'They All Laughed When I Spoke of Greedy Doctors'

"They all laughed when I spoke of greedy doctors."

Spoken by Dr Ralph Crawshaw at the Oregon Medical Association, as documented in the Western Journal of Medicine.

Crawshaw continued:

...the central clinical problem we physicians face in clinical practice is appetite control. Patients seem insatiably hungry for cigarettes, food, sex, money, love and pills. Are we so different from our patients?

My good friend Ralph was a leader in the development of the Oregon Health Plan. He also proposed that the Impaired Physician Program of the Oregon Medical Association look into physicians who were "impaired by money."

George D. Lundberg, MD

Let's face it: The American sickness care industry, with all of its disorganized elements and multiple protected revenue streams, has become a financial behemoth, and at the town, city, county, state, and federal levels, an untouchable political juggernaut. And, unlike anything seen since the US ramped up to fight the Second World War, it is a recession-proof engine for job creation. Who would not be impressed by those achievements? Any questions? Did I hear the word "outcomes"? Uhhhh. A healthy population? Ooooh. Average lifespan of Americans? Efficiency and effectiveness? Quality of living and dying? National happiness? No need for psychoactive chemicals to escape reality?