Health-Care Reform
A Surgeon’s Perspective
by
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Our system is broken and rapidly spiraling into a black hole. Our government’s financial reserves are nonexistent. We have unprecedented debt. Health-care costs are skyrocketing out of control. Medicaid and Medicare services are nearly bankrupt. Financial reimbursement to health-care providers continues to decrease as the consumer price index continues to increase and the cost of doing business along with it. Our malpractice environment is adding to the cost of health care without question and tainting the environment in which we practice. Numerous encounters generate a sense of angst in the heart of the health-care provider as he or she contemplates the lip-smacking, drooling trial attorney waiting to take him or her to the cleaners. … Consultants are called in, and the patient and family are coddled to avoid any risk of litigation. The traditional doctor-patient relationship of mutual respect, trust, and appreciation is frequently turned into a contractual agreement.
This status quo needs more than fine tuning. It needs to be put in a plastic bag, turned upside down, and shaken out of its miserable existence. We need a clean slate to reestablish a health-care system that can work—that we can afford and be proud of. As I stated earlier, no meaningful reform is going to come without sacrifice and sacrifice along several fronts at that.
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About the Book
In this study, Dr. Ashraf A. Hilmy, with a surgeon’s objective, no-nonsense precision and an unabashed lack of political correctness, dissects the current state of health-care delivery in America. In practice since 1979, he is board certified in surgery, anesthesiology, critical-care medicine, and health-care administration. He received an MBA from the University of Texas, Pan Am with an emphasis on health-care administration. He has served as both chief of surgery and staff at several institutions and has practiced in every scale of facility—solo, partnership, and group practice.
Dr. Hilmy is uniquely qualified to render an informed opinion about health care in the United States. In his professional judgment, there is no question that the current system is faltering and in need of radical reform. No other country in the world spends so much on health care and has so little to show for it.
Written with the layperson in mind, Health-Care Reform offers insightful, well-researched, supported arguments. Though it does not set out to offend anyone, people will be offended—as a portion of the drivers of escalating health-care costs are laid squarely on their shoulders.
Health-Care Reform addresses how health care is delivered in America. By comparing our delivery system to those used around the world, Dr. Hilmy breaks down different cost drivers with anonymous case examples, and finally, offers suggestions for realistic reform.
About the Author
Dr. Ashraf A. Hilmy has a solo surgical practice in Texas. An assistant professor of surgery, he is actively involved in teaching medical students and surgical residents. He is a poet, songwriter, and avid photographer. Originally from Egypt, he has lived all over the world, observing many systems of health-care delivery.