Melson wins Senate District 1; first Republican to do so

"For six years, congressional Republicans have been guided by a North Star: don’t compromise, don’t accept concessions, don’t negotiate in good faith, don’t look for common ground. And it’s against this backdrop that GOP voters are effectively telling their party’s elected officials, “Keep up the good work.”

Yes, you are quite wrong.

M.D.s are Allopaths

D.O.s are Osteopaths

There are more medical schools which confer the M.D. degree than the D.O. degree, especially in the Southeast. We have an Osteopath who regularly comments on the forum. I'm sure he will be here in short time.

I had personally rather have an Osteopath for a physician than an Allopath--they have wider training.

FTR, Chiropractors are D.C.s and are not physicians as Allopaths and Osteopaths are.

Thanks. That clears that up.

FVPOA any idea what he is referring to when he suggests cheaper clinics for Medicaid patients?

There are a lot of young mothers and children on Medicaid. It just comes off as an insensitive statement to me. I can see a Wal Mart approach to healthcare under these new Republicans.

I'm learning something here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C...in_the_United_States

Thanks FVPOA.

Very informative Bud.

Back to the subject at hand, does anyone have an idea of cheaper medicine for Medicaid patients he refers to?

I seems as though he is separating who might get quality care from another group.

You can bet I'll ask him after his career as public servant begins.

Senate Elect Melson has some explaining to do.

Most likely, he is suggesting a form of urgent care vs. ER.  ERs have a large hospital overhead to cover. Commercial urgent care offices don't.

______________

Just about any clinic is cheaper than emergency room care. 

No healthcare at all for Medicaid patents is the cheaper route. Maybe Senator Elect Melson is working to that end. A hospital with state of the art facilities is not second to a clinic in a shopping center.

Compromised healthcare  by politicians is not healthcare. Doctors don't get paid as much to treat Medicaid patients in hospitals.

"One way to reduce Medicaid costs is to get Medicaid patients out of emergency rooms and into less costly clinics:  typically, most of such treatment is non-emergency. Using less expensive facilities for non-emergency treatment make fiscal sense,  

I have no doubt that when Senator elect Melson is sworn in, Legislation will be introduced that pre diagnoses the living and yet to be born Medicaid patent as non-emergency simply based on the patents being enrolled in Medicaid.

An osteopath and a chiropractor are not the same thing. The Osteopathic medical schools are the same as the MD schools in the state. They produce DOs which sit for the state licensure requirements, just like the MDs. Osteopathic medical schools were founded in this country at the end of the Civil War by A.T. Still.  They combine holistic medical training alongside with the typical allopathic (MD) training.  They were the first medical schools in this country to allow women and blacks to enter.

I must conclude from current testimony that a possible plan of Senate Elect Melson's remedy to medical costs due to Medicaid patents could simply be a prayer on behalf of the Medicaid patient.

This conclusion is based on the following axioms:

1. Osteopaths are on staff.

2. They are holistic medicine trained which includes the spiritual realm.

3. Prayer on bended knee could then qualify as a office visit and legally billed.

4. Medical practice insurance would be zero cost to the Dr. because in the event the patient dies or worsens, only God could be indicted for malpractice.

Note: This conservative mentality is real and observed.

Good grief, do you even understand some of the things you write or even comment upon?

The idea of the Osteopathic Medical schools ,which are growing by leaps and bounds in this country, is to try and get more people to specialize in primary care, something that was long forgotten by the older more established schools that tended to steer students toward specialization. Alabama has two of these now, with at least one more opening in Hattiesburg MS. These schools turn out far more primary care doctors (family practice, internal medicine, OB-Gyn, and pediatrics) than any other schools in the country

Melson's comments were likely inferring about the fact that we now have these students here in our area learning at our hospitals, with the hopes of bringing them back into the area when they graduate. On top of this it is a known fact that too many people, especially those on Medicaid, will use the ERs for common ailments because of the convenience and the fact that many offices will not accept Medicaid, so they do not have personal physicians.   If we can build a system where these doctors come out of school and do not owe a ton of money back for their education, they are more likely to settle in a rural area such as ours, and accept Medicaid.

Alabama did not take the AHA funds, therefore there are many who now fall thru the loopholes in the system. The USSC will soon be deliberating the stand which our state and many others took, and it is likely that most states cannot offer the new insurances, nor tax their residents, if they do not participate.

It was an unfortunate quandry that money had to be taken from one group, and in many cases their insurance as well, in order to provide insurance for only a few.  In reality all we did was take a few who were uninsured and insure them , while making a few more uninsured and costing them more money to get it.  Melson will be a fine senator who actually understands the problems we face. He has my support.

I hate to see a time coming where the barber is called upon to bleed victims of a terrible disease like EBOLA Since according to current testimony the integrity of medicine is being compromised to discourage specialists doctors in mills that likely are not first class medical schools that see medicine as a science rather than a prayer meeting.

t, I totally agree. I see Melson as a voice of reason. Let's hope for the best!

Weii, I trust two medical personnel over the squirrelly ideas of priss. 

According to the American Holistic Medical Association it is believed that the spiritual element should also be taken into account when assessing a person's overall well-being.

Perhaps some practitioner of Osteopathic medicine could walk us through the typical procedure that would be administered to a patient in probing the spiritual element.