–How are the doctor shortage, the VA hospital scandal, the GAP and the BIG LIE connected?

Twitter: @rodgermitchell; Search #monetarysovereignty
Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell

Mitchell’s laws:
●The more federal budgets are cut and taxes increased, the weaker an economy becomes.
●Austerity is the government’s method for widening the gap between rich and poor, which ultimately leads to civil disorder.
●Until the 99% understand the need for federal deficits, the upper 1% will rule.
●To survive long term, a monetarily non-sovereign government must have a positive balance of payments.
●Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
●The penalty for ignorance is slavery.
●Everything in economics devolves to motive, and the motive is the gap.
======================================================================================================================================================================================

We (rightfully) are up in arms about shoddy treatment of our veterans by the VA. Is this in any way related to a doctor shortage, and if so why? Consider these articles:

AAMC: Association of American Medical Colleges
GME Funding: How to Fix the Doctor Shortage

According to AAMC estimates, the United States faces a shortage of more than 91,500 physicians by 2020 —a number that is expected to grow to more than 130,600 by 2025.

America’s medical schools are increasing their enrollments. However, in order to complete their training and begin seeing patients, new physicians must complete a residency training program, which are in shorter supply.

The number of federally funded residency training positions was capped by Congress in 1997 by the Balanced Budget Act.

Congress promulgates the BIG LIE, that federal finances are like personal finances, so spending must be limited.

This is said to be “prudent,” because of the fiction that our Monetarily Sovereign federal government’s deficit is “unsustainable,” and the federal government can run short of dollars — especially dollars that would benefit the lower 99.9% income/power group.

The BIG LIE about federal spending unsustainability limits the training of doctors, and as always, the purpose is to widen the GAP between the very rich and the rest.

[As an aside: The BIG LIE relates to the myth that federal spending creates a so-called “big government,” and this “big government” is a burden on the populace — a clever reversal of the facts].

New York Times
Doctor Shortage Is Cited in Delays at V.A. Hospitals
By RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr. and ABBY GOODNOUGH

Dr. Phyllis Hollenbeck, a primary care physician, took a job at the Veterans Affairs medical center in Jackson, Miss., in 2008 expecting fulfilling work and a lighter patient load than she had had in private practice.

What she found was quite different: 13-hour workdays fueled by large patient loads that kept growing as colleagues quit and were not replaced.

A subsequent investigation by the Department of Veterans Affairs concluded last fall that indeed the Jackson hospital did not have enough primary care doctors.

Lawmakers in Congress called for the resignation of Eric Shinseki, the Veterans Affairs secretary.

At the heart of the falsified data in Phoenix, and possibly many other veterans hospitals, is an acute shortage of doctors, particularly primary care.

Most experts agree that soaring demand for veterans’ care has outpaced the availability of doctors in many locations, and that high turnover is a major problem.

Why would the federal government, with the unlimited ability to hire personnel, ever be short of staff?

Primary care doctors and internists at veterans centers generally earn from about $98,000 to $195,000, compared with private-sector primary care physicians whose total median compensation was $221,000 in 2012, according to the Medical Group Management Association, a trade group.

And there it is again: Congress scrimping on federal spending that would benefit the populace, while placing the blame for resultant problems on a political appointee scapegoat. In fact, the problems stem from Congress being bribed (via campaign contributions and promises of lucrative employment later) by the upper .1% income power group.

Dr. Atul Grover, chief public policy officer at the Association of American Medical Colleges, said the department’s doctor shortage came down to a simple fact: “It’s just harder to attract physicians to care for more challenging patients while paying them less.”

Pay less; get fewer. What could be clearer? Yet Congress refuses to acknowledge it.

In that vein, those of us receiving Medicare notice a peculiar circumstance: Medicare pays much less than the doctors invoice. Medicare also pays less than private insurers pay. And the Medicare deductible forces Medicare beneficiaries to buy supplemental insurance or pay more for health care.

Because Congress unnecessarily cuts payments to doctors, we have a doctor shortage. And because Medicare has a deductible, people must pay for supplementary insurance or pay the difference — and all of these payment shortfalls impact the 99.9% far more than the upper .1%, thus widening the GAP.

Bottom line: As a result of the BIG LIE:

1. Too few people wish to be doctors
2. Too little training is available, even for those who do wish to be doctors
3. Doctors are overworked, impacting their ability to serve their patients, and their desire to remain doctors.
4. Increasing numbers of doctors (particularly the more skilled doctors) now have “beautique practices,” wherein they receive an additional fixed fee ($1,000 – $25,000 annually), in exchange for greater availability.

The rich never have trouble finding a doctor or paying for any medical service. The rich have no difficulty paying beautique doctors for easier access.

Yes, there is a doctor shortage. Yes, there is a VA hospital scandal. And yes, the GAP between the rich and the rest is growing.

And yes, the fault is with a bribed Congress and the BIG LIE about “unsustainable” federal spending and “big government.”

Or should the blame really be laid at the feet of the gullible victims who, rejecting all evidence to the contrary, accept the BIG LIE?

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

====================================================================================================================================================
Ten Steps to Prosperity:
1. Eliminate FICA (Click here)
2. Federally funded Medicare — parts A, B & D plus long term nursing care — for everyone (Click here)
3. Provide an Economic Bonus to every man, woman and child in America, and/or every state a per capita Economic Bonus. (Click here) Or institute a reverse income tax.
4. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone. Click here
5. Salary for attending school (Click here)
6. Eliminate corporate taxes (Click here)
7. Increase the standard income tax deduction annually
8. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99% (Click here)
9. Federal ownership of all banks (Click here)
10. Tax the very rich (.1%) more, with much higher, progressive tax rates on all forms of income. (Click here)

—–

10 Steps to Economic Misery: (Click here:)
1. Maintain or increase the FICA tax..
2. Spread the myth Social Security, Medicare and the U.S. government are insolvent.
3. Cut federal employment in the military, post office, other federal agencies.
4. Broaden the income tax base so more lower income people will pay.
5. Cut financial assistance to the states.
6. Spread the myth federal taxes pay for federal spending.
7. Allow banks to trade for their own accounts; save them when their investments go sour.
8. Never prosecute any banker for criminal activity.
9. Nominate arch conservatives to the Supreme Court.
10. Reduce the federal deficit and debt

As the federal deficit growth lines drop, we approach recession, which will be cured only when the lines rise. Federal deficit growth is absolutely, positively necessary for economic growth. Period.

#MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY