Health care is not a right: The fight continues in Colorado

Dr. Paul Hsieh takes the fight to the Denver Post where he irks a columnist:

The craziest letter to the editor that I’ve read in some time came from a physician who claimed that Coloradans have no right to health care.
Seems the guy not only forgot his Hippocratic oath but also the law.
If you’re sick enough or badly injured, they have to treat you at the emergency room regardless of your ability to pay.

Dr. Hsieh responds:

Jim Spencer called my April 25 letter “crazy” and accused me of violating my oath as a physician because I argued that health care is not a right.
The exact opposite is true. My moral responsibility to my patients requires that I oppose socialized medicine. When countries like Canada attempt to guarantee a “right” to health care, it inevitably leads to rationing of vital medical services. Under their “single payer” system, Canadian patients routinely wait for months before government bureaucrats allow them to get MRI scans or surgeries that are immediately available in the U.S. Doctors cannot practice good medicine when handcuffed by such a system – and many will quit medicine rather than work under those conditions. (For more information, see www.WeStandFIRM.org.)
Trying to create a universal “right” to health care turns patients into pieces of meat and turns doctors into slaves. Neither is right for Colorado.

He also points to FIRM: Freedom and Individual Rights in Medicine. Kudos to Paul for continuing to fight the good fight.

Comments

KipEsquire
A “right to drag yourself into the ER” does not equate to a “right to drag your doctor into the ER.”
How is this a difficult concept for people?
If there can be no health care without physicians, then there can be no “right to health care” without a “right to enslave physicians.”
Gasman
The public and press needs to get over the Hippocratic oath. There’s hardly a doc alive and practicing today who took this oath. Most medical schools have used the oath of Geneva or some variation written by the graduating class.
There is no legal right to health care. HIPAA does place a burden on institutions, but so far no physician has been forced to provide labor on demand of the state.
Anonymous
“…but so far no physician has been forced to provide labor on demand of the state.”
Yes, so far. This may be coming in the future and can be easily be struck down by SCOTUS. Also if the AMA, AHIP, and/or the hospital lobby had and nads they would start getting rid of EMTALA. The AMA needs to work on getting rid of the Medicare 2yr opt out rule. When the AMA becomes more proactive that is the day I will become an AMA member again.
Anonymous
OK, lets take the hippocratic oath:
No abortions
No surgery
No teaching medicine to anyone but the children of physicians
Yeah, sounds relevant to me.
Anonymous
How is this “the good fight”, Kevin? You dedicate untold posts to telling us how bad the current system is, but then you dedicate untold posts to telling us how bad the alternatives are.
Is this site just a vent or do you have some realistic, detailed solutions?
Kevin
As I stated several times on the blog, I support the individual mandate approach to health care coverage as proposed by Massachusetts.
Thanks,
Kevin
Anonymous
There is nothing in the Hippocratic Oath, which I did take, that requires physicians to provide care to whoever demands it on whatever terms they choose. Nothing whatsoever. From ancient times, physicians have always been free to chose whom to serve.
There are many, for their own personal benefit, quite willing to enslave others. It is why slavery in some form or another, has existed throughout history. Modern socialism just gives it new form.
Anonymous
The vast majority of the docs adhere to the Hippocratic Oath. Very few have ever done an elective abortion. Most don’t do things they aren’t trained to do, and actually most teachers of clinical medicine, while paid for other services to the school, are not paid for teaching. So can the cynical sarcasm about the Oath–which doesn’t require involuntary servitude.
Anonymous
SCOTUS is completely useless now for enforcing personal liberty where economic issues are concerned. They agree with congress that everything is interstate commerce. If we don’t stand up on our hind legs and insist on living our rights, even when there are adverse consequences, we will lose the few that we have left–and deserve to.
While I have no doubt this court would find no problem with the 2 year opt out rule, I find absolutely nothing in the US constitution that gives congress any authority for that or most of the rest of Medicare. But the US constitution does not give sole authority for it’s enforcement or interpretation to the Supreme Court. That is the repsonsibility of all branches of the federal government, and every other level of government, and even every citizen.
Anonymous
Kevin:
Thanks for letting me post on your blog. It is your blog for you to set the rules and I appreciate you allowing contrary views. By the same basic justice that gives you the right to do what you want with your blog. I have the right to do what I want with my body and my money. That means that I have the right to buy or not buy medical care, to buy or not buy health insurance. That means that the Massachusets mandate is wrong and an intrusion of the state into personal business. I understand the problem with EMTALA. That also is wrong and mandates are a response to the unjust takings that EMTALA allows the indigent uninsured to impose on certain persons. Two wrongs, dont make a right.
DBR
Someone said: “When the AMA becomes more proactive that is the day I will become an AMA member again.”
The activity – or PRO-activity of the AMA is contingent upon its physician leadership.
The leadership is selected, often by default (i.e., the only doctors who will participate) at the county, state and then national level.
Large delegations of physicians from throughout the nation and from all specialties meet in Chicago once a year to determine the organization’s priorities and how to go about achieving them.
All of this is funded by membership dues, but even more importantly, by members’ contribution of their time and leadership.
Let me say this succinctly: “If you don’t like it, get involved and CHANGE it.”
Otherwise, stop whining about how the organization doesn’t represent YOUR interests.
Why the heck SHOULD it if you’re not a member?
In the meantime, you might drop a thank you note to Dr. Hill for averting the scheduled 5% medicare payment reduction this past January…and it wasn’t only AMA doctors who benefited….
Cat
A late addition for your archives?
The concept of the doctors being “enslaved” never occurred to me, but universal care sounds like a short cut to “scarce resources” especially if it’s Hilary’s idea. Guess I’m still suffering from bioethics burn.
The right to health care is no longer a demand by do-gooders for the indigent. It’s a plea for help from Americans that have worked and paid into “the system” all of their lives. Considering the large amount of the average paycheck that goes to pay taxes, what rights should that buy people?
If, as you say, health care is not a right, then money for the National Institute of Health as well as any government funding of universities, clinics and hospitals should be used elsewhere.
As far as the Hippocratic oath and professional obligations, no one should be a doctor that doesn’t want to be. It’s no cakewalk. However, all medical professionals should remember that it wasn’t them that invented medicine. They are standing on tall shoulders. Do today’s physicians live up to the medical standard set forth by those that went before them? How would yesterday’s doctors rate today’s doctors? In skills? In ethics?
* Indulge yourself in being excellent*
Diane
Oh puhlease. This is the doctor you are listening to about reforming health care? Three thoughts:
If Dr. Hsieh is so adamant in his beliefs then why in the world would he have been the Director of Radiology at Kaiser Permanente in San Diego, this country’s closest example to socialized medicine whose CEO is a leading proponent of universal healthcare? If I felt as strongly as he does about the issue, Kaiser would have been the last place I would have worked. Interesting how he leaves this background information off of his blog. Maybe because it makes him look like a hypocrite.
Second: I had a simple x-ray done at Radiology Imaging in which I received a bill for almost $600. After choking on the amount listed, I realized that they had not billed my insurance company, directly billing me. A phone call to their office and my insurance company cleared it up. My eye-opener was that my insurance company only had to pay $185 by contract. After my $18 copay, the final bill was $203. Excuse Me? If I had not had insurance, I would have had to pay triple. Penalizing those who cannot afford insurance, In my opinion, makes Dr. Hsieh part of the problem in this country.
And last, for all of his blathering on his blog and elsewhere, this doctor does not give any solutions to people like my son, an asthmatic who has had a recent exacerbation of symptoms. Terrified of running up an emergency room bill and no health insurance from his part time job, he turned blue during a recent attack as I scrambled to find his inhaler and do all the other things I could do to bring the attack under control. He has been turned down for any reasonable insurance policy and certainly cannot afford the state high risk insurance. My son needs regular doctor care, Dr. Hsieh, and cannot get it in our state. You sir, offer no solutions to my son, only opinions. Your opinions aren’t helping.

Health care is not a right: The fight continues in Colorado

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