In Which I Rant About the Stimulus

Why Government Sucks

Since I have a real job, I can't spend all of my time reading documents from other professions in a lame attempt to know everything. For example, as much as I search WebMD, I don't feel comfortable writing my friends' Hydrocodone prescriptions anymore. I didn't go to school for eight years and then suffer more years of an abusive residency under tyrannical, self-important, already-established doctors so I could become one myself.

When I read in Bloomberg today about idiotic senators apparently thinking elections are shortcuts around medical school, I had to rant (see Ruin Your Health With the Obama Stimulus Plan: Betsy McCaughey). I read the bill for myself.

I am not going to quote since it's long-winded, vague, full of passive voice, and wrist-slittingly boring. So if you want, have at it here.

The brainiacs pushing this stimulus down our throats have also decided to shove some health care regulations into our tax holes too. There are so many things wrong with the health care section alone the bill should be exploded. It is going to create some kind of information technology standard by which health care providers (i.e. your doctors) will have to conform. This standard is not defined, but membership is required. That's all my doctor needs is yet another cost to pass on to the insurance companies so they can pass it on to me. All health care needs in general is one more layer of bureaucracy to second guess and frustrate doctors right out of business.

Have any of these so-called leaders ever had to fight an insurance company over asthma meds? Have any of them spend 10 or more hours a week for months trying to justify why they didn't call their doctor for permission to go to an emergency room after an accident? Has one of them even tried to figure out why people hate HMOs?

Imagine a future where not only you must fight insurance companies over your doctor's treatments but you also fight government agencies, all because these soulless hacks just had to stick this on the stimulus bill. This all feels like a prostate exam.