I have had several Almanac readers inquire by email as to why I had to spend some time inconvenienced in Duluth. I try not to let my posts get personal unless they relate to my main topics of interest; gardening, horticulture, the environment, local issues, and relevant politics. I guess the following comments fit pretty well within the last two parameters.
I am pretty much O.K. but am on light duty after several days in hospital. Not to get specific, let me just say that the specialist whom I go to in Ashland for an old problem is in the process of retiring and was unavailable. The Ashland hospital folks were very caring but minimally capable in this instance, so we had to drive an hour and a half on icy roads to Duluth where I was seen by a specialist and put on bed rest for several days and nights.
I am at home now and have to take it easy for a week. This type of incident is a real downside to living up here in the Northland and, unfortunately, Obamacare is aggravating this issue; I knew it was going to force my independent specialist (who has offices in several far-flung communities which he serves) out of business the last time I saw him take my manilla file down from its niche on the wall of his office. This doctor is not going to try to computerize his thirty and more years of patient information as required by the new law, and no other doctor is likely to buy his business if they are required to do the same.
The only alternatives for most independent "country doctors" who serve so much of the nation is to retire, or if possible to be absorbed by a far-flung hospital empire, whose bean counters will squeeze every ounce of flexibility out of the operations in the hinterlands and the public will be faced with higher and higher prices, less and less service, and more and more hundred mile runs for in-hospital care and emergency treatment.
Meanwhile, the politicians in Washington who have immediate access to Walter Reed and other top hospitals do not understand the problems they have created and could not care less about the rest of us who do not fit within the parameters of their collectivist schemes.
As the President said, "If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. Period." He should have added a qualifier: "If we haven't driven him out of business."
As the President said, "If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. Period." He should have added a qualifier: "If we haven't driven him out of business."
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