A letter about US healthcare

His short 2-paragraph letter to the White House accurately puts the blame on a "Culture Crisis" instead of a "Health Care Crisis". Its worth a quick read:


Starner Jones, MD
I am a seventh generation Mississippian and wanted to come back here after going somewhere else for college and medical school.. My extracurricular interests are golf, hunting, fishing and college football.

Dear Sirs:

"During my last night's shift in the ER, I had the pleasure of evaluating a patient with an expensive shiny gold tooth, multiple elaborate expensive tattoos, a very expensive brand of tennis shoes and a new cellular telephone equipped with her favorite R&B tune for a ringtone.. Glancing over the chart, one could not help noticing her payer status: Medicaid. She smokes more than one costly pack of cigarettes every day and, somehow, still has money to buy beer.
And our Congress expects me to pay for this woman's health care? Our nation's health care crisis is not a shortage of quality hospitals, doctors or nurses. It is a crisis of culture - a culture in which it is perfectly acceptable to spend money on vices while refusing to take care of one's self or, heaven forbid, purchase health insurance. A culture that thinks "I can do whatever I want to because someone else will always take care of me". Life is really not that hard. Most of us reap what we sow. Don't you agree?

STARNER JONES, MD
Jackson, MS

8 Comments

what is the purpose of this post?

by ted - 2010-01-15 07:01:27

I am just wondering what the purpose of your post is. While I agree with your sentiments about some people cheating the system, there are millions of people in our country who are homeless, destitute, helpless or who lost their jobs and are near starvation. If you are a doctor, do you have no compassion for the hard working folks who are down on their luck and whose children might need medical care. Or....is it just your desire to inflame us against the healthcare bills pending in Congress so that this peaceful pacemaker club website should again erupt info a controversy which is best left for political forums.
P.S. You forgot to mention the race or color of the individual you were talking about.

Dr. Jones Ltr.

by Bill-2 - 2010-01-15 08:01:55

Ted may I ask what was the purpose of your last sentence in your reply to Trinity. No where in the letter written by Dr. Jones or Trinity's message was any mention made of race or color of the individual. Could iot be you are really the one trying to start more controversy.

I hardly see where race or color of the individual makes any difference because no matter what it may be that person is probably a low life blood sucking individual that is siphoning off health care dollars that could be better spent on a more deserving person.

While he never said it I do think Dr. Jones' letter shows that the system is being abused now and he may imply that the abuse will probably get worse if the proposed government health care program is passed. But what I really found amusing is Trinity's posting had been lying dormant until you decided to protest because you thought it was anti government health care.

You Obama supporters must have very thin skin about your health care program that every poll shows more than half of the people in the U.S. do not want.

Here we go again

by ted - 2010-01-15 09:01:51

Can't you folks keep politics out of this website?
Must you start up with the Obama stuff again?
Can't we talk about pacemakers and medicine?
Any moron can figure out the racial slur in the "Dr. Jones letter" posted by Trinity.
Can't you haters go find a Rush Limbaugh or Ann Coulter blog to peddle your wares?
Shouldn't we keep the Pacemaker Club free from any dialogues or comments involving politics or religion?
Do we heart patients need more aggravation and high blood pressure?

hummmm

by walkerd - 2010-01-16 07:01:05

I really didnt read anything in the post about hard working americans in the first post, just a warning as to what is happening and probably will get worse. hummm just my two cents worth. If health care items arent of concern to this site please read the posts after yours Ted.

dave

forgot

by walkerd - 2010-01-16 07:01:31

lighten up a little bit, I really didnt see anything wrong with the post, it keeps focus on what does and is going to get worse with the system.

We can talk about lots of things. . .

by sugarleaf4 - 2010-01-16 12:01:35

I've read the posts in response to Dr. Jones' letter and I understand what he was trying to say. I also undersand what Ted wrote and here's why.

I am 49 years of age, I have no health insurance because I was laid off last year and my current temporary employment does not offer any. I need a pacemaker because I am bradycardic (under 50 bpm) and I have applied for Medicaid here in North Carolina and was told I did not qualify because I am under 18, not over 65, not blind and not labeled disabled and I certainly am not pregnant. Oh!!! --------- let me add that I am not an illegal resident (which would qualify me for Medicaid). I am just a hard-working American tax payer who got laid off.

I have told the truth about my financial status and that makes me not qualified for the medical care I need. Yes, I have seen the type of person Dr. Jones spoke of sitting in the lobby of Social Services and I've heard the phone conversations, I seen the name brand hand bags and the fancy slider cell phones they used. And yes, on several ocassions I did have the nerve to ask some of those people, "Are you applying for Medicaid?" They replied they already had Medicaid, they were there to re-apply for services or to ask questions about their benefits . . . . . . and my blood boiled!!!!!!

Now, I NEED a pacemaker to enable me to go back to being a more productive tax payer, but my government is not paying for me to have one. The illegal residents in our state are afforded Medicaid because they give birth to babies here and because of that, we do not deny them benefits I feel I should be entitled to because I have been a tax payer (and still am), I'm somewhat educated, I was born and raised in the US and I feel I should be afforded healthcare while some folks should be denied (catch my drift here?)

Now, the fact that some people have not paid into the tax system and some have refused to equip themselves with the education and employment opportunities that would make them "responsible citizens" and the way our government has been qualifying people for services paid for by tax dollars well ------------ this is very much an issue for the government!

I ain't hating on Ted 'cause he's got a right to vent but I will suggest that he just might wanna put some action behind his anger and try to use all that pent up energy to help some of us figure out how to get the medical care we need! Ted, I'm all ears if you can figure out a way for me to get a pm and the follow-up care!

And by the way. . . . . . . the purpose of Dr. Jones' post was to vent. That's what most of us do on this site!

Complaints...

by staceymoser2000 - 2010-02-24 06:02:11

I have filed two complaints against this doctor and anyone else that feels the need here is where you need to go...

Mississippi State Board of Medical Licensure and the

BBB of Jackson, MISS

Professionals have a duty to be professional and if they can not be then they should not be allowed to carry the license!!

I was highly offended by this so called PROFESSIONAL and I am outraged that he feels he can't just go around making public statements like this....

Reply to Dr. Jones' statement...

by staceymoser2000 - 2010-02-24 06:02:18

First of all I think Dr. Jone's made a statement for the whole community of poor people needing health care based off a group of individuals that do NOT represent the whole picture here...and I feel he owes an apology.

Should we all feel like that ALL doctors are CROOKS based on the doctor that helped KILL MIchael Jackson?

No we shouldn't and the doctor's statement was offensive and very NON PROFESSIONAL on a public website!!

This is a true statement of some...but not all.

There are still those that suffer that do not fit in this criteria, nor do they currently have medicaid.

We pay billions of dollars to insurance companies to fatten corporation's pockets...money mind you that we NEVER see again and a lot of times they drop our insurance if we file claims to get our cars fixed, but we can't afford to do anything for health insurance?

Yes there will always be people that take advantage of the system, but there will always be people that genuinely need it why should they suffer?

Nothing is perfect, no system is going to be perfect but I think humanity is most important.

Our country is by far the worse country for greed and poverty; we are country that has EVERYTHING and yet we still have people that are starving right here in our backyards and people that sleep on the streets sometimes not because they chose a lifestyle but sometimes due to unforseen or unavoidable circumstances.

With all the wealth in this country there should NEVER be a time that poor people can't go to the doctor or have regular healthcare.

The millions that want to keep 10% of the country wealthy while the 80% stay poor need to come up with a better solution for the crisis then...

And that is my 2 cents on this issue...

You know you're wired when...

Microwave ovens make you spark.

Member Quotes

We are ALIVE! How wonderful is modern medicine.