Unfortunately for you and Adam, you have completely failed to identify – nor express any concern – for the cause of the problem. Without accurately understanding what is causing the problem, we can not hope to address any appropriate solutions.

In regards to your comment: “As to being a smart-ass…guilty as charged. Get over it.” Don’t worry, I am over it. In fact I expect nothing less coming from someone trying so hard to mask his inability to understand the subject matter. The fact that you feel it necessary to resort to such petty tactics is quite telling.

http://www.newsobserver.com/front/story/721249.html

Here is an excerpt that is illustrative.
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How many LASIK patients develop post-surgery complications is obscured by a lack of regulation and reporting. Because health insurers don’t pay for LASIK, they generally don’t track complications. The FDA doesn’t require reports from doctors, and regulatory enforcement has been largely limited to recalling malfunctioning lasers.
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The article also notes that high volumes of the procedure may actually increase the rate of complications due to inadequate screening. To compete in the market docs have had to market aggressively and discount their services. The reduced profit margin leads to increased pressure to do more procedures.

My only point, I suppose, is that there may be inherent dangers if you assume that purchasing and consuming healthcare is exactly like purchasing other goods and services.

As to other corrections…I do not own a unicorn and to my knowledge Jim is not selling his kidney on eBay.

That you are sir.

As to my bedside manner, Brian…unless you’re a patient of mine or a family member of a patient of mine…That’s not something you can really speak to, is it? If you were, you would know that I am a resolute advocate for my patients. I won’t apologize for that. I hope your doctor is doing the same for you.

Fear -mongering? Is suggesting that we really, really need to try to find a way to cover uninsured people playing on anyone’s fears? I’m not the one saying that trying to cover uninsured people is “socialized medicine” or that you won’t continue to be able to see the doctor of your choice.

And finally, Max… Re-read the post. All it says is that by whatever means possible (which I foresee as a collaboration of private and public interests), we need to get 47 million people access to healthcare. My candidates have three solid proposals to do just that, including the costs of implementation…your candidates do not. That’s a fact whether you like it or not.

So I say put up or shut up. If that’s too smart-ass for you…well, nobody is forcing you to read my posts. I suggest you skip right over them and read my fellow contributors.

By the way, I hope you are not so condesending with your patients. As Max put it in an earlier post over at Red Clay Citizen:

“It’s no secret that the left’s only instruments of persuasion are smart-assedness and fear-fongering.”

So far I have been called infantile, irrelevant, and been subjected to your holier-than-thou sarcasm; never mind being accused by Adam that I “believe that it’s OK to allow 47 million people in our country to get inferior health coverage than those who are insured.”

Some bedside manner, doc.

Think of it this way: A patient is brought into your emergency room and goes into cardiac arrest. Dr. Brian is asking the patient “Why did you smoke? Why didn’t you control your diabetes? Did you take your medicine today? Why are you overweight? Why? Why? Why?” These questions are part of the background to the case, but irrelevant at that moment.

A competent physician would triage the case and understand that this patient is critically ill and treatment is needed. A solution is available and resuscitation should begin immediately. At that moment it is not necessary to know everything about the case nor to place blame on the ailing patient. To do nothing is criminally negligent and ethically immoral.

That is like a doctor telling her patient “I have no idea what is making you sick, nor do I care. But, here, take this medication anyway.”

Didn’t you want to respond to that? Failure to understand the distortive problems of government provision of healthcare is just faith-based policy.