BIG MEDICINE By Dr. Elaina George

BIG MEDICINE

The Cost of Corporate Control and How Doctors and Patients Working Together Can Rebuild a Better System

By Elaina George, MD

  

  

In Dr. Elaina George's new book, Big Medicine: The Cost of Corporate Control and How Doctors and Patients Working Together Can Rebuild a Better System, she explains the impact of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) on patients and on America's healthcare system. Dr. George is not unlike tens of thousands of physicians who fight each day to preserve their liberty to practice not for themselves, but for their patients... all the while having to comply with the voluminous and intrusive nature of federal regulations, piled upon by state and local regulations. Here she offers a unique perspective from the practicing physician and gives an inside view of how and why the healthcare system became broken and discusses solutions on how to fix it.

Dr. George asks: Why did Congress, the President and the special interest groups that helped them write the ACA ignore the very people who could have provided wisest guidance - doctors who have a firsthand understanding of how federal health policy affects individual patients?  Why did they instead turn to academia and activists to write this law?

  

BIG MEDICINE describes the movement from individualized medicine to corporate healthcare which relies on population-based medicine - a one-size-fits-all approach at the expense of the doctor/patient relationship. Dr. George channels her knowledge and medical experience into her prescription: returning medical care to patient-centered delivery based on excellent care at a reasonable cost, maintaining medical privacy and individuality - the cornerstone of the patient-physician relationship. "We need to shift the paradigm back to the doctor and our relationship with our patients."

  

"We have been on the wrong track for many years: when we joined insurance panels; when we signed their contracts without reading them; when we added physician extenders to increase the patient volume in order to stay open; when we sold our practices to the hospitals in order to navigate the financial onslaught; when we let patients dictate the standard of care by requesting treatment by phone and prescriptions for the newest medications as seen on TV..."

  

In BIG MEDICINE, you will learn:

• How the ACA affects patients and physicians;
• How Obamacare has become the Trojan Horse for socialized medicine;
• That crony capitalism can be hazardous to your health;
• About the Administration's answer to high healthcare costs - rationing and cookbook medicine;
• The healthcare system endgame: If doctors choose to put patient care first, they might look forward to fines or jail time;
• How your medical information may be used against you;
• Six ways your health insurers make it harder for your doctor to take care of you;
• About the future of healthcare in the United States - what lies ahead; and
• A practicing physician's prescription for healthcare reform.

Among Dr. George's prescriptions are:

• Change the tax code to allow private physicians to write  off bad debt.
• Change medical malpractice law through tort reform.
• Allow Medicare and Medicaid patients access to cheaper drugs from other countries.
• Refuse to mandate, as matter of licensure, that physicians must accept Medicare, Medicaid, and Obamacare health plans.
• Solutions which include practical alternatives to Obamacare and new healthcare delivery systems.
• Improve care for the indigent by paying physician malpractice premiums in turn for doctors providing care for those financially unable to pay.

Dr. George did not advocate for the outright repeal of Obamacare, although she strongly points to it as a main hindrance to a restored healthcare system. "We are being asked to become agents of the government - to give up our Hippocratic Oath and to work against the interests of our patients." BIG MEDICINE is a comprehensive litany of why Obamacare's good intentions - to cover the costs of the poor and uninsured - come at a great cost to the middle class, patients, doctors, and the nation as a whole.  Dr. George reminds us that the healthcare system cannot run without its doctors.  "We have a great deal of power - why don't we use it, and just take it back? It's time we move away from this system that works against the interest of the doctor/patient relationship."

Dr. Elaina George is a doctor in private solo practice for 17 years in Atlanta, Georgia and an expert on healthcare as well as Obamacare and its implications and controversies.  She is also a radio talk show host and is a popular expert commentator on talk radio and national television shows all over America.