National Medical Group Practice Week on January, 2025: PLEASE READ THIS! R.A.M

National Medical Group Practice Week 2025. Blair Medical Associates National Medical Group

Unfortunately no reason to believe UHC would work.

Medicare is touted as "the" plan by the uninformed.

In the US, Medicare is going bankrupt. In 1998, Medicare premiums were $43.80 and in 2008 will be $96.40--up 120%. "Medigap" insurance is common because of the 20% co-pay required for service. Medicare HMOs are common because they reduce that burden without an extra charge in many cases. HOWEVER, many procedures which used to have no or a low co-pay NOW cost the full 20% for the HMO Medicare patient. ALSO the prescription coverage they tended to offer has been REDUCED in many cases to conform to the insane "donut hole" coverage of the feds. Doctors are leaving Medicare because of the low and slow pay AND because the crazy government wants to "balance" their Ponzi scheme on the backs of doctors.

"That dark cloud lurking over the shoulder of every Massachusetts physician is Medicare. If Congress does not act, doctors' payments from Medicare will be cut by about 5 percent annually, beginning next year through 2012, creating a financial hailstorm that would wreak havoc with already strained practices.

Cumulatively, the proposed cuts represent a 31 percent reduction in Medicare reimbursement. If the cuts are adjusted for practice-cost inflation, the American Medical Association says Medicare payment rates to physicians in 2013 would be less than half of what they were in 1991."

It's not just the US, Canadian doc notes it doesn't work anywhere:

"...Another sign of transformation: Canadian doctors, long silent on the health-care system’s problems, are starting to speak up. Last August, they voted Brian Day president of their national association. A former socialist who counts Fidel Castro as a personal acquaintance, Day has nevertheless become perhaps the most vocal critic of Canadian public health care, having opened his own private surgery center as a remedy for long waiting lists and then challenged the government to shut him down. “This is a country in which dogs can get a hip replacement in under a week,” he fumed to the New York Times, “and in which humans can wait two to three years.”

And now even Canadian governments are looking to the private sector to shrink the waiting lists. Day’s clinic, for instance, handles workers’-compensation cases for employees of both public and private corporations. In British Columbia, private clinics perform roughly 80 percent of government-funded diagnostic testing. In Ontario, where fealty to socialized medicine has always been strong, the government recently hired a private firm to staff a rural hospital’s emergency room.

This privatizing trend is reaching Europe, too. Britain’s government-run health care dates back to the 1940s. Yet the Labour Party—which originally created the National Health Service and used to bristle at the suggestion of private medicine, dismissing it as “Americanization”—now openly favors privatization. Sir William Wells, a senior British health official, recently said: “The big trouble with a state monopoly is that it builds in massive inefficiencies and inward-looking culture.” Last year, the private sector provided about 5 percent of Britain’s nonemergency procedures; Labour aims to triple that percentage by 2008. The Labour government also works to voucherize certain surgeries, offering patients a choice of four providers, at least one private. And in a recent move, the government will contract out some primary care services, perhaps to American firms such as UnitedHealth Group and Kaiser Permanente.

Sweden’s government, after the completion of the latest round of privatizations, will be contracting out some 80 percent of Stockholm’s primary care and 40 percent of its total health services, including one of the city’s largest hospitals. Since the fall of Communism, Slovakia has looked to liberalize its state-run system, introducing co-payments and privatizations. And modest market reforms have begun in Germany: increasing co-pays, enhancing insurance competition, and turning state enterprises over to the private sector (within a decade, only a minority of German hospitals will remain under state control). It’s important to note that change in these countries is slow and gradual—market reforms remain controversial. But if the United States was once the exception for viewing a vibrant private sector in health care as essential, it is so no longer."

While the people in the video were definitely in need, UHC wouldn't help them. For one, they had a LOT of dental patients. Dental is NOT included in UHC and is expensive everywhere.

They also admitted another bind they had: if someone got a bad diagnosis, such as cancer, who is going to treat him? This does NOT mean that RAM should not be praised and I pray contributions will flow in (I'll send something) but clearly the need is SO great that the actual problems need to be addressed and the prior answer hits on many of those.

We have a worldwide shortage of doctors and nurses and that alone drives up prices (laws of supply and demand). We COULD greatly expand the number of docs--our system relies on 25% of our residents EACH YEAR coming from outside the US med schools because our shortage is so great--yet each year, thousands of well-qualified folks are turned away from medical school. It's bad allocation of tax dollars--millions wasted on nonsense like "Women's Studies" and not every state even has a medical OR a dental school. How's that for stupid?

Read Nathan's book--she's on the money as noted.

Peace Corp?

If you use YA's advanced search option for the words "Peace Corps" you'll get some sponsored links. Many will expect you (or your friends and neighbors) to bear some or all of the cost.

The Peace Corps gives you three months of training. You'll learn your host country's language, history, religion(s) and culture, plus get some vocational training. (I learned Malay, Iban and Hokkien, then practice taught for six weeks, under the supervision of a master teacher, for instance.) They provide dental and medical care, a living allowance and some after-service placement counsling. They pay for your air fare over and back. It would not be cost-effective to do all that for someone who stayed on the job for a couple of weeks.

If you want to pay your own way, provide your own medical / dental insurance and already speak the language, there are a number of organizations that will place you for as little as a week. Some people take two-week "working" vacations as volunteers and have a ball. Some don't even require you to speak the language. (Not a problem if you volunteer inside the USA).

Here are some:

(Based in the UK, takes volunteers from anywhere, has a six-month "programme" for people 18 - 25) I knew VSO's when I was in the Peace Corps 30 years ago. They are a solid, well-known organization.

Student Conservation Association

My daughter spent a summer with them. You pay for your food and air fare, they loan you a tent. You spend 4-6 weeks doing manual labor in a national park in the USA with a great bunch of other kids. They will take volunteers as young as 16.

Here are two that sponsor links. I have no personal knowlege of either one.

Global Volunteers

United Planet

how can i join Air Force?

ELIGIBILITY

To qualify for the Air Force Reserve you should be:

17 to 34 years old, if you have no prior military service.

Different age requirements apply for those with prior military service, as well as for healthcare professionals. Please contact a recruiter for details.

a citizen of the United States (in most cases)

in good health

of strong character

BASIC TRAINING SCHEDULE

What to expect:

Each day begins at 0500 (5:00am) and ends with " Taps" at 2100 (9:00pm).

Zero Week

You'll arrive mid-week and be assigned to a flight. "Flight" is the Air Force Reserve designation for a group of 45-60 individuals within a squadron (like a shift of workers within a large business). Each flight has several Military Training Instructors (MTIs), assigned to teach and guide your flight through the entire six-week period. These first few days you'll get a haircut (a close haircut), be issued equipment and uniforms, and learn the basic rules of dorm life.

Week 1

Reporting and Saluting

Medical and Dental Checks

GI Bill Briefing

ID Cards

Dorm Guard Class

Career Guidance

Individual Drill

Flight Drill (Marching)

Dorm Preparation

Week 2

Personal Fitness

Dorm Inspection

Personal Appearance

Recognizing Military Insignia

Military Citizenship

Personal Interviews

Flight Drill

Week 3

Second Clothing Issue

Dorm Inspection

Haircuts

Flight Drill

Air Force Values

Financial Management

Week 4

Law of Armed Conflict

Flight Pictures

Dorm Inspection

Human Relations Class

Confidence Course Run

Flight Drill

National Security

Week 5

Warrior Week

Air Force Career Progression

Pre-Marksmanship Class

Marksmanship

Field Training

Educational Support

Honor Flight Drill Test

Formal Retreat Practice

Dorm Inspection

Parade Practice

Week 6

Open Ranks Inspection

Hometown News Releases

Formal Retreat

Written Test

Haircuts

Travel Arrangements

Departing Briefing

Town Pass Briefing

Orders Pick-up

Graduation Parade