Amende Honorable

Formal apology for an injury to the reputation and honour of another.

In old French law the term was once used to describe a public confession made by persons guilty of crimes coming under the head of public scandals, and was accounted an infamous punishment.
The Free Dictionary by Farlex

AMENDE HONORABLE - Ob. English Law. A penalty imposed upon a person by way of disgrace or infamy, as a punishment for any offence, or for the purpose of making reparation for any injury done to another, as the walking into church in a white sheet, with a rope about the neck, and a torch in the hand, and begging the pardon of God, or the king, or any private individual, for some delinquency.
-The 'Lectric Law Library's Lexicon


I think it is about time to come clean. I am sorry. Since the entire medical establishment has failed to apologize to all of you patients I will take it on my shoulders and do it. Amende honorable.

I would add that I am not alone because we all are responsible for the colossal mess that health care is in- not only in America but in the world. We are seeing an unprecedented decline in integrity and respect for quality care. All we can do now is beg the pardon of whoever will listen. No one is actually listening to solutions offered so maybe an apology will get some attention. The crimes against medical humanity have been so egregious that there are no laws, no punishment strong enough- we must look to a higher power and simply grant forgiveness.

Forgive the insurance companies for:

• Negatively affecting more people in a day than the Civil War did in 5 years by denying care to patients who needed it.
• Delaying care through tedious and unnecessary barriers to care such as precertification of tests.
• Calling regular treatments like bone marrow transplants "experimental" so they can just avoid payments.
• Taking money from the health care system and calling it earned profits when the only thing that was earned was encouraging patients to purchase insurance policies.
• Hiring executives with no hearts (a modern medical miracle I assume but I guess that a heart can be replaced by another body part and the organism can still live). Executives who make decisions like making chemicals for heparin in China where the FDA has no regulatory control and possibly causing the deaths of four Americans.
  

Forgive the drug companies and device manufacturers for:

• Telling us we may be sicker than we are and might need all their products all the time.
• Downplaying valuable medical data that is not supportive of their products
• For not using some of their gargantuan profits to offset the price of medications for those who can't afford them
• Gross irresponsibility to the international community, especially Africa who needs their help in the worst way.

Forgive the government officials (President, VP, Senator, Congressmen, etc) for:

• Being totally beholden to the insurance and drug company lobbies
• For not having the guts to do meaningful malpractice reform
• For not having the brains to develop meaningful healthcare insurance reform

But do not forgive the candidates yet. They have yet to wreak their havoc. Give them time. By the way, I think what they say in the campaigns about health care reform is an empty promise. They won't do it. The smart money says no way.

Forgive the hospitals for:

• Attracting the rich payers and clients and ignoring the time-honored tradition of caring for the poor
• Hiding their errors and mistakes from public view
• For not fixing their broken emergency rooms

Forgive the physicians for:

• Not taking control of health care away from the government and the insurance companies. In our zest for profit and immediate gain we have lost our way. Starting with the early pay-for-service insurance plans the early Medicare program that made a generation of doctors wealthy and the next generation searching for the holy grail of greed we have gotten totally caught up in medicine for money
• Advertising false claims of cures with all sorts of non-evidence based medicine
• The ill-will that doctors have towards their colleagues and the negatives things they say about each other
• Allowing the drug companies to infiltrate our offices and our minds and convince us to prescribe a billion dollars worth of medicines that are mostly unnecessary
• Hopping on the bandwagon of every next great advance - not because it helps the patients but because it helps our pockets.
  
• Prescribing unnecessary tests and treatments at facilities that we have ownership in like MRI facilities in our offices or physician-owned physical therapy.

Forgive the patients for:

• Blindly getting their health information from the Internet with no regard for the source.
• Doubting that the doctors actually do know better than their neighbor, friend, and especially their insurance company.
• Thinking that it is the doctors and not the insurance companies that are to blame for our health crisis.

So we all must look to a higher power and ask forgiveness for this health care system we have.
To quote one of the greatest of philosophers:

"Well, here's another nice mess you've gotten me into"
-Oliver Hardy


Dr. K

Related Topics:

• Crisis Ahead for Elderly Health Care?
• How States Rank on Health Care

Technorati Tags: heathcare, reform