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From: laura@l5.uucp (Laura Creighton)
Newsgroups: net.politics.theory
Subject: Re: Credentials, State vs. private
Message-ID: <138@l5.uucp>
Date: Sat, 21-Sep-85 14:45:46 EDT
Article-I.D.: l5.138
Posted: Sat Sep 21 14:45:46 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 25-Sep-85 08:19:28 EDT
References: <152@gargoyle.UUCP> <28200053@inmet.UUCP>
Reply-To: laura@l5.UUCP (Laura Creighton)
Organization: Ell-Five [Consultants], San Francisco
Lines: 79

In article <1789@psuvax1.UUCP> berman@psuvax1.UUCP (Piotr Berman) writes:
>> 
>> There is nothing in Libertaria which says that you shouldn't get the doctor
>> that you want who went ot the medical school of your choice. All you have to
>> do is hire *that* doctor rather than some other doctor. What it will do is
>> to get rid of the fiction that all doctors are created equal, and make it
>> clear to people that they are going to have to do the same level of research
>> in selecting a doctor that they already do to select a car or a television.
>> 
>> I consider that a good thing.
>> 
>> -- 
>> Laura Creighton		(note new address!)
>> sun!l5!laura		(that is ell-five, not fifteen)
>> l5!laura@lll-crg.arpa
>
>I do not consider that a good thing.  When I am ill, I do not have the time
>to look for a doctor, certainly not as much of time as in the case of a car.
>Also, the potential damage of a wrong choice is much larger.
>

Sorry, Piotr, that I haven't gotten back to you, but the fact of the
matter was that I was very sick.  Since the only good doctor I know in
this town (I just moved here) was away, I was in this precise situation. Do
you want to know what happened? *Nobody* was able to diagnose what I had
despite having a complete physical/medical history of me. I kept getting
perscribed things which did not work. I got sick to the point of being
semi-delerious with pain and poor John Gilmore had to keep checking up
on more doctors, adn the results of more tests and so on...

eventually Dr. Flash Gordon got back. He looked over the charts of what
I had been doing the last 2 weeks and found that one doctor had (correctly)
diagnosed one of the three things that were wrong with me and had done
*nothing* for it.  The medicines that I  had been given had already been
determined to be marginal at best with my particular makeup (also
documented).  And one of them had no relation to any of my symptoms. The
upshot is that with a new perscription I felt well enough to go to work one
day (about 12 hours) after first taking the perscription.

While I was lying sick i would dearly have liked to know that i was
getting diagnosed by a lousy/inexperienced internist. I would really have
appreciated knowing who the AMA considered the best internist. But could
I find out? No. All doctors are certified therefore all are competant, right?

>You assume that a citizen of Libertaria has a lot of information and
>sophistication.  He/she decides without help of the state whether
>doctors are good, whether banks/insurance companies have good financial
>standing, whether a given ingredient of some food you are want to eat
>may be harmful, etc. 

right now a citizen has to trust that the state only certifies good doctors,
does not cause banks and insurance companies to fail, and won't allow
harmful things to be put into foods. Right now a citizen is paying in
taxes for this. ARE THE CITIZENS GETTING VALUE FOR THEIR MONEY?  Right now
there are lousy doctors, and inflation and too damn much sugar (not
to mention dyes and preservatives) in food.  I'd like my money back.  

what? i can't get it back because the state is necessarily providing good
doctors and keeping the banks from failing (actually it is the banks which are
collectively supporting each other right now) and keeping those nasty 
businesses from putting harmful substances ont he supermarket shelves? But
there *are* lousy doctors, and it looks like all the banks are going to
fail if nothing is done about inflation and I have to work damn hard to get
granola for breakfast which doesnt have any sugar to rot my teeth and make
me fat! I'd like my money back...

Faith that the government will do what you want it to do isn't enough.

 
>Before the age of state regulations, citizens
>were never sure of those things, and frequently they were paying
>dearly for this.

I'm paying dearly for this *now*. 

-- 
Laura Creighton		(note new address!)
sun!l5!laura		(that is ell-five, not fifteen)
l5!laura@lll-crg.arpa