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Showing posts from October, 2013

Should Michael Jackson's Doctor Practice Medicine Again?

Before Michael Jackson, most folks didn’t know what propofol was.  Now, patients are asking me for it by name.  It’s an awesome drug.  It provides a beautiful sedation, is extremely safe and rapidly clears after the procedure.  Under its effects, colonoscopy has become a sublime experience.  We administer it in a different manner than Conrad Murray did.  For those who may have just awakened from a 5 year coma, Conrad Murray was Michael Jackson’s personal physician who administered propofol to Jackson in his home to promote sleep.  Murray succeeded and received the modest salary of $150,000 per month for his medical services. Sleep Aid? Administering propofol in a patient’s home without necessary monitoring and training is an egregious breach of standard medical practice.  Those of us who use the drug properly were shocked to learn of this doctor’s reckless and indefensible care.   Here are a few hypothetical examples of similarly negligent care. A surgeon removing yo

Obamacare Health Insurance Exchanges Crash and Burn. Tweaks and Glitches

A few days ago, lawmakers sealed a deal to reopen the government and to relax the debt limit.  This was no O’Henry story with a surprise ending.  This was the outcome that all of us knew was forthcoming.  The GOP not only had no cards to play, but their empty hand was known to all.  It’s very hard to bluff when your cards are face up and you don’t even have a pair of deuces.   Obamacare was the GOP target that quickly became a phantom.  It disappeared.  Afterwards, there was nothing for them to shoot at except each other. GOP vs Dems A perusal of my posts nestled in the Health Care Reform Quality category will demonstrate my skepticism and hostility against Obamacare, which is an interim step toward something even worse.   But, the law was legally enacted, approved by voters in the last general election and was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.  That such a monumental program was passed in a unipartisan manner is wrong, but is not illegal.  The roll out of the exchanges ha

Ted Cruz Filibuster Misses the Mark

Even the most casual Whistleblower reader is aware of my hostility toward Obamacare, which appears destined for incremental implementation.  Ted Cruz’s paper mache weapons were no match for the Democrats' artillery brigade.   When the Chamber of Commerce, corporate America and organized labor are all on the same side of this issue, it suggests that healing this forerunner of socialized medicine will take more than a tweak or two to smooth it out.  Cruz Takes Aim There’s nothing unexpected or unfair here.  Romney campaigned hard against Obamacare.  The country had an opportunity to elect him, and declined to do so.   Did we expect that Obama would dismantle his signature legislative first term achievement in his second term?   When Romney lost, Obamacare won. The Affordable Care Act was legally enacted, albeit without a single Republican vote.  The Supreme Court determined that the law was constitutional.  Elections matter.  So, a flawed program, whose ultimate consequenc

Gun Control and Gun Violence - Is the Right to Bear Arms Absolute?

I’m writing now in the wake of another tragic shooting here in the United States.  For most of us, we have never experienced the current pandemic of senseless violence that we read about and visualize every day.  I challenge you to find a newspaper tomorrow morning, or listen to a news broadcast, that will not report on dark and pernicious inclinations and accomplishments of evil practitioners.  If that challenge is not sufficient, then find an American over the age of 70 to attest that the world is better today than it was during his youth.   I listened to the every word that President Obama said at the ceremony honoring the fallen Navy Shipyard personnel.  He spoke well, and his reference to congressional inaction with regard to gun violence didn’t trouble me at all.   It was beyond shameful when craven congressman couldn’t pass any piece of legislation in the wake of the Newtown catastrophe.   This was a bipartisan failure that broke congress’s already abysmal performance l