Inspiration: Doctors Do Go On Strike
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Inspiration from Fiction
Dr. Thomas Hendricks Goes on Strike in Atlas Shrugged The philosopher and best-selling novelist, Ayn Rand, artfully distilled and expressed the contradictions of statist medicine through the words of the character of Dr. Thomas Hendricks, a surgeon in Atlas Shrugged. He says,
“Do you know what it takes to perform a brain operation? Do you know the kind of skill it demands, and the years of passionate, merciless, excruciating devotion that go to acquire that skill? That was what I would not place at the disposal of men whose sole qualification to rule me was their capacity to spout the fraudulent generalities that got them elected to the privilege of enforcing their wishes at the point of a gun. I would not let them dictate the purpose for which my years of study had been spent, or the conditions of my work, or my choice of patients, or the amount of my reward. I observed that in all the discussions that preceded the enslavement of medicine, men discussed everything--except the desires of the doctors. Men considered only the 'welfare' of the patients, with no thought for those who were to provide it. That a doctor should have any right, desire or choice in the matter, was regarded as irrelevant selfishness; his is not to choose, they said, only 'to serve.' . . . I have often wondered at the smugness with which people assert their right to enslave me, to control my work, to force my will, to violate my conscience, to stifle my mind—yet what is it they expect to depend on when they lie on an operating table under my hands? Their moral code has taught them to believe that it is safe to rely on the virtue of the victims. Well, that is the virtue I have withdrawn. Let them discover the kind of doctors their system will now produce. Let them discover, in their operating rooms and hospital wards, that it is not safe to place their lives in the hands of a man whose life they have throttled. It is not safe, if he is the sort of man who resents it—and still less safe, if he is the sort who doesn’t.” (p. 692, paperback edition)
Inspiration from Life
The Worldwode Epidemic of Doctors StrikesFrom an article that makes the point that if we make war on the rights of doctors, we have no right to rely on them to keep working:
"The outbreak of doctors strikes in America is spreading. So far, doctors in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Florida and New Jersey have held temporary strikes to protest the prohibitive cost of medical malpractice insurance. Now, doctors in Illinois have announced plans for a one-day strike next week. These strikes, so unusual in the United States, are an early symptom of the spread to this country of a worldwide epidemic. . . In most countries, doctors are no longer entrepreneurs. Over the past 50 years, in one country after another, doctors have been transformed into small-time bureaucrats. The principle behind socialized medicine is stated by a Croatian government official who condemned the doctors strike in his country: 'To strike is everyone's constitutional right, but the people's right to health and a regular health service is even greater.' Under socialized medicine, the doctors are always presumed to have no rights, while all comers are presumed to have a 'right' to the doctors unrewarded services. This transformation of doctors into servants of the state--whose only bargaining tool is the mass withholding of their services--is the cause of the rash of doctors strikes." (read more)
Doctors Strike Over Hard-to-Swallow ReformFrom a news story about doctors in Switzerland on strike in March 2009:
"Hundreds of doctors in cantons Vaud and Geneva have hung up their stethoscopes for the day in protest over new laboratory tariffs and general working conditions. . . The one-day strike in western Switzerland is due to be followed by demonstrations across the country on April 1. . . 'It's the first doctors' strike in living memory,' Jean-Pierre Pavillon, president of the Vaud Medicine Society, told journalists in Lausanne. 'The future of the profession had to be called into question for the doctors to take to the streets.' Protestors say the new lower tariffs, due to be introduced on July 1, are not profitable and will cause GPs to lose money and slowly give up their own lab testing. This will lead to a weaker healthcare system and further damage the GP profession, which already has difficulty attracting new young doctors. 'We're not fighting for our salaries, as we don't make a living with the laboratory activities. We don't want to lose this important working tool,' said Pavillon. . . GP discontent goes much deeper than simple laboratory tests. Doctors criticise what they see as an increasingly arrogant, authoritative attitude by Couchepin and his department. 'The question of laboratories is the final straw among our members,' explained Jacques de Heller, president of the Swiss Medical Association. 'But the problem is much wider. It concerns the health minister's communication and his way of talking to doctors. This decision concerning the labs was done while completely disregarding the elements available: the studies, statistics or our own proposals. Everything was ignored. That's not the way to build a durable health system.'" (emphasis added) (read more)
You do know that something like this will be soon coming to a theater near you, don't you? And the ever-so-composed, calm, cool, and collected Swiss can get worked up enough do this? You may be calm, cool, and collected, too, but when is enough going to be enough for you, Doctor? Administer a self-innoculation to protect yourself against the call to sacrifice by reading this passage from The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand:
"It stands to reason that where there's sacrifice, there's someone collecting sacrificial offerings. Where there's service, there's someone being served. The man who speaks to you of sacrifice, speaks of slaves and masters. And intends to be the master."
What if The Doctors Went Out on Strike? From a "thought experiment" that points to the need to get rid of the bureaucrats:
". . . [A]n all-out doctors’ strike is certainly a thought-provoking scenario. And an examination of the mere possibility provides some real insights into the problems our health care system faces today. . . Third-party payments — charges paid by people other than the two directly involved in the transaction — are what make American health care so inefficient. In the mid-20th century, patients paid doctors directly for 80 percent of their services. By 1980, that proportion had dropped to 40 percent. Today, a patient controls only 10 cents of every dollar a doctor earns. Doctors are uniquely critical. Illness, unlike travel or education, is not an optional activity. People can suffer and die, and the public outcry and panic over a medical strike would be politically intolerable. Doctors also have leverage. They are literally “irreplaceable.” There are no temps who can fill in. . . [T]he mere thought of real-life doctors walking the picket lines, though unlikely, should compel policymakers to consider other options — like consumer-driven solutions — for moving away from our broken health care system of third-party payment." (emphasis added) (read more)
Yes, doctors are irreplaceable, but you are so devoted to the nobility of "selfless service" to others that you hardly ever noticed, did you? When are you going to stop letting them treat you like a sacrificial animal on the altar of their needs?
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