This is the caduceus, the universal symbol of the medical profession: a winged staff entwined by two serpents. The winged staff are the doctors who labor to save lives. The two serpents are the insurance companies and the pharmaceutical companies; fitting they should be represented as snakes.
A major reason health care costs are so out of control in this country is that doctors bill the patients separately from the hospital, and the doctor gets paid for each procedure he performs. Naturally, this means the greedier doctors will perform more procedures — sometimes unnecessary procedures — in order to line their pockets. This has got to stop. Doctors should receive a flat salary from the institution they work for. Any doctor who has a problem with this is only in it for the money, and should not be practicing medicine.
Pharmaceutical companies are even worse. They drive up costs by making kickbacks to doctors, handing out useless little trinkets like pens and PostIt™ notes, and advertising in the print and electronic media. If they didn’t spend so much promoting their product, it wouldn’t be so expensive. I disapprove of direct marketing of prescription pharmaceuticals anyway: my doctor should make those suggestions. The only place I can imagine such advertising belongs is in medical journals.
I believe in universal, single-payer health care. I would gladly pay a few more taxes for the security of knowing that health care would always be there when I needed it. If that’s “socialism” then so be it.
All treatment decisions where life and/or limb are at issue should be between the patient and the doctor. End of discussion. That includes preparing for end of life, and no, that does not mean patients will be forced to be allowed to die. I know that when my time becomes inevitable and imminent, I’ll want to make my final arrangements with my doctor, and have that visit get paid for. Then again, my doctor would probably give me that one on the house.
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