Carla was one of many commenters who wrote in response to insurance broker John Sinibaldi's thoughtful post on the role that he and his colleagues play in the current healthcare system. ("A Broker's Lament: We Brought This On Ourselves.")
"To get anywhere, we are all going to have to go to a 12 step program and admit our problem: "Hi, my name is Carla and I'm a physician, I'm addicted to our current healthcare system and have been completely focused on pushing through as many patients as possible, because that's what pays."
"Hi, I'm an American patient and I'm addicted to our current healthcare system because it fulfills my every whim and doesn't have time to help me do the hard stuff to improve my health."
"Hi, I'm your health insurance company and I'm addicted to our current healthcare system because it enables me to insert myself in the middle and make a nice profit, without really adding much value."
Mr. Sinibadi, thanks for being the first one to stand up at the meeting."
Christopher George had this to say in response to Dr. Albert Waxman's post on the free market's power to create change. "Innovation + Economics: Keys to Successful Healthcare Reform."
"When I was in medical school, CCJ Carpenter, legendary infectious disease giant, used to brow beat the poor interns for ordering so much as an un-necessary serum calcium level for which a good reason could not be articulated.(At the time probably a $10 test.) The exact opposite of today. No test is too unlikely to order. Again, like a broken record, no meaningful reduction in utilization will happen without tort reform. The un-empowered, demoralized professionally castrated doctor is not the one who will make the decision to NOT order something stupid. Instead, he order out of the fear that it might, in retrospect, if it were positive, seem logical to do. These are the tests that are killing the system."
