Med School Obsolete

By their own actions, the medical community, the AMA and licensing boards have made it known that it only takes a few years to be able to do their job. No med school required! After all, the typical procedure at a medical office now is a cursory observation and/or history, maybe look at some lab results indicating something high or low and write a prescription for drugs out of a manual. In fact, 90% of office visits end with only a new prescription or renewing an old one. And 50% of medical office visits never involve an M.D.! They allow a four year "Assistant" to do the diagnosis and treatment; i.e., P.A. ('Physician's Assistant')- 2-year minimum, or a N.P. ('Nurse Practitioner')- sometimes a Master's required. And this is legal and legitimate enough to charge the same fees as if you were seen by an actual "doctor." So, they are telling us that most of the work they do requires no medical school or medical doctorate degree. They are not needed for what they mostly do - write drug prescriptions. In fact, why not just let the pharmaceutical companies send them directly to you? Oh yeah, they do. Just go on-line or call an 800 number and get a free sample of the latest drug. Some system!

Lower Medicaid costs with Food Stamp Rules

Let's make a change to help the needy get healthier and save money in the process. Food Stamps should only be used for fresh fruit and vegetables and meat, chicken and fish. Nothing else. No canned foods, no processed foods, no packaged and preserved foods. No snacks, soft drinks or other junk food. If these people are 'starving' and need food, they'll gladly eat what this would cover. We surely would notice improved health if this is all they ate. They could drink water, it's free in most communities to these people who are also on Medicaid, i.e., we also have to pay for their health care! If they loose weight, lower sugar intake and increase nutritious foods, their health will improve and we will all save money in the Medicaid systems! Why is this a hard decision? It is a no brainer. We need politicians with guts to push this through in every state and federal budget.