Product Description

A brilliant, committed, politically conservative doctor argues for solutions to the crisis in medicine that are fundamentally opposed to those being widely touted today. Your Doctor Is Not In does for medicine what Allan Bloom did for education in The Closing of the American Mind. Line drawings.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1794378 in Books
• Published on: 1994-05-03
• Released on: 1994-05-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 276 pages

From Publishers Weekly
The current debate over health care reform has created a brisk market for information, and Orient, the executive director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, here weighs in with the conservatives on health care reform, arguing that "a free market would bring the best possible medical care to the greatest number of people at the lowest possible cost." The book makes the case for freedom of enterprise and inquiry in medicine--a system under which the "heart of medicine is the relationship of one doctor to one patient." Orient believes that the medical profession is already over-administered and controlled, like a "patient who suffers from polypharmacy." She predicts the further enslavement of physicians should a nationalized system emerge. Her descriptions of the British and German models of socialized medicine (both of which permit private insurance and private medicine) and the Canadian system are used to point out the flaws in state-run medicine. According to the author, the ultimate result of most reform plans would be "the destruction of our traditional forms of medical practice." Whether or not you agree that health care is a privilege and not a right, and that the proposed changes will mean less freedom, this thought-provoking defense of private medicine should be read by all interested in the health care dialogue.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
The paradox that universal health care means restricted health care is validated by evaluating the state of British, Canadian, and German health-care systems. Closer to home, Orient examines the consequences of third-party payer systems in the U.S., which now wield control over the quality of health care provided by VA hospitals and HMOs/PPOs, and by independent physicians to Medicare/Medicaid or privately insured patients. Although the public is generally unsympathetic to the plight of doctors beleaguered by third-party regulations, the effects of bureaucratic second-guessing on patient care demand critical consideration, which Orient provides anecdotally. Particularly alarming potential side effects of national health care, such as compromised medical privacy in this time of AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, and, chillingly, involuntary euthanasia, are discussed. Orient presents her concerns convincingly, with a touch of wry humor that lightens but does not diminish such worrisome prospects. Brenda Grazis

From Kirkus Reviews
A formulaic, if impassioned, Rx by the executive director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, whose answer to runaway medical costs and uneven care is to put patients, not health care managers, back in the driver's seat. Jane M. Orient is an LMD, a local medical doctor, who practices internal medicine in Tucson, Ariz. Her irreverence towards the establishment is implicit in her definition of an LMD, ``a term of derision used by significant persons such as full professors to refer to doctors in the world outside the academy. The term connotes a bumbler or hick who somehow got an M.D. degree.'' Orient takes money only from patients, not from third- party payers. Because she's chosen to be independent from managed care networks, she is increasingly a ``superfluous woman,'' i.e. her medical opinion doesn't count. Orient compares the state of American medicine to that of an overmedicated patient, one suffering toxic effects from drugs prescribed to regulate conditions that were best left alone. Her answer is decentralization. ``Medicine,'' she argues, ``is based on the doctor-patient relationship founded on the Hippocratic Oath--not on an administrative flowchart. Remember, you can fire your doctor if you like. You can't fire your bureaucrat.'' Orient reviews the pros and cons of the British, Canadian, and German health care systems, as well as the AMA's practice guidelines, and concludes that a free market is the best alternative and the one that does the least harm. In a final chapter called ``Getting It Right,'' she issues her own plan: (1) restore insurance, as opposed to a system of managed care, (2) decrease government regulation, and (3) encourage charity to the poor. A conservative argument against increasing government regulation and bureaucratization of American medicine in the tradition of such free-market thinkers as Milton Friedman. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Customer Reviews

So you want free healthcare............
This is a book all politicians, and all consumers must read !
The truth about Canadian, British and other free healthcare systems is they don't work. The Canadian dollar is worth almost 1/2 of the USD because of skyrocketing costs - technologically there are only 2 MRI scanners for all of Toronto and the waiting list is 6-12 months for a test! Canadians who need high tech tests come to the US! Americans are very litigious and drive health care costs thru the roof - in 1981, your HMO copayment to the doctor paid for the ENTIRE OFFICE visit! Insurance premiums for doctors, hospitals and nursing homes have hit all time highs.
Hospitals, nursing homes and doctors are going out of business but the general public sees none of this. The news media has no stories for us because we don't want to hear the real news. Why can't I get someone who speaks American English? Read the book and find out what's really going on.......