Want Cheaper Healthcare?

[Speaker to Animals]

Ah, so we’re still licensing doctors, they just don’t need a MD.
Can I have a license?

Nurse practitioners can do at least half the work that MDs currently do. Most of the minor, every day shit that a general practitioner doctor does can actually be done by a nurse practitioner.

It would be more efficient if doctors focused on more important problems.

You could open the VA hospitals to the public and just have a system where people walk in and get assigned a practitioner on the spot, and pick up prescriptions on the way out. If we ever go to a universal health care system, we could actually do just that so that you can use the government hospital without having to make a co-pay for most minor things. That would drastically cut down the costs. But for something you find important, you can still go to a private doctor and specialists.

[DBTrek]

I agree with all of that.

That still leaves a half dozen puzzling and unexplained bullet points from M. Hash.

[MilSpecs]

If there's no liability, then the doctors who decide who is unfit to practice need to take malpractice much more seriously. Right now, incompetents don't lose their right to practice nearly as much as they should.

[Martin Hash]

If malpractice was serious, there would be no “alternative medicine.” No acupuncture, no chiropractic, no naturopathy, no massage or aroma therapy, none of the woo no one is held accountable for.

[Martin Hash]

I don’t think DB understands that British doctors get a Bachelor of Medicine, not a Doctorate of Medicine.

[Martin Hash]

If there's no liability, then the doctors who decide who is unfit to practice need to take malpractice much more seriously. Right now, incompetents don't lose their right to practice nearly as much as they should.

It’s so difficult to maintain a Medical License, I don’t even know how “bad” doctors are possible?

p.s. I’m seriously considering letting mine lapse because I have to go practice for 6 months, and I don’t like doctoring.

[MilSpecs]

If malpractice was serious, there would be no “alternative medicine.” No acupuncture, no chiropractic, no naturopathy, no massage or aroma therapy, none of the woo no one is held accountable for.

We should distinguish between real medicine and palliative care (I may be using this term incorrectly - I mean to make someone feel better rather than to heal). Don't get me started on chiropractors attempting to diagnose....

[Martin Hash]

Palliative care is the end-of-life. Don’t need doctors, just need someone’s hand to hold and morphine.

You’re thinking “placebo.” It’s unethical to prescribe for placebo, that’s why only non-doctors do it.

[DBTrek]

If malpractice was serious, there would be no “alternative medicine.” No acupuncture, no chiropractic, no naturopathy, no massage or aroma therapy, none of the woo no one is held accountable for.

As in ... you’d outlaw it? Seems a bit nanny-state. If there’s no malpractice, only jail or losing your license what is the need for banning treatments you don’t agree with? Doesn’t jail or license loss already address those concerns?

[MilSpecs]

Palliative care is the end-of-life. Don’t need doctors, just need someone’s hand to hold and morphine.

What do you call medical care that is solely aimed at pain relief rather than healing? Is there such a term other than 'pain management'?