"It's not about the money" = It's the money, really.

They do this in the food industry too. Lower the standards, make the packages smaller, and then introduce a "new," "bigger," "better" product at a higher price.

There's already a critical shortage of doctors. Thankfully, this will at least solve that problem.

FTA:

"Diana Moore learned the news through the neighborhood grapevine. Her family's primary-care physician of seven years would no longer accept Moore, her husband and daughter as patients - unless the family paid a $4,500 annual fee."


"It's not about the money. It's about having the time to spend with your patients to keep them healthy."



Hmmm...if it's not about the money, then why is there a yearly fee?

BRING OUT YER DEAD !

FTFA: "Shouldn't we redesign the care delivery system so that everyone has this kind of access, rather than just those who can afford it?" said Pegeen Townsend, a senior vice president at the Maryland Hospital Association.

Sure, just as soon as you can magic up a few thousand more doctors, douchebag.

If you want to have 24 access to a physician, of course there is gonna be a fee ya farkwad. The family physician wanted a doctoring job with relatively regular hours for a pretty solid chunk of change. I feel that if the doc wants to charge a yearly fee for 24 access and house calls, he's in his right. He also is in his right to say no in general.

It is about the money with this guy and his yearly fee, though. Fark it, that's why I wanna be a ER doc/Trauma Surgeon.

Staypuft_Mushmallow_Manz: FTFA: "Shouldn't we redesign the care delivery system so that everyone has this kind of access, rather than just those who can afford it?" said Pegeen Townsend, a senior vice president at the Maryland Hospital Association.

Sure, just as soon as you can magic up a few thousand more doctors, douchebag.

Or socialize healthcare for those who need it. But only commies and europeans would do that.

$15-20 per hour for a GP? I guess the only people getting rich from privatized medicine are the insurance execs and hospital consultants (and politicians).

Yes, let's complain about those greedy doctors and then wonder why there aren't enough of them to meet demand.

But do not worry. Obama and the Democrats will make this type of new billing approach illegal, just as it would have been under Hillarycare. Everything will be free, for everyone.

Yukon Callmeal: Everything will be free, for everyone.

Hahahahahahahahahahaha

"It's not about the money. It's about having the time to spend with your patients to keep them healthy."



"Hmmm...if it's not about the money, then why is there a yearly fee?"


It works like this. to pay overhead costs for a practice and pay off the average 200k in student loans all doctors build up in their average 8 years of post college training you have to run patients through your office like cattle through a cattle chute. Then generally you have to hire someone to navigate all the hoops you jump through to get the insurance companies to pay, I think the average denied claim is like 20%. This guy's solution to this is charge a flat fee, offer 24-7 service and be able to carry a lower patient load so you can actually know and care for your patients. But I guess that sucks because health care should be free.

/I'd also like my grocery bill and oil changes to be free.
//is a doctor
///didn't do primary care for some of the above reasons.

i've never seen a private practice doctor take 40 patients a day. not even those emergency clinics where you can just walk in.. where even if there's only one other person i have to wait an hour for them to get finished, then wait a half hour in the exam room and see the doctor for 5 minutes. they probably don't make a lot of money, but it seems they exaggerated how busy they are.

"I just think it's morally wrong," said Anderson, a data clerk at Mount View Middle School in Marriottsville. She said her daughter and son-in-law also see the same doctor. "If I went in, I would be condoning this type of practice,"

Wah. I want my doctor to be subject to a lifestyle as sucky as mine despite spending tens of thousands of dollars to improve their lives. It's a free market. Go find another doctor.

Personally, I think this is just a sign of a broken system. How much of every dollar spent at the doctor's just goes to the insurance company's bureaucracy or corporate profits?

jwbathe: If you want to have 24 access to a physician, of course there is gonna be a fee ya farkwad. The family physician wanted a doctoring job with relatively regular hours for a pretty solid chunk of change. I feel that if the doc wants to charge a yearly fee for 24 access and house calls, he's in his right. He also is in his right to say no in general.

It is about the money with this guy and his yearly fee, though. Fark it, that's why I wanna be a ER doc/Trauma Surgeon.

Actually, that's what I don't understand about this new model. I can pay $4500 for 24x7 health care from Doc Brown, but that means I still need to pay for insurance to cover YOUR fees in the ER when Doc Brown doesn't have the equipment, or needs to admit me, or when I am out of town.

I understand why Doc Brown wants to get rid of the insurance companies, but that seems to have nothing to do with his offering a 24x7 service. I think he could still do that, regardless of whether he takes insurance or not.

ThoughtSpy: FTA:

"Diana Moore learned the news through the neighborhood grapevine. Her family's primary-care physician of seven years would no longer accept Moore, her husband and daughter as patients - unless the family paid a $4,500 annual fee."

"It's not about the money. It's about having the time to spend with your patients to keep them healthy."

Hmmm...if it's not about the money, then why is there a yearly fee?

Well, maybe it is about the hassle of dealing with the insurance company. Doctor takes straight cash from a patient, knows s/he's getting paid. If the "cash payment" is through a credit card, s/he will get paid within 30 days.

Doctor sends bill to insurance company, gets rejected two or three times before finally getting something, but less than the original bill. The bill has to be padded at least 50% to get what s/he really needs. Payments from an insurance company can be anywhere from 90 days to a year after the doctor has treated the patient.

Now, on top of all that, add in malpractice insurance, student loans from an overpriced education, constantly having to stay current with new technology, and the occasional destitute patient, who the doctor is obligated to treat in an emergency, with no hope of payment for services rendered. Is it any wonder that when you visit your primary care physician, there are more staff members handling paperwork than there are medical assistants? Still makes me wonder why the doctors prefer this system over socialized medicine, but they probably know something that I don't.

Hell of a way to make a living. That's why I sell ice cream.

RoyBatty: Actually, that's what I don't understand about this new model. I can pay $4500 for 24x7 health care from Doc Brown, but that means I still need to pay for insurance to cover YOUR fees in the ER when Doc Brown doesn't have the equipment, or needs to admit me, or when I am out of town.

Yeah...I am at the Ambo station right now and we were talking about this. Really, there is not much of an advantage to have 24/7 primary physician access. If there is a problem, most can wait till normal hours. If they can't, there usually is a Nurse Hotline or something at the local hospital and if it is a big emergency, there is always 911 and the ER.

It's kind of a way to just pad his income a bit and for some people to feel special.

RoyBatty: jwbathe: If you want to have 24 access to a physician, of course there is gonna be a fee ya farkwad. The family physician wanted a doctoring job with relatively regular hours for a pretty solid chunk of change. I feel that if the doc wants to charge a yearly fee for 24 access and house calls, he's in his right. He also is in his right to say no in general.

It is about the money with this guy and his yearly fee, though. Fark it, that's why I wanna be a ER doc/Trauma Surgeon.

Actually, that's what I don't understand about this new model. I can pay $4500 for 24x7 health care from Doc Brown, but that means I still need to pay for insurance to cover YOUR fees in the ER when Doc Brown doesn't have the equipment, or needs to admit me, or when I am out of town.

I understand why Doc Brown wants to get rid of the insurance companies, but that seems to have nothing to do with his offering a 24x7 service. I think he could still do that, regardless of whether he takes insurance or not.

In the past doctors charged the patients directly for care. The patients were reimbursed by the insurance companies. Unfortunately, many patients did not have the money at the time of the visit. So the doctors said, in effect, just pay me when you get the insurance check. A lot of patients got the check and then never paid the doctor. So, doctors switched their model to bill insurance directly. That has led to what the system is today.

Most doctors I know don't mind helping out the truly needy. It is aggravating when people who can pay decide they shouldn't have to. I never quite understand why people think they shouldn't have to pay for medical care.

hoohoodilly: There's already a critical shortage of doctors.

damageddude: .. it's a free market ...

Damageddude: if you think the market for doctors if "free", then you are a moran. The supply is artificially controlled by the AMA. It's all in the name of "safety" of course, and it's all a load of crap. There's basically no importation of foreign doctors into the USA (they make the FMG - foreign medical graduate - program as cumbersome and ridiculous as possible) and we have a culture that requires specialists to do trivial crap.

Please - if you're going to talk health care in the USA, the last term you should bring up in "free market." Just because a consumer has a choice between a number of contrived and ultimately colluding, oligopolistic choices doesn't make it free.

RoyBatty: or when I am out of town.

Talking to my girlfriend, who is a med student, this is becoming a big thing in CA. If you get 3-4 doctors together in a group, you can go on vacation. You don't pay a single doctor to be around 24/7, you pay a group to be around 24/7.

But critics argue that concierge care will exacerbate Maryland's primary-care doctor shortage and force thousands of patients who cannot afford the new fees to be dropped by their physicians. And they say it creates two health care systems: one for those who can pay and another for those who cannot.

Wait A second !!! Choice!, In America!!, what is this country coming too!!!!

So let me get this straight, the doctors see less patients, and can give them better care and it is being called unethical? How many patients a day can we expect them to see? Is it better for a few people to get good care or a lot of people to get poor care? It's a toss up, but I don't think people can blame the doctors 100% for this.

Why do retards think the system is "so broken" when all that's presented to them is increased choices in care. You can have insurance care, conceirge care, urgent care, etc, etc. The only thing "broken" about the system is the uninsured who use the emergency room as their primary care doctor knowing they will get care and not have to pay for it. Last week a guy came in with a sore throat to the emergency room. Daignosis: You have a sore throat. Take a lozenge. You don't have strep or anything else. go away.

michaelb1478: "It's not about the money. It's about having the time to spend with your patients to keep them healthy."



"Hmmm...if it's not about the money, then why is there a yearly fee?"


It works like this. to pay overhead costs for a practice and pay off the average 200k in student loans all doctors build up in their average 8 years of post college training you have to run patients through your office like cattle through a cattle chute. Then generally you have to hire someone to navigate all the hoops you jump through to get the insurance companies to pay, I think the average denied claim is like 20%. This guy's solution to this is charge a flat fee, offer 24-7 service and be able to carry a lower patient load so you can actually know and care for your patients. But I guess that sucks because health care should be free.

/I'd also like my grocery bill and oil changes to be free.
//is a doctor
///didn't do primary care for some of the above reasons.

Well said. Doctors have lives, too. Medical care is not free, their time is not free, their skills are not free.

somedoctorguy:
Most doctors I know don't mind helping out the truly needy. It is aggravating when people who can pay decide they shouldn't have to. I never quite understand why people think they shouldn't have to pay for medical care.

The same reason why people creatively file their taxes; John McCain collects social security; rich people creatively hide their assets to gain outright welfare, housing assistance, medicare; and entire towns belly up to the federal pork trough (worst example: the year or two immediately following 9/11 with small towns grabbing funds for problems which didn't exist and would never exist in their locality).

It's there, and they feel if they don't get it someone else will so it might as well be them.

I love the doctor bashing on Fark. Warms the soul. As a dentist I get crap all the time for my fees. "you charge HOW much for an extraction?" it takes some surgical skill and training to remove a tooth. It doesn't come out like a plug from a wall socket. You don't like my fees you can do it yourself with a pair of pliers. I do plenty of charity work outside of work but I still need to pay my school loans and my overhead.

Bomb Head Mohammed: The supply is artificially controlled by the AMA

Also what about the requirement to go to a doctor for a yearly checkup to get the same drug I've been on for a couple of years? I really don't understand the point of it. In addition to that why do we even require going to doctors for a lot of prescription drugs? Just sell them at drugstores like they do in Mexico.

A lot of what is handled by doctors today can be handled by less experienced nurses at small clinics (I think Minute Clinic is one of them).

HMS_Blinkin Or socialize healthcare for those who need it. But only commies and europeans would do that.

Define who "needs it" or "can't pay" See Hawaii's 7 month experiment with it:

"People who were already able to afford health care began to stop paying for it so they could get it for free," said Dr. Kenny Fink, the administrator for Med-QUEST at the Department of Human Services. "I don't believe that was the intent of the program."

Well geewhilickers, you open up a "free" healthcare and everyone and their brother signs up for it. Whoda thunk it?

lelio: Bomb Head Mohammed: The supply is artificially controlled by the AMA

Also what about the requirement to go to a doctor for a yearly checkup to get the same drug I've been on for a couple of years? I really don't understand the point of it.

It's liability issues. When a doc prescribes a drug, he is in essence saying "I've examined this patient and based upon my testing and observations, this medication is appropriate for his current condition." If your medical condition was progressive to the point where a higher dose or change in medication was required, and this was never discovered because your doc just phoned in the same prescription for the past 5 years, and you ended up in the hospital with a stroke because of poorly managed hypertension, then the doc could be sued because he was providing sub-standard care by providing inappropriate medications. You might find it frustrating that you go in every year, your doc says "Your BP is good, here's 12 more refills, see you next year", but at some point he may say "Your blood pressure is higher today, I think we need to change your medication." And this is applicable to every medical condition which requires chronic medication.

This makes me sad, but what makes me sadder is when my physician, someone I considered a friend (to the point where we'd eat dinner at his house on a regular basis) quit his private practice because he could no longer afford the overhead. When that happens, everyone loses.

/he was all for a single-payer system

Here are some things you might not know:

When doctors take phone calls at night from you whiners, they are not paid. Not one dime. All they make comes from seeing patients in the office. I think it's pretty charitable that doctors have been doing it free of charge all of these years.

Refilling prescriptions, looking at lab reports and results, writing in your chart takes an extra 90 minutes at the end of the doctor's day. Unpaid. How would you like not being paid for work you do?

Concierge medicine changes the equation. You are paying for the doctor's availability and the doctor's otherwise unpaid work. You are also paying for them to have 700 patients instead of 2000. That means more time for you, listening to you whining about your toenail fungus, and being woken up in the middle of the night because your legs itch.

Of course, you could just pay your copay and be one patient of many in your overworked, bitter, burned out doctor's day. Until he or she quits, moves or goes concierge.

lelio: Bomb Head Mohammed:

A lot of what is handled by doctors today can be handled by less experienced nurses at small clinics (I think Minute Clinic is one of them).

That's all fine, good and convenient until you're sick, go to the Minute Clinic and the nurse tells you it's pneumonia and gives you an antibiotic. Only it's not pneumonia, it's a blood clot in your lung and you die. That's the difference between seeing a nurse and a doctor. Whether you want to take that risk is up to you.

Bomb Head Mohammed: hoohoodilly: There's already a critical shortage of doctors.

damageddude: .. it's a free market ...

Damageddude: if you think the market for doctors if "free", then you are a moran. The supply is artificially controlled by the AMA. It's all in the name of "safety" of course, and it's all a load of crap. There's basically no importation of foreign doctors into the USA (they make the FMG - foreign medical graduate - program as cumbersome and ridiculous as possible) and we have a culture that requires specialists to do trivial crap.



Wow, you really don't know much. The AMA has nothing to do with supply of doctors. It's just a lobbying body that publishes a very overrated journal. The government was responsible for clamping down on FMG's, not the AMA, (which happened because of 9/11 by the way.) Take your tinfoil hat off.

Some Surgeons Make Money, But My Brother Says Buxom Blondes Make More.

/obscure?

Bomb Head Mohammed: if you think the market for doctors if "free", then you are a moran. The supply is artificially controlled by the AMA. It's all in the name of "safety" of course, and it's all a load of crap. There's basically no importation of foreign doctors into the USA (they make the FMG - foreign medical graduate - program as cumbersome and ridiculous as possible) and we have a culture that requires specialists to do trivial crap.

The AMA doesn't control the supply of doctors. That's absurd. Osteopathic schools are opening right and left, and the number of new US medical school grads is increasing every year.

The bottleneck is residency training. There is a near-fixed number of slots available in the United States for training a new graduate to be a primary care physician, surgeon, obstetrician, radiologist, or other specialist. Those spots fill every year. Adding more US grads, or letting in more FMGs, will not change the number of new physicians entering practice.

My personal experience is that I have been unimpressed with the overall quality of FMGs, and especially IMGs (Americans who couldn't get into a US medical school and trained in the Caribbean or overseas). I don't believe opening the floodgates to more of them - even if they could find a residency slot to finish training - is a solution.


lelio: A lot of what is handled by doctors today can be handled by less experienced nurses at small clinics (I think Minute Clinic is one of them).

If you're willing to be seen by the nurse practitioner, are you also willing to have your CT read by a radiology practitioner assistant helper, the biopsy of that tumor done by the surgery tech, the radiation and chemotherapy done by a nurse assistant tech practitioner?

And is it OK if your autopsy is done by the pathology nurse practitioner too?

Midlevels (PAs, nurse practitioners, CRNAs, etc), used appropriately, can assist physicians and expand the availability of care. They are not substitute for doctors.


Universal healthcare discussions invariably ignore the most significant and obvious obstacle: the US healthcare system is already running at full capacity. Even if you have insurance, you're looking at multi-week waits to see specialists for non-emergency care in most markets. You can give everyone "free" access, but it won't magically create a bunch of doctors to satisfy that new demand.

valencia: i've never seen a private practice doctor take 40 patients a day. not even those emergency clinics where you can just walk in.. where even if there's only one other person i have to wait an hour for them to get finished, then wait a half hour in the exam room and see the doctor for 5 minutes. they probably don't make a lot of money, but it seems they exaggerated how busy they are.

You haven't been near a doctor's office lately then. My wife has to see 35 patients a day to meet performance standards of her office. That means she can do only one or two physicals a day. Any more than that makes it physically impossible to meet the performance standards. Very few doctors are going into Family Medicine any more as a result of this.

"Some Surgeons Make Money, But My Brother Says Buxom Blondes Make More.

/obscure?"

Nah...... sensory, sensory, motor, motor, both, motor, both, sensory, both, both, motor, motor


Oh, Oh To Touch And Feel a Virgin Girl's V*gina Ah Heaven

/more obscure??

michaelb1478: Oh, Oh To Touch And Feel a Virgin Girl's V*gina Ah Heaven

/more obscure??

You're missing an Oh...


Nuts to this thread, I'm off To Zanzibar, By Motor Car!

Dr. Nick Riviera: michaelb1478: Oh, Oh To Touch And Feel a Virgin Girl's V*gina Ah Heaven

/more obscure??

You're missing an Oh...


Nuts to this thread, I'm off To Zanzibar, By Motor Car!

Be careful when you hook up with the local ladies, as I hear some lovers try positions that they can't handle.

And yet, people still wonder why medical students are avoiding general practice like the plague in favor of specialties that let them keep normal business hours and earn more money.

damageddude: Personally, I think this is just a sign of a broken system. How much of every dollar spent at the doctor's just goes to the insurance company's bureaucracy or corporate profits?

If by "broken system" you mean "people who sue their doctors for malpractice whenever something goes wrong", then I agree with you.

I have to ask, though: what "corporate profits"?

nanded: Be careful when you hook up with the local ladies, as I hear some lovers try positions that they can't handle.

That's why I only bang girls from the law school. After all, you know what they say: Screw The Lawyers, Save A Patient.

drp:
lelio: A lot of what is handled by doctors today can be handled by less experienced nurses at small clinics (I think Minute Clinic is one of them).

If you're willing to be seen by the nurse practitioner, are you also willing to have your CT read by a radiology practitioner assistant helper, the biopsy of that tumor done by the surgery tech, the radiation and chemotherapy done by a nurse assistant tech practitioner?

And is it OK if your autopsy is done by the pathology nurse practitioner too?

Midlevels (PAs, nurse practitioners, CRNAs, etc), used appropriately, can assist physicians and expand the availability of care. They are not substitute for doctors.


Universal healthcare discussions invariably ignore the most significant and obvious obstacle: the US healthcare system is already running at full capacity. Even if you have insurance, you're looking at multi-week waits to see specialists for non-emergency care in most markets. You can give everyone "free" access, but it won't magically create a bunch of doctors to satisfy that new demand.


Ok, seriously? Do you know anything about medicine or nursing at all? How long do you think it would take to be seen if there weren't other specialties out there except MDs? How do you know PAs, FNPs, CRNAs, are LESS EXPERIENCED? You have NO idea and if they slapped a big fancy MD title on their labcoat you'd never know the difference. They go to school and pass tests same as MDs do! Residents are absolutely ignorant for the most part, and I have had to stop a resident from killing people on occasions! Many surgeries you have had have probably had anesthesia performed by a CRNA and you would never know the difference. Did you know its harder to get into CRNA school than most MD programs? Would you trust an FNP with 30 years experience over an MD with 5 years experience? Not any idiot off the street can come in and be a member of the medical profession, as you obviously think. I would rather have an FNP as my regular doc anyday over the poor bedside manner of most MDs!!!! You want multi-week waits?!?! Get rid of all the extra QUALIFIED staff and see how long it takes to see a doc! Go to the hospital and have ONLY MDs take care of you and write orders for you and see how awesome your care is!

michaelb1478: "Some Surgeons Make Money, But My Brother Says Buxom Blondes Make More.

/obscure?"

I recall 'Some Say Mary Money, But My Brother Says Big Boobs Matter Most.'

DukeRN: he most part, and I have had to stop a resident from killing people on occasions! Many surgeries you have had have probably had anesthesia performed by a CRNA and you would never know the difference. Did you know its harder to get into CRNA school than most MD programs?...

Explain to me how a midlevel, with 4 years of college and 2 of graduate training, is somehow the same as a MD or DO with a minimum of 4 years college, 4 years med school, and 3 years of residency. And the medschool and residency part is no joke--60-80 hour weeks for 7 years, that's after being in the top 5-10% of your college class. We are talking knowledge base here, there is now way you can convince me that a midlevel somehow got all the same info in a 2 year master's program at 40 hours a week or less in some cases.

Hahahah, my dirty old anatomy professor told us the Virgin Girl one in lab last month. The blushing of the only girl in our group was priceless.


/working away at MSI

My mother is a primary care physician. 30-40 patients would be a slow day for her. She's seen over 70 in a day before. She loves to work though, is super organized and has an uncanny memory for people. You'd think we'd be rolling in money, but after paying something like 48% of everything to taxes, there's paying the employees, the overhead on the office, plus 4 college tuitions. I work full time after class because I don't want to sponge off my mom for gas and book money.

This sounds great. The free market operating alongside a form of socialized medicine. It doesn't have to be an either/or equation. We can have a basic level of care available to everyone, and allow those who have the means to purchase a higher level of care. Combine this with allowing walk-in clinics again, and we could have a real solution to health care access.

To solve the shortage of doctors, we should offer to pay all or a significant portion of a new doctor's student loans if they agree to work in a "standard care" environment for 4 years. This will encourage more professionals to consider medicine, fill the need for doctors, and ensure a supply of professionals into the future.

Sounds like a win/win solution to me!

DukeRN: drp:
lelio: A lot of what is handled by doctors today can be handled by less experienced nurses at small clinics (I think Minute Clinic is one of them).

If you're willing to be seen by the nurse practitioner, are you also willing to have your CT read by a radiology practitioner assistant helper, the biopsy of that tumor done by the surgery tech, the radiation and chemotherapy done by a nurse assistant tech practitioner?

And is it OK if your autopsy is done by the pathology nurse practitioner too?


Ok, seriously? Do you know anything about medicine or nursing at all? How long do you think it would take to be seen if there weren't other specialties out there except MDs?


How do you know PAs, FNPs, CRNAs, are LESS EXPERIENCED? You have NO idea and if they slapped a big fancy MD title on their labcoat you'd never know the difference. They go to school and pass tests same as MDs do! Residents are absolutely ignorant for the most part, and I have had to stop a resident from killing people on occasions! Many surgeries you have had have probably had anesthesia performed by a CRNA and you would never know the difference. Did you know its harder to get into CRNA school than most MD programs? Would you trust an FNP with 30 years experience over an MD with 5 years experience? Not any idiot off the street can come in and be a member of the medical profession, as you obviously think. I would rather have an FNP as my regular doc anyday over the poor bedside manner of most MDs!!!! You want multi-week waits?!?! Get rid of all the extra QUALIFIED staff and see how long it takes to see a doc! Go to the hospital and have ONLY MDs take care of you and write orders for you and see how awesome your care is!

I'm speechless. It sounds like the only part of your argument that has any merit is that it takes longer to get in to see a doctor. When a nurse practitioner goes to residency and passes all three parts of the boards then I'll listen. Yes, they have to PASS TESTS. Which tests? The ones that ask the three parts of the ear? How is it possible that a two year program can substitute for medical training?

There are two exceptions I can think of. CRNA's are subspecialists that are highly trained, as are nurse midwives. Other than those two exceptions, I can't think of any other NP's that I would trust.

OK, some doctors can be mean. So don't go to them. At least they're competent.

So, you've saved some residents from killing someone. Bully for you. Had that resident had adequate sleep or food in the last shift? Medical training can be so abusive that it can take away the person's good judgment. That doesn't make you smarter than them. Typical insecure nurse. Go to medical school then if you're so smart.

Staypuft_Mushmallow_Manz: FTFA: "Shouldn't we redesign the care delivery system so that everyone has this kind of access, rather than just those who can afford it?" said Pegeen Townsend, a senior vice president at the Maryland Hospital Association.

Sure, just as soon as you can magic up a few thousand more doctors, douchebag.

The comment quoted is a beautiful example of how growing numbers of our fellow citizens believe that goods and services can be just conjured out of nowhere. The only possibly instrumentality for this that I can see would be either:

1. The use of a magic wand and "Alakazam" or some such.

2. Chaining doctors to a wall in the clinic immediately after passing their board certifications.

/surely one of those will work.......