Remy vs. the VA Scandal

I've always enjoyed Remy's work, and I've posted a number of his other videos before (he has his own category tag here, so click on it see cleverly done political humor like the NSA Slow Jam or the TSA Christmas videos).  He's always been witty and incisive and hilarious and just a little goofy.  It's funny and kind of cute.  This time, though, he's taken things to a whole new level.  The first time I saw the video I was cheerfully listening along and then my jaw dropped.  He went there.  It was bold. Ballsy. Brutal.  And brilliant.  Sometime you need a comedian to savage the news and people behind it.  I'm not even sure it counts as "humor" or "satire" anymore ... but I am sure that I've never loved him as much as I do right now.

Dr. Feelgood Doesn't Feel So Good

"How being a doctor became the most miserable profession."  You may remember one doctor's cri du coeur from a little while ago.

Schadenfreudelicious: A Taste Of Your Own Medicine

*Snort*  (thanks to the incomparably engaging Iowahawk on Twitter)

I'm Shocked ... SHOCKED: Californians Appalled By Rising Health Insurance Costs

Oh, yeeeeeeah, like we couldn't see this coming.  But apparently some Californians didn't.  Time to pay up, suckers.  Gullibility and stupidity are expensive, yo.  

Plus there's this precious little comment:

Although recent criticism of the healthcare law has focused on website glitches and early enrollment snags, experts say sharp price increases for individual policies have the greatest potential to erode public support for President Obama's signature legislation.

You don't say!

LOL: SNL and Obamacare

The Obamacare debacle is such a headache that it's hard to find anything funny at all about it.  SNL, though, managed to milk it for a laugh or two:

Quote of the Day: Jindal on Obamacare Delay

You know things are bad when you can’t even successfully implement your own bad ideas.
— Gov. Bobby Jindal (@BobbyJindal) July 3, 2013

Nothing Is So Obvious That You Don't Have To Spell It Out

Quote of the day on the increasingly scandal-ridden British government health care deathtrap NHS:

People working in the NHS need to know that they, and not some faceless administrator, Whitehall mandarin or government minister, are responsible for what happens to patients in their care. 

I can't believe things have reached such a miserable depth that the editorialist actually felt he had to explain this to people working in the NHS.  RELATED: Here.

Latest NHS Skulduggery

True story: I was just chatting with a British friend of mine who was extolling the NHS and telling me "Don't believe the crap in the American media" about its various failings.  Almost instantly afterwards when I got home, I saw this horrible news item about a cover-up of babies' deaths at a Cumbria hospital ... and the story was not in the US news.  Nope, this is in the BBC, which also ran this editorial beginning:

In an interview on BBC radio, Care Quality Commission chairman David Prior described the allegation that his organisation covered up failings as "shocking". 

But perhaps the truly most shocking element of all this is that we are not really that surprised. 

The findings laid bare by consultants Grant Thornton on Wednesday confirms something that is becoming clearer and clearer as the months go by: that in the early part of the 21st century a rotten culture developed in the NHS in England that put self-interest ahead of patients. 

In short, the NHS stopped caring.

So, yeah. I don't need to "believe the crap in the American media" about the grotesqueries of the NHS and government-run health care.  The British media will do it just fine.  Meanwhile, 30 aggrieved families are taking legal action over infant and maternal deaths and injuries at that house of horrors hospital where the deaths and injuries went, as the news report, says, "unnoticed."  How damning.

Satire Alert: May Madness Scandal-a-Palooza Brackets

March Madness is (sadly) finished, but a wag at Ricochet has something new for us to play with!  Click to enlarge so you can see all the chicanery, hubris, and moral laxity:

"I am not a crook."

Caveat: This is a joke.  I do NOT support irresponsible talk about actual impeachment efforts, because - let's face it - they're doomed to fail and will only backfire. 

Quote of the Day: A Doctor's Perspective

Oh, dear:

I am a general surgeon with more than three decades in private clinical practice. And I am fed up. Since the late 1970s, I have witnessed remarkable technological revolutions in medicine, from CT scans to robot-assisted surgery. But I have also watched as medicine slowly evolved into the domain of technicians, bookkeepers, and clerks.  

Government interventions over the past four decades have yielded a cascade of perverse incentives, bureaucratic diktats, and economic pressures that together are forcing doctors to sacrifice their independent professional medical judgment, and their integrity. The consequence is clear: Many doctors from my generation are exiting the field. Others are seeing their private practices threatened with bankruptcy, or are giving up their autonomy for the life of a shift-working hospital employee. Governments and hospital administrators hold all the power, while doctors—and worse still, patients—hold none.

You may recall this other doctor's lament.

Obamacare and the Doctors' Revolt

"Direct primary care."

Medical Tech and Robots

"The robot will see you now."

One Patient's Thank-You Note to His Doctor

Kudos!  Dr. Daniel Chan is the man! (Of course, John Williams is also the man!).

Quote of the Day: Dr. Benjamin Carson

Here's a bit of background about the good doctor, along with his official page at Johns Hopkins and the website for the Carson Scholars.  As for his speech at the National Prayer Breakfast recently, it's full of win.  I can't even decide which snippet to choose, so here's the whole thing: 

From the Annals of Socialized Medicine: Rationing Forces Patients to Go Private

Surprise!  As a British friend of mine recently told me, "I don't know why everyone loves the NHS.  It's dreadful."

What Fresh Hell Is This? Deadly Blunders in the NHS

WHAT.

Post-SCOTUS Decision: A Thought and a Giggle

In the wake of this morning's announcement, I give you an intriguing thought from the Anchoress (are we ultimately going to figure out that today's victory is actually a Pyrrhic one? hmmm) and a big giggle from the Star Wars-loving Internet:

Let's Add $340 Billion to the Already Ludicrous Deficit

That's just great.

Gaia's Health Matters More Than Yours, Mere Human

Good grief.

Quote of the Day: The Coming Medical Ethics Crisis?

Oh, goody.  Terrifying thought by a practicing physician in the new age of government intrusion:

When the physician’s primary obligation is to satisfy the wishes of the payer—ultimately the wishes of the state—how can patients be truly confident in their doctors’ decisions? 

I submit that it all boils down to a question of professional ethics. 

The medical profession must decide—and soon—which ethical doctrine to follow: Are doctors to be agents of their patients or agents of the state? All of us should dread the latter choice—because we will all be patients some day.