- Dear Mr. President:
-
- During my shift in the Emergency Room last night,
I had
- the pleasure of evaluating a patient whose smile revealed
an expensive shiny gold tooth, whose body was adorned with a wide assortment
of elaborate and costly tattoos, who wore a very expensive brand of tennis
shoes and who chatted on a new cellular telephone equipped with a popular
R&B ringtone.
-
- While glancing over her patient chart, I happened
to notice that her payer status was listed as "Medicaid"! During
my examination of her, the patient informed me that she smokes more than
one costly pack of cigarettes every day and somehow still has money to
buy pretzels and beer.
-
- And, you and our Congress expect me to pay for
this woman's health care? I contend that our nation's "health care
crisis" is not the result of a shortage of quality hospitals, doctors
or nurses. Rather, it is the result of a "crisis of culture",
a culture in which it is perfectly acceptable to spend money on luxuries
and vices while refusing to take care of one's self or, heaven forbid,
purchase health insurance. It is a culture based in the irresponsible
credo that "I can do whatever I want to because someone else will
always take care of me".
-
- Once you fix this "culture crisis"
that rewards irresponsibility and dependency, you'll be amazed at how quickly
our nation's health care difficulties will disappear.
-
- Respectfully,
- STARNER JONES, MD
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