All the talk lately about health care warrants stepping out of topic briefly to discuss a national public health epidemic: obesity.
According to the Center for Disease Control, one third of American’s are obese. Furthermore, obesity is not an equal-opportunity affliction. Obesity is 21% more prevalent among Hispanics, and 51% more prevalent among Blacks. The surgeon general’s office indicates that people living in poverty are 50% more likely to be obese.
Obesity is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease, certain types of cancers, and type 2 diabetes. Obesity is unquestionably a life-threatening condition.
And obesity is expensive. Obesity-related medical expenses in the United States total nearly $100 billion annually, including about $50 billion in Medicare/Medicaid spending. In Kansas, we spend about $200 million each year on obesity-related medical costs.
How do we accept that one out of every three Americans suffers a life-threatening condition, and that minorities and economically-disadvantaged people are disproportionately afflicted? Why must society spend nearly $100 billion annually on what should be a preventable problem? Who is at fault?
Obesity is a medical problem, and medical professionals are supposed to prevent, treat, and cure medical problems. We spend $100 billion every year, but clearly we aren’t getting our money’s worth. It must be that our doctors are too incompetent and lazy to provide adequate medical care. The solution is simple:
We must fire bad doctors.
But we don’t. National medical malpractice statistics show that less than one-half of 1% of the nation’s doctors faces any serious state sanctions each year. This has to change. For the future health and prosperity of our nation, we must act now. We must fire bad doctors.
Certainly the doctors won’t like this. They will toss out all manner of excuses. They will claim lifestyle choices influence people’s health. They will claim genetic pre-dispositions influence people’s health. They will claim that living in poverty limits people’s access to healthy foods and healthy lifestyle options – all beyond the doctor’s control. Lame excuses.
The really bad doctors will point out that many people don’t follow doctor’s orders. Doctors tell their patients to eat right and exercise, but the patient’s just won’t “do their homework” so to speak. The worst doctors will have the audacity to claim that not everyone bothers to visit a doctor, and that doctors can’t treat – or be held accountable for - patients who don’t show up. More lame excuses.
We cannot accept lame excuses when the health and economic prosperity of our nation is at stake. We must “bust the doctor’s union”, so to speak; and rid the country of lazy, incompetent doctors who refuse to cure our nation’s ills.
But this isn’t a medical column; it’s a public education column. So where is this digression going? Read part 2; and learn how this relates to public education.
Comments
This is ridiculous. How many doctors can actually control their patients' lifestyles? So since they cannot control them, how should they be held accountable? Why is this society so quick to go tossing blame?
Ummm...it's ridiculous because you didn't read the next part, like you were asked to at the end. If you did, you'd understand that this idea is as ludicrous for suggesting that doctors are responsible for their patients' poor health as teachers are for their students' home life which directly relates to their education. Read on and then tell me how ridiculous it is.
Ever consider personal responsibility?
People drink, drive and kill. Doctors should also prevent people from drinking. Right?
People use drugs, commit crimes, destroy lives. Doctors fault.
People smoke, get cancer, die. Doctors to blame.
People choose the doctor who will NOT nag them about weight, smoking, drugs, unprotected sex, etc etc etc.
Silly post.
Chris Reich, BizPhyZ.com
Your comment about people choosing the doctor who won't nag them, etc., brings up a good point that is often ignored by the "school choice" crowd: people don't necessarily opt for the best, but rather what makes them FEEL best. It becomes about popularity.
Everyone knows or remembers a teacher in school who was "popular"....not because they were good, but because they were easy and undisciplined. Translate that to a whole school, and you have families "choosing" the school where their kids get straight "A's"....and are best buddies with the teachers...and who cares if any of them learn anything.
just added your article to my educational tweet...great summary/comparison...I get it but then again, education is my career for decades...
Why are Americans so irony-impaired?
And, that thejadedfaerie1017, is exactly what the public is doing to the teachers. Read all parts of the article and you will see what Mr. Reber is getting at. It will make perfect sense.
David must of been educated by some bad public education teachers,
Basically Bad doctors do get fired, I fired my childs doctor 2 yrs ago, they now go to a foriegn national doctor. Also we can all sue doctors, or threaent to sue them for good payouts. My brother in law is a teacher, got drunk before a school talent show and feel off the stage. He went to the hospital and had issues (due to his alcholism). He threaten to sue the doctor and Hospital, 6 months later got a $120,000 check, $60,000 from the hospital, $60,000 from the doctor. This happens almost to 7% of Doctors. Only 1% might actually get sued. My daughter got felt up by a teacher and he was allowed to retire (forced to, but with full benefits and no record). I want the right to sue teachers, and fire them. Are all the teachers on board for eliminating the 1%-5% of bad teacher. Can we the people have the right to sue directly other teachers (like we can doctors) who are negligent? Though so. Those who don't have connections or can't aford private scholl are forced into a cycle of poverty and oppression by bad teachers who can't be sued or fired.
Dr. Logic,
If you're going to accuse someone of being poorly educated, you might want to check your spelling, punctuation, and grammar before posting.
As to your overall question - yes, you can sue any teacher you wish. No, you can't fire them - that power belongs to their employer. If you want to fire teachers, get elected to your local board of education.
Thank you for this wonderful article. I'm certainly going to recommend this to all of my friends AND to all of the critics of public education.
Great post. But regarding your graphic, just because it didn't show my face, does that mean you don't have to get credit for my imagge. A lot of beer drinking effort went into my physique.
Great post! I linked it to my Facebook. Dr. Logic (???)--one of our school's annual professional training sessions is about teachers being sued for negligence in educating children--we learn about teachers who have been sued for failure to educate, and we learn what kinds of records we have to keep to ensure that we can prove we did our job. BTW, half of all teachers leave the profession in the first five years (unlike physicians)--that accounts for most of the 5% of poorly performing teachers.
The funniest part of this article is how the writer missed a gaping logical hole in his argument, that being that doctors operate in the free market, where patients are free to fire them all the time. The opposite is true of teachers, of course, who operate within a protected monopoly-unionist cartel. The author also commits the classic logical fallacy of confusing correlates and cause. Poverty can be correlated to low student achievement, but as schools like Harlem Success Academy have shown, it is not necessarily a cause. Surely the writer is aware of these deep flaws to his argument and was perhaps hoping no one would point them out.
The funniest part of this comment is that the reader missed the point of the article entirely. Nowhere did I write that doctors can't be fired, but that isn't the point. The point is that doctors can't logically be held responsible for patient's poor choices, genetics, or environmental factors beyond the doctor's control. Yet, that is the standard applied to teachers. Harlem Academy, and other so-called "miracle" charter schools achieve their "miracles" by: 1) selective enrollment - a "lottery" isn't random, because it only picks from those who apply; which in itself is a selective process; 2) throwing out under performing students; who then return to the local public school - while the charter keeps the state funding for them. Just think what great illusions of success public schools could produce if they only took students from families that cared, then tossed out under-performing students/families, then sent those under-performers over to their competing schools but kept the funding for them. Wow, a miracle......
I love your sarcasm. :)
Ummm.. Some of these comments concern me. Haven't you all heard of satire?
The people who don't get the irony of this blog must have been educated under NCLB's teach to the test mentality. No common sense, just bubble in the correct answer!
In my old school, bad teacher (the one that teaches NOTHING, and give everyone grades based on attendance) are the one favored administrator because they "don't get complains." Students LOVES him because he's "easy". According to one of his old student, they "don't learn anything in his class," and he "just tell stories about himself all period." Teachers who actually teach (like myself) gets complains because I'm "being too harsh on the students".
What you said earlier is so true about doctors not getting blamed for patients who make their own "choose" not to listen and "chooses" not to follow doctors order. Yet, for students who "chooses" not to do their homework nor come in to get extra help, they get blamed for the low test scores, and get blamed for their failing grades. How is this fair?"
Got something to say?
Examiner.com is looking for writers, photographers, and videographers to join the fastest growing group of local insiders. If you are interested in growing your online rep apply to be an Examiner today!