[HSF] medicine is not practiced in vitro

[Tea Acuff]

One of the themes that I have been trying to get across to the readers of HSF is that all life is connected. Life has no independent categories; we bring the categories to our observations. Or as a sound bite for HSF, "Medicine is not practiced in a test tube," despite our attempts to get all relevant factors in medicine into our clinic, our operations room, or a single operation.

For the wider audience that may be unaware of the details of medicare funding, Pete Stark imports the so called "Stark rules" into medicare that regulate when doctors have crossed the line from service as a business to service as medicine. The former side of the line is considered illegal or possibly fraudulent. This week Congressman Stark in his own words shows the mentality that he brings to the task that is so vital to the appropriate funding of physicians in the USA. The mentality that decides if we are frauds or doctors.

"I yield myself two minutes. Madam speaker, I, first of all, I'm just amazed that they can’t figure out—the Republicans are worried that they can’t pay for insuring an additional 10 million children. They sure don’t care about finding $200 billion to fight the illegal war in Iraq. Where are you going to get that money? Are you going to tell us lies like you’re telling us today? Is that how you’re going to fund the war? You don’t have money to fund the war on children. But you’re going to spend it to blow up innocent people if he can get enough kids to grow old enough for you to send to Iraq to get their heads blown off for the President’s amusement."

                                                                                         Pete Stark

So should we just let "society" determine the right test tube for our practice and trust the goverment's sensibilities, or would indeed medical care be improved if we reformulate the discussion in ways that reflect the way medical care can work? In the US there still is a small choice even if it seems often to be between Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum. Should society get its sensibilities (the gestalt of how the world works)  from Stark or each of us? We each choose daily.

tea