Just a note for consideration. What is a private doctor? The overwhelming number of doctors in the US are not in business for themselves. They are part of huge medical conglomerates, medical corporations that run from a dozen to hundreds of hospitals, care homes, imaging and testing centers, and physicians’ group practices. The chances of a doctor coming out of med school and hanging his shingle in front of his house with the living room and two side rooms converted into waiting area, office, and exam room; his family living in the back rooms and upstairs…well, those days are pretty much gone. Today’s doctor is not a private doctor who sets his hours, his own fees, his own policies. He doesn’t hire his own office staff. He’s very much a wage earner, not a private businessman.
If he IS truly private he is likely an older man/woman with no debt, well established, and extremely wealthy! He’s still obliged to be part of the “system” in so far as certain protocols and keeping computerized records. Since he’s not part of any conglomerate, he must purchase his own computers and record keeping equipment and train his own staff to use it. The cost of classes for himself to use are his responsibility. He must pay for his own office, it’s upkeep, keeping equipment up to date, and his own medical equipment from EKG machine to disposable gloves. He must apply for, be accepted by, and pay for “hospital privileges.” Unless he can afford to lose, not gain money, he can’t make a living on the paltry sums given him by patients’ insurance companies. He certainly cannot take patients on Medicare or Medicaid. His patients must be able to pay his fees out of pocket.
Obamacare forced the majority of private doctors to join a medical group, retire, or, if possible, switch out of mainstream medicine for specialties such as psychiatry, psychology, chiropractic and the like. Thousands of older physicians took early retirement in 2013-2016 rather than go hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt in order to convert their practices up to the new standards. The US lost many excellent, experienced, and caring doctors, replacing them with the young, inexperienced, and in debt.
During the years 2014-2016, I personally went through five “personal care physicians,” all but one of whom retired. The doctor who didn’t retire returned to his native England because he said if he was going to return to socialized medicine, he’d rather work for the NHS that was well established than be part of a system in the US that featured the worst of capitalism and the worst of socialism! My parents and sister also kept “losing” doctors, mainly to early retirement. My nephews’ pediatrician was too young to retire, but having grown up in Canada and gone to medical school there, wanted no part of Obamacare. Instead, she closed her thriving private practice, sold everything, and enrolled in veterinary school to specialize in horses. She’d wanted to do this in the first place but her parents were against it and refused to offer financial assistance.
Back to masks! No, I don’t like them except for when you might be in each other’s face—like at the dentist or the ophthalmologist. They can’t filter viruses, but they do prevent patient and doctor from sneezing, coughing, sharing bits of spittle, and smelling one another’s breath. If they are utterly useless, why do surgeons wear them often along with face guards? Why are they worn by medical workers on the Ebola ward? Why, pre-Covid, did Asian nationals wear them when going out in public if they had a cold or were getting over the flu? It was considered very rude to be frequently coughing, sneezing, or blowing one’s nose around others.
Please realize that complaining to the doctor, unless he’s truly a PRIVATE ophthalmologist, will do no good. It will only frustrate him because THERE’S NOTHING HE CAN DO ABOUT IT. IT ISN’T HIS POLICY! YOU’RE FIGHTING THE MEDICAL CORPORATION WHOSE BOSSES ARE BIG PHARMA, WHO, IN TURN, ARE FINANCED BY THE LIKES OF THE CDC AND WHO. WHO FINANCES THEM? WORLD LEADERS, “THE ELITE” WE KNOW, AND MORE THAT WORK BEHIND THE SCENES.
If anyone wants to make an issue of a mask, realize who you’re up against and that you’ll probably lose. Your other choices are to find a private doctor and pay his fees, try to treat yourself via alternative medicine, a naturopath or sometimes a chiropractor, or put together your own remedies. Check “Dr.” Google and pray a lot! Or do what the poor have always done, go without. If you go blind, you go blind.
Topic: Eye Doctor (Read 9498 times)