In her open letter to the President, Texas physician Kris Held, M.D. writes:
“Dear Johns,
“I am not for sale.
“You may not use me and my works to discriminate against my fellow American patients, much less for your profit. I will not serve one patient under one set of rules and another patient under a different set of your pen’s usurious rules. You lie to me and my patients. I call you out. You falsely advertise my services. You profess “access to care” for your members using false advertising when you list me as one of your “providers”. You trick patients, who you call members; I will not be tricked by you. By the way, I am a doctor not a provider.”
You can read Dr. Held’s entire post here. She is not faint and she has no shame in expressing her dismay in finding out that her services are being offered through the Healthcare.gov exchanges — with reimbursement pricing arranged without her consent. Now that might be fine, if she had agreed to it. But she never did. In fact, she’s adamantly refused to comply with the law because of its erroneous nature (28 rewrites authorized by the President himself) and its inherent dissolution of the patient-doctor relationship.
It’s forever strange how healthcare and insurance merged into the oligarchy they are today. You can’t imagine a clothing retailer finding out their fall collection is being sold on a government site, at prices the retailer did not set, and that when purchased, the retailer would be obligated to deliver. Even worse, is that in this metaphor, the administration is trying to gain favor by making promises like “Vote for our law. Get designer jeans on the cheap.” But the fact is, that’s what they are doing with healthcare. And as absurd as it is, it’s our collective apathy amidst a plethora of disinformation (comprehending the complex healthcare system is a staggering feat for ANY individual) that holds us back. The only way for our nation to reclaim healthcare from the government and insurance companies is to say “We don’t need you everywhere.” Believing in direct care, being part of direct care, is the first step towards reclaiming our industry, starting with primary care.