5 Highest Paid Doctors in the World (A Blog I Wrote in 2012 Before Obama Care)

People always assume that doctors, regardless of area or specialty, are highly paid individuals that live in mansions, drive luxury cars, and wear expensive clothing. Think again!

Although medicine is a very lucrative profession, there can be quite a huge income disparity between what different doctors earn. After years of intense study at medical school and years spent in residency, doctors are often burdened with hundreds of thousands of dollars in student loans. The average medical student can come out with close to $300,000 in debt. That is a lot of money to spend on education, especially when you take into consideration that doctors like pediatricians and family practitioners often less than $100,000 a year.

Skyrocketing professional liability insurance and costs associated with managing a practice can also diminish a doctor’s salary. If you are considering a career in medicine, carefully weigh the pros and cons of different specialties you might find interesting. So who are the five highest paid doctors in the world? After researching different online surveys of various doctors’ salaries, here is a list of the five highest paid doctors in the world. Although the ranking will vary from survey to survey, these listed doctor specialties consistently came in the top five.

1). Orthopedic Surgeon – $315,000 – $519,000

Orthopedic Surgeons are highly training surgeons that perform operations involving the muscular and skeletal system. Orthopedic surgeons often own their own practices and are frequently employed in settings to treat sports-related injuries.

2). Cardiologist – $314,000 – $512,000

Cardiologists are specialists in treating diseases and disorders related to the human heart and cardiovascular system. They are employed by hospitals as well as private clinics. Often, cardiologists can specialize in other areas such as pediatric, invasive, geriatric and neonatal cardiology. Cardiologists also can work as interventionists, helping patients fight heart problems associated with obesity.

3). Radiologist – $315,000 – $507,000

Radiologists are doctors that often diagnose various conditions and diseases using a variety of imaging devices such as x-rays, cat scans, etc. These doctors are also frequently used in cancer treatment facilities to administer radiation therapy.

4). Urologist – $309,000 – $461,000

Urologists specialize in treating diseases and disorders related to the urinary organs. These specialists also help diagnose and treat diseases related to male and female infertility. Often, these doctors are employed in private settings.

5). Anesthesiologist – $309,000 – $362,000

Anesthesiologists are specialists that administer anesthesia and other pain management therapies to patients who are in the process of undergoing surgical treatment. These doctors become familiar with a wide variety of anesthetic treatments and are usually employed in hospital settings where surgical operations are performed.

Although you should not use this information to deter you from pursuing your future medical career, its always intelligent to take into consideration which areas and specialties of medicine will be the most lucrative. No one wants to go through years of school and rack up hundreds of thousands of dollars of student debt to not have it pay off on their paycheck.

 So Yes, With Obama Care Coming Into Effect More Doctor's & Health Care Professional's Will Be Moving To Other Countries, Just Trying To Survive Financially. 

  

Coping with Grief and Loss

Understanding the Grieving Process

Losing someone or something you love or care deeply about is very painful. You may experience all kinds of difficult emotions and it may feel like the pain and sadness you're experiencing will never let up. These are normal reactions to a significant loss. But while there is no right or wrong way to grieve, there are healthy ways to cope with the pain that, in time, can renew you and permit you to move on.




What is grief?
Grief is a natural response to loss. It’s the emotional suffering you feel when something or someone you love is taken away. The more significant the loss, the more intense the grief will be. You may associate grief with the death of a loved one—which is often the cause of the most intense type of grief—but any loss can cause grief, including:

Divorce or relationship breakup
Loss of health
Losing a job
Loss of financial stability
A miscarriage
Retirement
Death of a pet
Loss of a cherished dream
A loved one’s serious illness
Loss of a friendship
Loss of safety after a trauma
Selling the family home


The more significant the loss, the more intense the grief. However, even subtle losses can lead to grief. For example, you might experience grief after moving away from home, graduating from college, changing jobs, selling your family home, or retiring from a career you loved.


Everyone grieves differently
Grieving is a personal and highly individual experience. How you grieve depends on many factors, including your personality and coping style, your life experience, your faith, and the nature of the loss. The grieving process takes time. Healing happens gradually; it can’t be forced or hurried—and there is no “normal” timetable for grieving. Some people start to feel better in weeks or months. For others, the grieving process is measured in many years. Whatever your grief experience, it’s important to be patient with yourself and allow the process to naturally unfold.


Myths and Facts About Grief
MYTH: The pain will go away faster if you ignore it.
Fact: Trying to ignore your pain or keep it from surfacing will only make it worse in the long run. For real healing it is necessary to face your grief and actively deal with it.
MYTH: It’s important to be “be strong” in the face of loss.
Fact: Feeling sad, frightened, or lonely is a normal reaction to loss. Crying doesn't mean you are weak. You don’t need to “protect” your family or friends by putting on a brave front. Showing your true feelings can help them and you.
MYTH: If you don’t cry, it means you aren't sorry about the loss.
Fact: Crying is a normal response to sadness, but it’s not the only one. Those who don’t cry may feel the pain just as deeply as others. They may simply have other ways of showing it.
MYTH: Grief should last about a year.

Fact: There is no right or wrong time frame for grieving. How long it takes can differ from person to person.


Are there stages of grief?
In 1969, psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross introduced what became known as the “five stages of grief.” These stages of grief were based on her studies of the feelings of patients facing terminal illness, but many people have generalized them to other types of negative life changes and losses, such as the death of a loved one or a break-up.


The five stages of grief:


Denial:   “This can’t be happening to me.”


Anger:   “Why is this happening? Who is to blame?”


Bargaining:  “Make this not happen, and in return I will ____.”


Depression:  “I’m too sad to do anything.”


Acceptance: “I’m at peace with what happened.”


If you are experiencing any of these emotions following a loss, it may help to know that your reaction is natural and that you’ll heal in time. However, not everyone who grieves goes through all of these stages—and that’s okay. Contrary to popular belief, you do not have to go through each stage in order to heal. In fact, some people resolve their grief without going through any of these stages. And if you do go through these stages of grief, you probably won’t experience them in a neat, sequential order, so don’t worry about what you “should” be feeling or which stage you’re supposed to be in.

Kübler-Ross herself never intended for these stages to be a rigid framework that applies to everyone who mourns. In her last book before her death in 2004, she said of the five stages of grief: “They were never meant to help tuck messy emotions into neat packages. They are responses to loss that many people have, but there is not a typical response to loss, as there is no typical loss. Our grieving is as individual as our lives.”

Grief can be a roller coaster:
Instead of a series of stages, we might also think of the grieving process as a roller coaster, full of ups and downs, highs and lows. Like many roller coasters, the ride tends to be rougher in the beginning, the lows may be deeper and longer. The difficult periods should become less intense and shorter as time goes by, but it takes time to work through a loss. Even years after a loss, especially at special events such as a family wedding or the birth of a child, we may still experience a strong sense of grief.


Common symptoms of grief:
While loss affects people in different ways, many experience the following symptoms when they’re grieving. Just remember that almost anything that you experience in the early stages of grief is normal—including feeling like you’re going crazy, feeling like you’re in a bad dream, or questioning your religious beliefs.

Shock and disbelief – Right after a loss, it can be hard to accept what happened. You may feel numb, have trouble believing that the loss really happened, or even deny the truth. If someone you love has died, you may keep expecting him or her to show up, even though you know he or she is gone.
Sadness – Profound sadness is probably the most universally experienced symptom of grief. You may have feelings of emptiness, despair, yearning, or deep loneliness. You may also cry a lot or feel emotionally unstable.
Guilt – You may regret or feel guilty about things you did or didn't say or do. You may also feel guilty about certain feelings (e.g. feeling relieved when the person died after a long, difficult illness). After a death, you may even feel guilty for not doing something to prevent the death, even if there was nothing more you could have done.
Anger – Even if the loss was nobody’s fault, you may feel angry and resentful. If you lost a loved one, you may be angry with yourself, God, the doctors, or even the person who died for abandoning you. You may feel the need to blame someone for the injustice that was done to you.
Fear – A significant loss can trigger a host of worries and fears. You may feel anxious, helpless, or insecure. You may even have panic attacks. The death of a loved one can trigger fears about your own mortality, of facing life without that person, or the responsibilities you now face alone.
Physical symptoms – We often think of grief as a strictly emotional process, but grief often involves physical problems, including fatigue, nausea, lowered immunity, weight loss or weight gain, aches and pains, and insomnia.

Coping with grief and loss tip 1: Get support
The single most important factor in healing from loss is having the support of other people. Even if you aren’t comfortable talking about your feelings under normal circumstances, it’s important to express them when you’re grieving. Sharing your loss makes the burden of grief easier to carry. Wherever the support comes from, accept it and do not grieve alone. Connecting to others will help you heal.

Finding support after a loss:
Turn to friends and family members – Now is the time to lean on the people who care about you, even if you take pride in being strong and self-sufficient. Draw loved ones close, rather than avoiding them, and accept the assistance that’s offered. Oftentimes, people want to help but don’t know how, so tell them what you need—whether it’s a shoulder to cry on or help with funeral arrangements.
Draw comfort from your faith – If you follow a religious tradition, embrace the comfort its mourning rituals can provide. Spiritual activities that are meaningful to you—such as praying, meditating, or going to church—can offer solace. If you’re questioning your faith in the wake of the loss, talk to a clergy member or others in your religious community.
Join a support group – Grief can feel very lonely, even when you have loved ones around. Sharing your sorrow with others who have experienced similar losses can help. To find a bereavement support group in your area, contact local hospitals, hospices, funeral homes, and counseling centers.
Talk to a therapist or grief counselor – If your grief feels like too much to bear, call a mental health professional with experience in grief counseling. An experienced therapist can help you work through intense emotions and overcome obstacles to your grieving.

Coping with grief and loss tip 2: Take care of yourself:
When you’re grieving, it’s more important than ever to take care of yourself. The stress of a major loss can quickly deplete your energy and emotional reserves. Looking after your physical and emotional needs will help you get through this difficult time.

Face your feelings. You can try to suppress your grief, but you can’t avoid it forever. In order to heal, you have to acknowledge the pain. Trying to avoid feelings of sadness and loss only prolongs the grieving process. Unresolved grief can also lead to complications such as depression, anxiety, substance abuse, and health problems.
Express your feelings in a tangible or creative way. Write about your loss in a journal. If you’ve lost a loved one, write a letter saying the things you never got to say; make a scrapbook or photo album celebrating the person’s life; or get involved in a cause or organization that was important to him or her.
Look after your physical health. The mind and body are connected. When you feel good physically, you’ll also feel better emotionally. Combat stress and fatigue by getting enough sleep, eating right, and exercising. Don’t use alcohol or drugs to numb the pain of grief or lift your mood artificially.
Don’t let anyone tell you how to feel, and don’t tell yourself how to feel either. Your grief is your own, and no one else can tell you when it’s time to “move on” or “get over it.” Let yourself feel whatever you feel without embarrassment or judgment. It’s okay to be angry, to yell at the heavens, to cry or not to cry. It’s also okay to laugh, to find moments of joy, and to let go when you’re ready.

Plan ahead for grief “triggers.” Anniversaries, holidays, and milestones can reawaken memories and feelings. Be prepared for an emotional wallop, and know that it’s completely normal. If you’re sharing a holiday or lifecycle event with other relatives, talk to them ahead of time about their expectations and agree on strategies to honor the person you loved.

When grief doesn't go away:
It’s normal to feel sad, numb, or angry following a loss. But as time passes, these emotions should become less intense as you accept the loss and start to move forward. If you aren't feeling better over time, or your grief is getting worse, it may be a sign that your grief has developed into a more serious problem, such as complicated grief or major depression.

Complicated grief:
The sadness of losing someone you love never goes away completely, but it shouldn’t remain center stage. If the pain of the loss is so constant and severe that it keeps you from resuming your life, you may be suffering from a condition known as complicated grief. Complicated grief is like being stuck in an intense state of mourning. You may have trouble accepting the death long after it has occurred or be so preoccupied with the person who died that it disrupts your daily routine and undermines your other relationships.

Symptoms of complicated grief include:

Intense longing and yearning for the deceased
Intrusive thoughts or images of your loved one
Denial of the death or sense of disbelief
Imagining that your loved one is alive
Searching for the person in familiar places
Avoiding things that remind you of your loved one
Extreme anger or bitterness over the loss

Feeling that life is empty or meaningless


The difference between grief and depression:
Distinguishing between grief and clinical depression isn't always easy as they share many symptoms, but there are ways to tell the difference. Remember, grief can be a roller coaster. It involves a wide variety of emotions and a mix of good and bad days. Even when you’re in the middle of the grieving process, you will have moments of pleasure or happiness. With depression, on the other hand, the feelings of emptiness and despair are constant.

Other symptoms that suggest depression, not just grief:

Intense, pervasive sense of guilt
Thoughts of suicide or a preoccupation with dying
Feelings of hopelessness or worthlessness
Slow speech and body movements
Inability to function at work, home, and/or school

Seeing or hearing things that aren't the

How to Heal From Complicated Grief

Grief is a natural process of loss, beginning when you realize that someone you love has left and ending with

your acceptance of the loss. Grief becomes complicated when feelings of hopelessness and questions about the conditions of loss prevent you from completing the grieving process. Complicated grief occurs when you feel a sense of responsibility for the loss and when those feelings prevent you from moving on with your life.

Instructions

1. • 1
     Analyze your grief and determine if you have spent more than six months concentrating on your loss. If so, ask yourself if the time you spend concentrating on the loss of your loved one is adversely affecting your ability to move on.
   • 2
     Schedule an appointment with a professional therapist who will help you work through your complicated grief. Expect her to ask questions about your loss and how the loss has affected your life. Work proactively with your therapist and ask for methods that you can use when you begin slipping back into your grief. Review these techniques and integrate them into your daily life. Speak honestly to your therapist about the issues you face when you confront your grief.
   • 3
     Write about your feelings regularly. Use a notebook or a computer and store your writings. Make this a personal project by Writing your feelings down in your own way. Recount the events surrounding the loss and describe your feelings about each event. Use any writing technique that you are comfortable with, such as poetry, short stories, journals or internet blogs. Share your writing with your therapist, especially if you discover something new about your feelings during the process.
   • 4
     Tell your story to people you trust. Search for people who will listen without passing judgment against you. Find friends who are willing to listen and explain how the grief has affected your life. Be honest about any feelings of guilt or remorse and share your story with others.
   • 5
     Make time in your life for calm reflection. Think about other things in your life, such as your friends, Career or hobbies. Give yourself permission to move on by giving yourself time for self reflection. 

     
     

     

     
     

Time To Plank Your Abs

Most women avoid taking up bodybuilding for they don't want to look like Arnold Schwarzenegger. Women Fitness brings you all the information on how by observing the habits, training, and eating pattern of a bodybuilder you can work wonders for yourself and jump-start your weight loss program. The key to any successful diet and exercise program is to burn off the fat while maintaining muscle and density-mass, which is a constant challenge for bodybuilders on diets.


Time to Plank Up your Abs

Performing solo crunches for building abs is like doing bench press, with no back or shoulder work. You stand a major chance of losing out on some fundamental strength gains, leading to an imbalanced and underdeveloped physique.


How to do Plank?

To start, come onto your hands and knees in table position. Make sure your arms are right under your shoulders and your fingers are pointing straight ahead. Now, walk your feet backwards in the formation, plank (high push up position). Make sure your  torso, hips and legs all in one line. Don’t let your hips drop or lift too high. Press your hands into the floor and lift up into your shoulders. Draw in your bellybutton towards your spine and stretch through your heels. Work up to holding for a slow count of 10. This exercise is good for your arms and upper body as well as your abs!

Master the basic front plank before moving on to more advanced variations, because it teaches the foundational cues that make all planking movements effective. Done consistently and correctly, it will confer strength benefits that improve your big lifts and general athleticism. On the other hand, poor formation can end up aggravating low back problems.


Note: If your upper body is challenged in this exercise, you can make it easier by coming onto your knees until you build the strength to perform it with your legs extended off the ground. Do not to shrug the shoulders toward your ears. If you do it right, your body should form a straight line from your head to your ankles.

Plank with a Variation

Plank with one leg off the ground
Start by coming onto your hands and knees in table position. Make sure your arms are right under your shoulders and your fingers are pointing straight ahead. Now walk your feet backwards into plank (high push up position). You want your torso, hips and legs all in one line- don’t let your hips drop or lift too high. Press your hands into the floor and lift up into your shoulders. Take your bellybutton towards your spine and stretch through your heels. Now lift your right leg off the ground so it is parallel to the floor. Hold for a slow count of 5 and then release your right foot to the floor. Repeat the exercise on your left side.

Body Saw
For the body saw, set up in a plank position but place your feet on a stability ball or in a suspension trainer. If you don't have those, you could try furniture sliding pads, or even just a pair of paper plates. Once you're in position, slowly begin moving your body forward and backward using your forearms. The movement will become much more difficult the farther your elbows are from the center of your body.

Plank with one leg

Start by coming onto your hands and knees in table position. Make sure your arms are right under your shoulders and your fingers are pointing straight ahead. Now walk your feet backwards into plank (high push up position). You want your torso, hips and legs all in one line- don’t let your hips drop or lift too high. Press your hands into the floor and lift up into your shoulders. Take your bellybutton towards your spine and stretch through your heels. Now extend your right leg directly out in front of you. Keep your hips level. Hold for a slow count of 5 and then release your right foot to the floor. Repeat the exercise on your left side.




Flying Plank
Start by coming onto your hands and knees in table position. Make sure your arms are right under your shoulders and your fingers are pointing straight ahead. Now walk your feet backwards into plank (high push up position). You want your torso, hips and legs all in one line- don’t let your hips drop or lift too high. Press your hands into the floor and lift up into your shoulders. Take your bellybutton towards your spine and stretch through your heels. Now lift your right leg off the ground so it is parallel to the floor and at the same time extend your left arm directly out in front of you. Keep your hips level. Hold for a slow count of 5 and then release your right foot to the floor and left hand to the floor. Repeat the exercise on you’re the other side with your left leg and right arm.


Side Plank Flip
From a plank position. Shift onto the outside edge of your left foot, and stack your right foot on top of the left. Now swing your right hand onto your right hip, turn your torso to the right as you do, and support the weight of your body on the outer left foot and left hand. Make sure that the supporting hand isn't directly below its shoulder; position the hand slightly in front of its shoulder, so the supporting arm is angled a bit relative to the floor. Straighten the arm by firming the triceps muscle, and press the base of the index finger firmly against the floor. Firm the scapulas and sacrum against the back torso. Strengthen the thighs, and press through the heels toward the floor. Align your entire body into one long diagonal line from the heels to the crown. If you'd like you can stretch the top arm toward the ceiling, parallel to the line of the shoulders. Keep the head in a neutral position, or turn it to gaze up at the top hand. Stay in this position for 15 to 30 seconds. Come down and relax.

These plank exercises allow for a greater ab-challenge, and can be done at home with a stability ball, foam roller and dumbbells.

FDA Removing Arsenic from Chicken

Years after studies showed arsenic in our food, nearly all uses of arsenic in U.S. agriculture are coming to an end.

In the second high-profile move on arsenic in the food supply in recent months, the Food and Drug Administration has announced it will remove three arsenic-containing drug types used to treat food animals, most notably chickens. Altogether, the three drugs were used in 101 formulations as feed additives.

The move follows its study of arsenic in rice, which found: there is arsenic in rice, but not at levels that should concern most consumers, according to the FDA.

This latest move on arsenic in the food supply will result in an almost total elimination of arsenic from animal feed. The manufacturers of the three drugs indicated to the FDA that they wanted the approvals withdrawn after receiving questions about arsenic in the food supply from the FDA, prompted by the Center for Food Safety's 2009 petition to remove arsenic from animal feed. They had already "largely removed" them from the market after studies showed arsenic in the food supply, according to Center for Food Safety, but this FDA decision formalized the decision.

Arsenic has been used in feed in the U.S. since the 1940s to induce faster weight gain on less feed, and create the perceived appearance of a healthy color in meat from chickens, turkeys and hogs. Arsenic was found at detectable levels in samples of meat purchased in grocery stores.

The remains one drug outside of this FDA action, now used in approximately 3% of cases, that still contains arsenic. The Center for Food Safety argues that the arsenic is directly toxic to animals and humans, and can be transformed into a form that is cancer-causing inside chickens, in manure-treated soil and in humans.

“The withdrawal of these harmful feed additives is a major victory for consumers and the health of our food system. It is unfortunate that legal pressure from outside groups was necessary to spur action by FDA, yet in the end, we are pleased that FDA listened to our scientific objections and is now working to rid arsenic from our meat supply,” said Paige Tomaselli, senior attorney with Center for Food Safety.

Consumers who choose organic chicken should have avoided much of the fuss. If any arsenic is found in organic chicken, it's likely because arsenic is present in the soils where those chicken are raised--not because the chickens were fed it, as was common on U.S. conventional chicken farms.

One drug containing arsenic, used to treat a potentially fatal disease in farmed turkeys, is still on the market.

The Doctor Won't See You Now. He's Clocked Out...

ObamaCare is pushing physicians into becoming hospital employees. The results aren't encouraging.

Big government likes big providers. That's why ObamaCare is gradually making the local doctor-owned medical practice a relic. In the not too distant future, most physicians will be hourly wage earners, likely employed by a hospital chain.

Why? Because when doctors practice in small offices, it is hard for Washington to regulate what they do. There are too many of them, and the government is too remote. It is far easier for federal agencies to regulate physicians if they work for big hospitals. So ObamaCare shifts money to favor the delivery of outpatient care through hospital-owned networks.

The irony is that in the name of lowering costs, ObamaCare will almost certainly make the practice of medicine more expensive. It turns out that when doctors become salaried hospital employees, their overall productivity falls.

health system. A recent survey by the Medical Group Management Association shows a nearly 75% increase in the number of active doctors employed by hospitals or hospital systems since 2000, reflecting a trend that sharply accelerated around the time that ObamaCare was enacted. The biggest shifts are in specialties such as cardiology and oncology

Estimates by hospitals that acquire medical practices and institutions that track these trends such as the Medical Group Management Association show that physician productivity falls under these arrangements, sometimes by more than 25% (more on this below). The lost productivity isn't just a measure of the fewer back surgeries or cardiac catheterizations performed once physicians are no longer paid per procedure, as ObamaCare envisions. Rather, the lost productivity is a consequence of the more fragmented, less accountable care that results from these schemes.

Once they work for hospitals, physicians change their behavior in two principal ways. Often they see fewer patients and perform fewer timely procedures. Continuity of care also declines, since a physician's responsibilities end when his shift is over. This means reduced incentives for doctors to cover weekend calls, see patients in the ER, squeeze in an office visit, or take phone calls rather than turfing them to nurses. It also means physicians no longer take the time to give detailed sign-offs as they pass care of patients to other doctors who cover for them on nights, weekends and days off.

Most hospitals exacerbate these strains by measuring the productivity of the physician practices they purchase in "Relative Value Units." This is a formula that Medicare already uses to set doctor-payment rates. RVUs are supposed to measure how much time and physical effort a doctor requires to perform different clinical endeavors.

Medicare assigns each clinical procedure a different RVU and then multiplies this figure by a fixed amount of money to arrive at how much it will pay a doctor for a given task. A routine office visit has an RVU of about 1.68, while removing earwax has one of 1.26. Setting a finger fracture rates a 3.48.

This system misses all of the intangible factors that help gauge the quality and efficiency of the care being delivered. It focuses physicians on the wrong goals for promoting health, such as how well they code charts to capture higher-value "units."

Hospitals are beholden to the RVU system only because that is how they get paid by the government. Data from the Medical Group Management Association shows that physician productivity in these employed relationships, measured simply by RVUs, declines up to 25% compared with independent practices. The Advisory Board ABCO -0.47% Company, a health-care consulting firm, estimates that when hospitals last went on a physician-acquisition binge in the late 1990s, productivity fell by as much as 35%. Those arrangements mostly failed, and the hospitals divested the stakes they had in individual doctor practices. The physicians went back to practicing out of their own offices.

All of this reduced productivity translates into the loss of what should be a critical factor in the effort to offer more health care while containing costs. Yet hospitals aren't buying doctors' practices because they want to reform the delivery of medical care. They are making these purchases to gain local market share and develop monopolies. They are also exploiting an arbitrage opportunity presented by Medicare's billing schemes, which pay more for many services when they are delivered at a hospital instead of an outpatient doctor's office.

This billing structure exists because hospitals are politically favored in Washington. Their mostly unionized workforces give them political power, as does their status as big employers in congressional districts.

ObamaCare pushes this folly largely based on a naive assumption that models that worked well in one community can be made to work everywhere. President Obama has touted "staff models" like the Geisinger Health System in Pennsylvania and the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota that employ doctors and then succeed in reducing costs by closely managing what they do. When integrated delivery networks succeed, they are rarely led by a hospital. ObamaCare seeks to replicate these institutions nationwide, even though their successes had more to do with local traditions and superior management. That's hard to engineer through legislation.

:Note by the author.

Am I scared you damn straight I am scared. Not everyone in the public spectrum has very little knowledge of what is happening with health care. I hear people say with what I pay those doctors they are getting rich. But, I ask next time you get a bill from your insurance provider to please read it. Here is an example.

The doctor charges a certain amount, but never receives the amount the bill was for. The doctor must except what the insurance will pay them. But, then there is a write off, but who receives the write offs but the insurance company at the end of the year. This HMO insurance has been in effect since the Clinton Administration. Now with Obama care this will be putting doctors out of private practice and working in hospitals the way I do. Truth be known I was always going into practice with my pediatrician Dr. Steve when I became a fellow, but he is making cut backs at his office and couldn't afford me. 

All my life I heard if you want a job that will never down size and one that you will always have a future pick the medical profession. I have to tell you if you have picked medicine as a get rich profession you have picked the wrong career. You are going to have to be here practicing medicine because you love it and  for the money. It is a shame you go to school all your life and when it is almost your turn to make the money it's not there. It is a crying shame when banks, car dealerships and brokers on Wall Street can get bail outs to keep there plush salaries and the doctor who save your lives have to squabble with a insurance over treatment or a surgery for there patient.  

Please Tell me what you see wrong with this situation? 

Flu Season 2013: What You Need To Know

Some  Key Things To Know This Flu Season:

THE SITUATION: The annual flu season hit about a month early this year, and illness is now widespread in 47 states. Many cases are caused by a flu strain that tends to make people sicker. But so far experts say it's too early to know whether this will end up being a bad season. Maybe not: There are signs the flu may have already peaked in a few states, though it's too early to tell for sure, health officials say.

THE VACCINE: This season's vaccine is well matched to the circulating strains, and there's still some available. It is 62 percent effective, according to government study results released Friday, which is pretty good for a flu vaccine. Health officials are urging people to get vaccinated; it's recommended for everyone 6 months or older.

THE DEFENSE: Besides getting a flu shot, wash hands with soap and warm water, and avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth. Keep away from sick people.

THE TREATMENT: Most people will get a mild case and can help themselves and protect others by staying home and resting. But people with severe symptoms should see a doctor. They may be given antiviral drugs or other medications to ease symptoms.

COLD OR FLU?: Influenza is not the only bug making people sick. The cold virus and a nasty stomach virus are also going around. It can sometimes be hard to tell the difference, but cold symptoms include stuffy or runny nose, sore throat and sneezing. Flu usually involves fever, along with chills, headache and moderate-to-severe body aches and tiredness. Symptoms can come on rapidly, within three to six hours.