Saturday was a short day in the office.  I came in to handle some paperwork and to see a few patients whom I couldn't manage to work in over the course of a busy week. It was an ordinary day with a typical, ordinary selection of patients....which is to say, that almost every one came with a story which cried out about how we desperately need change in our health care system.

Note: In the interest of developing diverse dialogue on this topic, this essay was first posted in slightly modified form at RedState.com where it was surprisingly well-received.... before it was removed and I was "banned"...  for expressing a politically incorrect view?  It has also been cross-posted on The Daily Kos, here, also in a slightly different form.

The first item on my plate was a patient who called to say that the asthma medication he had been on for years and which had allowed him to control his symptoms and stay out of the hospital was no longer covered by his insurance.

I explained to him that there were likely alternatives that would probably work as well and proceeded to compose an email to his pharmacist, outlining the possibilities I wanted him to explore.

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