Its been a very full new year for us here in upper Middle TN. Brian and I have had one meeting after another it seems, and when you add in the kid's events we haven't have five minutes to ourselves as the piles of "tax stuff" in my room can attest to.
I have just returned home from an overnight stay in Nashville, this one for doctor stuff. You might have been at the Capital too much if the Legislators and Lobbyist are starting to ask you if you are there doctoring or farming...
I got to interact with my elected officials at the hill today and watch several of my physician friends do the same. I was really struck by how some of the doctors approached the visits like a lecture with a rigid set of talking points, while I took a more laid back approach. Who knowns which way is better, but I liked mixing in talking points with asking about Mums and making it to state playoffs in Basketball. I admit that I have known my Legislators for a lot longer though.
People - most people - are so busy that they don't take time to get to know their officials and then they expect the legislator to automatically take their position for an issue if something ever does move them enough to call or write.
Our state legislators work long hours, sit through boring and often confrontational meetings to keep our Government going and I thank each and every one of them for it. While I know that I may not agree with every vote they cast, at least I know that my concerns represent a personal face and story to them when I call. I can be grown up enough to agree to disagree on issues as well. I think more people in America have forgotten that critical fact.
Here in America, we are rapidly forgetting that we exist in a government of the people and by the people, and when the people are more interested in their facebooking and texting maybe we the people should reevaluate what that says about us as a whole.
Over the last year, there has been a ton of information put out about Health Care Reform... but after taking some time and thinking long and hard about it, I really think we need patient reform. Americans have forgotten that without an investment from them in the relationship with their doctor there will never be good medicine. And Doctors need to take time to listen to the patients complaints. But that means that patients need to come in focused and not with a laundry list of complaints and forms to fill out. Patients, especially those on government subsidized health care need to be made more accountable for their treatment, and tort reform should have been the basis of health care reform from the start.
How do you fix a broken system that is forced to order 20% of all MRIs in "defensive medicine"?
So even though as I sit here typing with a massive headache, I am glad for my fast paced life and for the work I do for my passions - agriculture and medicine. I fear that today's generation - my generation - is one that thinks someone else is going to take care of the issues and I can just live my life.
I have to counter that with something my Grandfather told me, "If you did not do any work for it, don't complain about it."
Hoping for brighter tomorrows... I have three here at home that need them.
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