years after my birth, in the same hospital, I listened to a fetal heart beat through my very own stethoscope. You know, it’s quite magical. As the cool, metallic bell lies upon the tight skin of a young mother’s stomach anxiety, fear and joy are all present in her face. A week before my birthday I stood at the side of the laboring mother. There’s no other way to explain childbirth than witnessing the face of God. The emotion is enveloping. You can only try (unsuccessfully) to hold the tears back. I knew at that moment what a gift God had given me. To be allowed the involvement of such a beautiful, pure moment was not to be unappreciated.

When I started college I knew where I was going. You had just won the election. I remember the cameras focusing in on Oprah Winfrey’s face. Tears streamed down. At the time, I knew nothing about politics. My biggest concern was a girl in my Anatomy & Physiology class I had a crush on. I paid little attention to Washington DC.

I worked hard. Multiple all-nighters, falling asleep behind the wheel of my car countless times, thousands of shots of espresso (I actually took a job at Starbucks to support the habit) and 15k note-cards later I had graduated in the top 5% of the country. However, during those last few years something changed.

We studied medical legislation for an entire semester. It’s no secret that the federal government has over-burdened the healthcare market, which has manifested astronomical costs to consumers. However, in 2010, democrats forced through the partisan Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), which was later funded by both democrats and republicans.

Since the passage of Obamacare everything has changed. When I started college I never intended to work for the government. I never thought I’d have a government bureaucrat dictate what I was worth to the market, and I certainly never imagined those same bureaucrats (who have absolutely no medical training) telling me how to treat my patients.

I remember the day Obamacare became law. I was sitting in the hospital working in the anesthesia department part-time to cover the costs of tuition. Dr. Alfery, a mentor of mine, looked over at me and said, “Run– It’s not too late to change majors.”

Your legislation has caused countless doctors to go into retirement early, opt for cash-only practices, and has discouraged bright, young minds from entering the field.

With student loans reaching $300k, incalculable opportunity costs and 8 years lost to school, students seeking medical degrees give their lives to the practice. Starting our careers at 30 while dictating to us how much money we can make is nothing short of destroying all incentive to enter the field.

Since that day I’ve yet to find a doctor who recommends the field. People respond to my complaints, “It’s still going to be a good job”. I don’t want a “good job”. I have not fought for a government entitlement of a “good job”. I want an incredible career. That’s what I have fought tirelessly for.

I have been on a path to enter the Air Force and continue my education in medicine. I have been dreaming of specializing in pediatric neurosurgery for half a decade.

After quite literally losing my hair from the internal conflict, considering the sunk costs and evaluating different avenues I have decided.

I have decided that I believe in the principles of a truly free-market, and I trust the free-market. Because of this deep, internal value system I cannot, with clear conscience, continue on this path. My life has value. Such value cannot be calculated by Washington bureaucrats. I won’t allow it. Only a true free-market can accurately assess the value I am capable of.

Mr President, I’m leaving the medical field. I’m hanging up the white coat. However, let me be clear. You have not won. Unless something “changes”, you’ve lost and will continue to lose. You will fail because you lack principle. Meanwhile, we will succeed because we are born of principle.

Regards,

Michael Gordon Lotfi
*********************************

How sad. Dreams crushed, the ability and desire to make people healthy all crushed because of the worst peice of legislation ever to come out of Washington, legislation enacted by the worst set of Washington politicians ever. 

So next year, or the year after next or five years down the road, when you have been waiting in a doctor's office for four hours for treatment or when the surgery your kid or grandkid desperately need will not occur for six months because there are not enough doctors, think about what happened to Mr. Lotfi. Think about what might have happened if Obama Care had not happened and he, and thousands of other bright minds like him, had the title "Doctor" in front of his name and not "Mr."

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

Term Limits Now:http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

The Lamest Set Of Politicians EVER - Only 18 Trivial Laws Passed In The First Seven Months Of 2013

In the first seven months of 2012, the political class in Washington had managed to pass and enact a meager 54 pieces of legislation. At that time, it was viewed as the least productive set of Federal politicians in the history of the United States. A pathetic performance from so-called leaders, people who on average earn more than three times the annual income of the average American family.

But, as we have observed many times in this blog, just when you think our politicians cannot get any worse, they manage to under perform even more. According to an article in a recent issue of Business Week magazine, in the first seven months of 2013, Washington politicians have managed to enact a meager 18 pieces of legislation. Beyond pathetic.

Now, I have never supported passing legislation for the sake of passing legislation. Far more often than not, when politicians pass laws to resolve a problem they end up making the problem worse or waste far more taxpayer wealth. 

But if minimal legislation enactment resolves major issues, I am all for it. And Lord knows we are suffering through a ton of weighty problems in this country:

1. Unemployment is chronic and has set records for being above 7% for the longest period in our history.
2. Our national debt is any almost incomprehensible $17 TRILLION, a per American debt load of well over $50,000 per person.
3. Our public schools have been under educating our kids for decades relative to kids around the world in countries who spend far less than we do to educate our kids.
4. We have been fighting a losing war on drugs for decades which has created violent international drug cartels without fixing the original problem with drug addiction.
5. Our borders leak and we have over 10 million illegal immigrants hiding in this country.
6. Our health care costs are ever escalating and Obama Care is making the situation worse every day.
7. Decades after the oil shocks of the 1970s, we still do not have a coherent national energy policy and strategy.

If Congress and Obama enacted only seven pieces of legislation but those seven pieces resolved these seven problems, I would be ecstatic. 

But, passing only 18 pieces of legislation in seven months is really pathetic. And what is beyond pathetic, as documented in Business Week, is what these 18 pieces of legislation were actually for. Trust me when I tell you that none of the 18 were worth the pay rate of Obama and the 535 members of Congress:

1) Four of the pieces of legislation were not new laws at all, they only renewed existing laws:

• Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013
• Animal Drug and Animal Generic Drug User Fee Reauthorization Act of 2013.
• Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Reauthorization Act of 2013.
• Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, needed to avoid a government shutdown.

2) Two of the eighteen pieces of legislation were not renewals of existing laws but were simply small tweaks to existing laws:

• H.R. 475 amended the IRS code, adding a $.75 excise tax on some flu vaccines.
• S.716 modified the Stop Trading On Congressional Knowledge Act of 2012

3) One of the eighteen pieces of legislation undid an existing law:

• The Reducing Flight Delay Act of 2013.

4) That leaves 11 remaining, underwhelming pieces of legislation:

• NO Budget NO Pay Act of 2013 which stopped salary payments to Congressional members if their respective houses of Congress did not produce a government budget proposal on time. Doesn’t stipulate that the budget is good or has been passed, just makes sure that each house has a budget document on time, no matter how lame it is.
• The District Of Columbia Chief Financial Officer Vacancy Act which allowed the acting chief financial officer to act as the DC chief financial officer until the job is officially filled.
• The Stolen Valor Act of 2012 which made lying about your military service for financial gain a crime.
• The Freedom Fish Act which allowed Tennessee and Kentucky fishermen to fish in areas that the Army Corp Of Engineers wanted to ban fishing from.
• H.R. 360 which awarded a Congressional Gold Medal to 1963 Sixteenth Baptist Church bombing victims.
• H.R. 324 awarded the same medal to a World War II American/Canadian commando unit.
• The Disaster Relief Appropriations Act sent $60 billion to Hurricane Sandy victims, possibly the only real piece of legislation passed in the past seven months.
• H.R. 1151 ordered the Secretary of State to endorse Taiwan’s attendance at an international aviations regulations meeting. You cannot make up this nonsense.
• H.R. 1071 let’s the U.S. Mint print coins for baseball’s 75th anniversary of its Hall of Fame opening.
• H.R. 2383 renamed a bridge in the St. Louis area for recently passed away baseball legend Stan Musial.

Again, you could not make up such an inane, underwhelming list of legislative accomplishments if you tried. Not a single one of these enacted bills will have any impact on the seven major issues we listed above, issues that touch the lives of every single American in one way or another. 

These eighteen pieces of legislation, giving out medals, renaming a bridge, opening up fishing grounds, etc. should have been handled in the first hour of the first day of their first meeting back in January. It should not have taken seven months to come up with this garbage.

How much did this cost the American taxpayer? If you assume the average Congressional member makes about $170,000 a year and throw in the President’s salary, on a seven month prorated basis, just the salary cost to come up with these 18 pieces of legislation is well over $50 million. I maintain that we would have been better off as a nation if we had saved the $50 million and did not have to deal with these 18 pieces of legislation.

But the cost is far higher than $50 million. This estimate is just for salaries. It does not include the loaded benefits of Washington politicians and does not include the salary and benefits of the thousands of Congressional and Presidential staff members who worked to produce this lame list of legislative “accomplishments.” I would venture a guess that the American taxpayer paid over a billion dollars for this legislative non-accomplishment.

But the far greater cost is that we have allowed the Washington political class to waste and wallow away another seven months of inaction and we are no closer to resolving any of the major issues facing the nation. Seven months have gone by and unemployment is still chronic, our debt is still going up, our kids are still getting under educated, etc. That is the true loss and true embarrassment of this, the lamest set of Washington politicians in the history of our nation.

If you feel the same way and are tired of their lameness, please join our cause to implement term limits for all Federal politicians at the following website:

www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com

Because really, after a paltry passage of eighteen bills in seven months, bills that are next to useless when running the affairs of the nation, how much worse could it get? 

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

Term Limits Now: http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w