The Corruption of the Doctor Culture
This blog piece by Dr. Chris McCoy (any relation to Michael?) on the Common Dreams forum seems quite relevant to the acupuncture profession. The acupuncture profession as embodied by the national organizations, seems more concerned with practitioner status and income, rather than serving the public good. Any notion of a profession guided by the ethical imperative of charity and altruistic service must take a back seat to concerns of reimbursement. Or to put it more bluntly as one of my acu-professors (a noted acupuncture textbook author) once said to my class – you want to drive your Jag(uar) don’t you?
While the issue of national health care is a complex topic, with some unique concerns from community acupuncturist, I keep coming back to the foundation of motivation: Do we want to help people, or is that motivation conditional upon a long list of ego-centered demands?
Author: Jordan Van Voast, L.Ac.
After graduating from the Northwest Institute of Acupuncture & Oriental Medicine in 1997, I had a hobby practice for a few years before moving to Northern India to study Buddhism. During this time, I volunteered in a local clinic, giving acupuncture to Tibetan refugees and Indian nationals. <p> Returning to the U.S. in 2002, I started a typical insurance based acupuncture practice catering to the upper middle class. In 2005, following Hurricane Katrina, I volunteered with <a href="https://www.acuwithoutborders.org/" target="_blank">Acupuncturists Without Borders</a>, using community style acupuncture to treat trauma victims in a natural disaster setting. </p> Inspired by the power and efficacy of acupuncture in a post-disaster setting, I began to contemplate issues of socioeconomic class. What could be done to make acupuncture accessible to everyone and still provider a livable wage for an acupuncturist? After attending WCA's first conference in October of 2006, I had found the answer to that question. In January 2007, together with my partner Serena Sundaram, we founded <a href="https://www.communichi.org/" target="_blank">Communichi</a>, Seattle's first dedicated community acupuncture clinic. <p> As a Buddhist, I believe that healing begins in the mind. As the positive qualities of wisdom and compassion are cultivated in the mind of a practitioner, this...
more backstory…
This book is an interesting read. Most of it is available on google books preview. -k
And the AMA is up to their old tricks again.
(…reading this article earlier this week.)
I would imagine details of the story reveal a broad and complex mess. But the bottom line is, well…as Jordan’s teacher’s comment is….revealing.
other voices besides the AMA
https://www.pnhp.org/news/2007/july/_health_insurance_fo.php
https://www.pnhp.org/single_payer_resources/singlepayer_primer_for_the_press.php
definition of insanity
“Now the definition of insanity is to repeat what has gone on in the
past and expect a different result. Yet that’s what we’re doing with
the public option. And as a representative of physicians in that
capacity, and certainly the relationship I have with nurses and
patients, I feel it’s my duty to be honest about the best policy
research, the best literature, and the best experience that we have and
that all indicates that the public option is going to fail.”
-Nick Skala, sr. researcher at PNHP
link is here.