ShowsDr. Bobby Mukkamala
Otolaryngologist October 5, 2022 The American health care system becomes more challenging every year. This is true regardless of whether you are on Obamacare or Medicare, or private pay, with few exceptions this situation has become a national nightmare for millions.
Many Americans feel that they are being taken advantage of or simply taken for granted. Costs have soared while service has plummeted. Right now a typical private pay Blue Cross plan for a couple costs upwards of $13,000 a year with a $7500 out of pocket deductible. That means that a couple has to plan on a $28,000 health insurance bill every single year. Of course that doesn’t take co–pays, deductibles and other costs in to consideration, let alone prescription and OTC drugs. Further, the way patients are treated is often egregious at both doctors offices, hospitals, and assisted living and long term care facilities to name a few. Navigating the billing systems are an outrageous journey in to the depths of bureaucracy. The system is breaking the bank at companies who provide benefits, and many can’t afford to do so. Only the biggest employers, (and of course the government itself)can offer anything like a reasonable plan at a manageable cost. The system is also crushing families budgets, harming seniors, and pauperizing those closest to the economic margins of society. Flint and Genesee County used to be the premiere spot for medical care in America. Just ask any older doctor. Best compensation, everyone had health insurance (thank you General Motors) and nearly everyone used it. The reality of today bears no resemblance to that era. In fact it’s the polar opposite. The reasons for this systemic melt down, and economic disaster are many and varied, as are the reasons quality of care has plummeted. We’ll take a look at all of those issues down the road. But one of the scariest of all of the multiple issues facing our deteriorating health care system is what is happening with doctors. Let’s face it, without them we are screwed. In the end isn’t that what all of those dollars are supposed to be paying for? Isn’t it the direct care and expertise of medically trained physicians and specialists that all of those dollars are supposed to be funding? It appears that is not quite the case. So it was with great interest that I read an article written by my good friend Dr. Bobby Mukkamala. He is not just a great surgeon, but a big hearted, community minded, philanthropic benefactor of Flint and Genesee County. He’s also a particularly articulate commentator on the state of the medical system today from the inside out, from the physicians perspective. Dr. Bobby’s article delved in to the burdens and challenges that are imposed on docs today, and what that bureaucratic burden is doing, and is likely to do going forward to the medical profession in general and the quality of care in particular. In short doctors have become marginalized members of the massive bureaucratic monster that the American medical system has devolved in to. Scores of doctors have told us confidentially that if they had to do it all over again, they’d choose another career as a result. That fact doesn’t take in to consideration the bright young minds who will choose investment banking or engineering over medicine for the same reasons. It’s long past time to treat this like the looming disaster it is. It’s a sobering discussion of a topic that is impacting all of us now, or will in the future. We ignore it at our own peril – and I do mean peril. It’s a deep and serious dive in to a challenging topic in the Aquarium with Dr. Bobby Mukkamala. |
Bobby joins Fish for a really thought provoking discussion in the Aquarium!
Read Dr. Bobby's article here
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