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Friday, March 24, 2006

Physicians' " Guild" breakup and the alleged move to free markets

I believe everyone should read HEALTH CARE RENEWAL everyday but a recent post exceeds that blog's high standards. The article is entitled " The consequences of Breaking the Physicians' "Guild" ".

According to Dictionary.com a guild is "An association of persons of the same trade or pursuits, formed to protect mutual interests and maintain standards "

In it, Dr. Poses ( about whom we have to wonder when he sleeps) talks about Alain Enthoven's managed competition and his strategy to break up the physicians guild which- in Enthoven's view- is the main reason why medicine costs so much and is of such poor quality in this country. We also hear about the consequences of this strategy.

You would be wrong if you thought Enthoven's views on prepaid group practice, universal coverage and managed competition went away with the demise of Senator Clinton's health care task force.

In the same piece, Dr. Poses give a chilling rendition of the transformation of the pharmaceutical marketing landscape including comments about the new drug reps aka Drug Ken and Drug Barbie.

I'll admit I must have slept though most of the 1980s and 1990s ignorant of the Jackson Hole group and the "intellectual" verbiage that feed the HMO movement, my hat is off to Poses and the other contributors to HCR. They are doing us all a great service.

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