The Politics and Economics of Orthopedic Medicine

teg · #1 (**permalink**) 04-28-2011, 04:24 AM

Hey Mark,
I will take the opportunity to jump in here because I feel that I am a walking spokesperson for both sciences ADR and Fusion. While fusion of the intervebral bodies of the spine has been the "gold standard", my cervical spine has yet to agree with the ages of wisdom behind this science.

I live with the domino effect from my fusion of c6-c7, yet never questioned the skill of my surgeon. Here in DC, he is listed among the best. Yet, the fusion has left me in a significant amount of pain and a likely future of more surgery.

My three-level ADR by Dr. Bertagnoli changed my life. WHile spine surgery is no panacea, mine was a complete success. I hope that as this forum goes forward, we lear from each other's experience. "what is good for the Government, is good for the poeple. (My two cents.) We are a financially incentived medical society in the US and innovation takes a back seat to progress.

Thelma

james · #2 (**permalink**) 05-20-2011, 05:11 AM

health care in US is all politics.
Why we import so many engineers from China and India, but we do not import many medical doctors ?

US medical system puts so many barriers in front of foreign doctors to make it hard for them to come to US.

Let them come to US and I am the one who decides whether to see them or not.

ADR seeker · #3 (**permalink**) 06-14-2011, 08:04 AM

Medicine should be run by the states and the federal government now that medicine is no longer a profession. The rate of health care inflation and extreme profiteering is beyond obscene it is criminal.

Disease is something to be eliminated and not exploited for profit. People are not commodities or cash vending machines.

don_wagner · #4 (**permalink**) 11-12-2013, 10:11 PM

James you are partly correct. If qualified foreign doc's made it into the states, they'd soon catch on and join in with the rest of the doc. crowd. Why do you think so many foreign grad students flood the top US grad institutions? They want the green card to get the green money.

mmglobal · #5 (**permalink**) 11-12-2013, 10:59 PM

I know a few leading surgeons who have transplanted themselves to the US even though they had successful practices overseas. Dr. Fabien Bitan in NY had nearly 200 ADR's under his belt in France before coming to the US and being a principal investigator for many new technologies and becoming a very heavy hitter in pediatric scoliosis. Dr. Lali Sekhon brings an amazing amount of experience to the US. He has done some amazing revisions.

Mark

theBadCormorant · #6 (**permalink**) 11-13-2013, 11:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ADR seeker

Medicine should be run by the states and the federal government now that medicine is no longer a profession. The rate of health care inflation and extreme profiteering is beyond obscene it is criminal.

Disease is something to be eliminated and not exploited for profit. People are not commodities or cash vending machines.

Coming from Scotland, the USA does seem very odd in the money grabbing attitude it has to looking after their own citizens. Is it really true that if you don't have money you don't get treated (other than real basic stuff)

Our NHS is certainly not problem free, but if you get ill and that illness causes you to get poor, at least you have no worries in gaining access to some of the best medical care available. Just seems a little more civilised.

Maria · #7 (**permalink**) 11-14-2013, 01:57 AM

One needs to see if the surgeon involved does charity work if not able to afford surgery or look to a county facility for treatment which will still involve some degree of services/cost.

There may not be a "free service" but there may be quite a reduction if a person should qualify. We just underwent I believe a 2nd annual HealthCare Event in Los Angeles where all services were free. People stood in line for a great deal of time to get some kind of admittance for this event and then were allowed in on one of three days. I wish this was something that were a far more common occurrence because so many people need services. Of course something like orthopedic surgery wouldn't be performed there but at least one could get an evaluation and possibly some form of treatment that day or some kind of assistance.

Even with insurance co pays and uncovered services can really either put a serious dent into one's pocketbook or almost be a deterrent to using the insurance plus there are so many rules that one practically needs a JD to get thru all the babble about when what can be done...