What is a Dinosaur MD? A paleontological veterinarian? An old-fart pathologist?
It, or I , am neither.
I'm a solo primary care physician in West Coast Suburbia. I'm about as endangered as a California Condor or a manatee. These just didn't sound as cool as a title.
These may be times of sweeping change for health care in the United States. I say "may" because the usual , supremely powerful, suspects are aligned against changing the status quo. Big Health Insurance and Big Pharma aren't going to allow any changes detrimental to their bottom line to be made without a fight. They're spending millions on lobbying Congress as we speak.
It's the little guy, the solo doc, the one without corporate money and lobbies that are going to get the shaft the worst of all. Hell, I don't even have the time to run my business correctly.
At least the condor and manatee have environmentalist do-gooders and a government bureaucracy to try to help them survive. We docs are in the cross-hairs of both private and public entities alike. Between Kaiser and CMS, it's as if Halliburton and the US Army have teamed up to stamp out all the endangered prairie dogs.
Oh we are surely screwed.
Enjoy watching the car-wreck.
