Medi-Cal and Its Deleterious Impact on California Medical Care: The Cure
This article (“the cure”) is the third part in a series on Medi-Cal. Read Patrick Wagner’s preceding pieces on “the cause” and “the effect.”
The dissatisfaction between patients and doctors in the business of medicine and surgery in California is the direct result of the control of Newsom’s Medi-Cal. The economic initiative of physicians and the healing incentive of patients is directly proportional to theft of the profit due to physicians and the negligence of needed medical and surgical treatment. This is crime of the highest order, and we are in crisis mode and headed for a tragic and lethal wreck.
Furthermore, both doctors and patients are captured by Newsom’s Medi-Cal trance, and apparently feel satisfied with what they are allowed in terms of both payment and services rendered. Think back to the effects section of this document and review the plight of the two patients presented who are Medi-Cal enrollees. They are not satisfied. The booty between price gouging and price fixing is only known to Medi-Cal and Newsom, and it is a lot of money.
How do we cure this problem? Here are some suggestions. First, there is a fifty-four-page easy to read book, readily available at Amazon, that is a wonderful cookbook regarding a financial plan you and I must establish if we are to turn this trend around and head it in the right direction. The book is called “Common Sense Medicine” by author Jeff Danby and is published by the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons. It’s the best $3.00 you will ever spend to prevent the healthcare tragedy we are experiencing right now. In the book, Danby clearly defines the three c’s, namely cash, catastrophic medical insurance, and charity. You and I do this by “price determination”, as explained by Danby. This is a very exciting read. By the way, re-review our two clinical patient presentations and you will see the power of paying cash for service instead of Medi-Cal. Cash is king.
The second suggestion is to consider human health as consisting of five aspects that we all need to recognize and understand in the business of California medicine. They are physical health, emotional health, Spiritual health, financial health, and civic health. All five must be optimal to be in a state of homeostasis to provide an affordable, satisfying, and safe California medical system. The interplay of these aspects of health is such that if any of the five is weak, the others will be negatively influenced.
What is health? Good health is a personal responsibility of you and me. It is an obligation, an opportunity, and a choice. Every single able-minded and able-bodied Californian is responsible for his or her health. Newsom and Medi-Cal are only responsible for your healthcare if you allow it.
Physical health is a personal responsibility and obligation. It is a decision. Good physical health requires one to eat healthily, exercise, and stop smoking. That’s common sense.
Emotional health is a personal responsibility, an obligation, and a choice. For example, if a physician gets burned out because of an expectation in his or her career that didn’t pan out, he or she might become bitter and blame everybody else and become very hard to be around. Burnout is a choice. Think of Newsom and Medi-Cal and his herd mentality campaign. How do we maximize our emotional health? End your pity parties, get over it and move on. Awaken from wokeness, stop being losers and start being winners. That goes for both doctors and patients.
Spiritual health is a personal responsibility, an opportunity, and a decision. It is the most important decision you and I will ever make. It is your destiny. Optimizing our Spiritual health is a relationship with “The Great Physician”, Jesus Christ. All four of the other aspects of health will be thrown in if we maximize our Spiritual health. This is infinitely more valuable than any other aspect of health.
Financial health is next. Again, financial health or discipline is a personal responsibility and obligation. “Common Sense Medicine” by Danby re-directs our wayward, controlling, and abusive financial arrangement with Newsom’s Medi-Cal to a partnership between doctors and patients and “price determination” instead of price gouging and price fixing. By so doing, we will change the name healthcare to the name medical and surgical care, or perhaps medi-cure, and establish excellent affordability, common good, contentment, and safety for all Californians.
And finally, there is civic health. Every able-minded and able-bodied Californian has a responsibility to civic duty. To be engaged and informed is good for civic health. If we know who we are electing to represent our interests in the medical system, we will get representatives who will not rob us, abuse us, coerce us into hating each other, or kill us. They will not be bigots. When our medical care policy is properly represented, our economic policy, our immigration policy, our taxation policy, and our regulation policy will fall into place. Some of this is paraphrased from pastor Robert Jeffress.
The third suggestion is that we all speak up and compare notes and boldly ask questions as our focus group did earlier in this document. How has Newsom’s Medi-Cal impacted you? We are at a fork in the road with two options. Medi-Cal or private practice? Which direction are we going to take? I don’t know about you, but I love California and Californians. Why not get the conversation going? Doctors and patients, fix California medicine. You truly have all the power.