‘If you’re not sick, we’re not doing our job’

A message from the AMA

And now a message from the American Medical Association. Who is the AMA? We’re your family doctor… who makes you wait two weeks for an appointment. We’re the specialist he refers you to… who is out of your network. So you’ll have to call Betty in claims, whose last name you don’t know, to get tentative approval on a test you don’t need. We’re also the lab technician, who gives you reams of paperwork but somehow not the right form. Which sends you back to Betty, who now can’t find your last name and really can’t help you without that form, which is what you’re calling her about in the first place. Afterwards, we’ll bill your insurance company, but we’ll also send a bill to you just to see if you’ll pay it.

Reform… messing with a system this good is a prescription for disaster. The AMA, if you’re not sick we’re not doing our job.

(Editor’s note: This is a short one minute skit taken from a recent “Real Time with Bill Maher.” Although delivered tongue in cheek, in this short skit, Maher manages to describe our current health care system in the U.S.)