Jackson Jambalaya

After dealing with the number of doctors that I have.... "Rolling the Dice" is an appropriate simulation.. I guess that is why everyone says they are "practicing" medicine..!!!

Why are they doing this and how muchb is it costing the taxpayers? Or do special interest groups cover the costs? Who benefits?

What Doctors; these are State workers

It specifically states that it is an "Annual Party." At least they have the balls to come out and admit it.

It is odd that the State House and Senate sponsor an annual party. One would assume that they are the sponsors, since none is named in the invitation. At least the people sponsoring the kickbacks were smart enough to remain anonymous--except for the printer.

5:56 - hard to see type this small, but seems to be a non-union print shop, FWIW.

6:19 I saw that, but I wonder what would the printer have to gain by being a sole sponsor of this event. It only said, "Printing provided by...." Is there something behind who the printer is affiliated with to sponsor such an event? Just curious...

Gaming, Health and Medicaid.

Funny.

KF and 3:46, I think it is a pretty safe bet, no pun intended, that this has nothing to do with doctors. Medicaid is a losing proposition for doctors if you really look into it. I would speculate the usual healthcare whores are involved which would include big pharma, the medical equipment industry, and hospital CEO's/administrators.

I get 19 bucks for a medicaid office visit, real big money. Figure 30 patients a day for (rounding up) 20 dollars a visit equals 600 dollars. Considering you have to pay for insurance, rent, employees, collections, supplies, and lastly, pay yourself, those of us who take should be given awards. Most of your complicated patients with interlacing disease states and pain and psychiatric disorders are the ones on medicaid. So the most complicated patients are also the ones we loose money seeing.

I almost cried about doctors being underpaid by medicaid until I remembered how much you make off of everybody else.
Those drug rep. gifts are pretty nice too aren't they?
I had not noticed that doctors who treat medicaid patients look underfed or miss many vacations/football weekends/ or condo investment opportunities.

Scratch your heads all you want trying to figure this one out. Bobby Moak and Steve Holland wanted a party, and by damn they're having one. Doesn't matter to them if it doesn't make a lick of sense to anyone else.

9:43, your animosity towards doctors aside and assuming you are "everybody else," that's the point- Your paying for this party partner, you should crash it.

I can't wait until EVERYONE can have the same health care described in 9:08. Once there is a negative profit margin, we'll have the baggers at Kroger undertaking health care. The smart people will stay out of a business where you can't make any money.

Doctors salaries are about 2 percent of the total coast of healthcare. The next time you complain about your insurance premiums, blame the legal and insurance industries. They have both been making money and blaming the cost of healthcare on the doctors for years.

No one has answered the essential question (post #2) - who is paying for thios party? Taxpayers? Lobbyists? Who is benefitting from it? Re-election committees?

You don't understand.

I thought the sweet potato queens moved their parade.

What exactly does this have to do with either Claiborne or Stuart?

I agree with 6:11 completely! I used to be in the insurance business so I have a little first hand knowledge. I also have a good friend who is a doctor. I think as a whole, doctors are good, caring people. Sure, there are bad doctors, just like anything else. There are bad teachers, bad judges, bad police officers, bad attorneys, etc., etc., you name it. Does every bad deed committed by someone in your field encapsulate you 9:43? I didn't think so. Anyone who gives up 10 years of their life, pays hundreds of thousands of dollars in education expense, exorbitant malpractice insurance premiums, only to still get sued in some bogus law suit anyway, deserves to make a lot of money. Never mind the fact that they are doing something most of us wouldn't have the stomach for.

9:43 Doctors earn their money, not to mention the extreme costs and time they spend on medical school. Next time you get sick, why don't you mosey on over to Mickey D's and see if one of those guys can help you.

That is the ironic thing, the perception of what doctors make, especially those of us in primary care, is way too high. The average internist, family practice, or peds doctors makes about 150,000 bucks a year. I think that is pretty much in line with a moderately successful lawyer, engineer, and not quite as good as "Joe the Plumber." I am sick of the complainers, who are also the first ones to expect free samples of viagra, blood pressure meds, and a red carpet. I am actually looking forward to the day that the government completely takes over healthcare and I can work about 36 hours a week on a salary and start fishing and golfing Friday through Sunday instead of working. And all you doctor haters can either be turned away at the triage desk at the ER with your viral sydrome or wait three weeks to get an appointment. Guess you will have to go back to hating Claiborne, Stuart, or George.

I personally do not need an attorney nearly as often as I do a Dr. I've often wondered if the attorneys could not help theirselves out by exposing (and not taking) junk lawsuits. There will always be some lowlife wanting to get something for nothing but why do attorneys jump on the band wagon so readily? Insurance company execs are way overpaid (it's not brain surgery guys) and the ones actually doing the work get shorted. I want my Dr to decide what medical care I receive, not an attorney.

If doctors wouldn't screw up, they wouldn't get sued.

According to MACM's internal figures 90% of lawsuits against their members are dropped before trial (not settled out of court; DROPPED), or the plaintiff loses in court. Therefore, 90% of the lawsuits were without merit. Still think you can't get sued unless you do something wrong?

On the other hand numerous cases of poor care never result in lawsuits, despite aggressive advertising by plaintiff's attorneys.

So you're telling me all those Dr's that live in their multi-million dollar homes in Bridgewater are only pulling a mere 150,000 a year! yeah- right! Tell it to someone else-

So you expect a doctor to never make a mistake? What most people consider mistakes are allergies or intolerance to medication. "My doctor tried to kill me with my medication" is something I hear daily from patients bashing their previous MD who didn't meet their completely unreasonable expectations. My first sentence to folks like this is "I'm afraid I can't help you either." These patients, quick to claim either injury or error are usually the ones begging for the medication in the first place. The general public also wants their doctor to function like a drive through, and gets "pissy" if they are told no. "I'll go to Dr. So and So and he will write that" is something I hear often, which is completely fine with me. Drive through perfection, whatever......

Those are specialists, usually with more debt to asset ration than what is reasonable. I never said that Radiologists and Surgeons didn't make more than me dumbass, and they deserve it, they wne to school for several years beyond what I did and work there ass off, your jealous makes me sick. Socialists like you voted Obama into office.

There are financial idiots in every profession. I know people who make less than I do but if you look at their cars, home, etc you'd think they were rolling in it. They are in debt up to their eyeballs and I chose not to be. Drs get blamed and sued for things totally beyond their control like the non compliant patient. If one pill helps 5 is a cure! Knew one guy who wanted to sue his brother's dr cause his brother took half a bottle of his 1 a day meds cause he thought it would get him high. How could that in any way be the Dr's fault? But, to hear him tell it the Dr was at fault... Dr visit costs are up due to simple math people. Their Prof Liab has skyrocketed due to stoopid attorney's filing stoopid lawsuits for stoopid people.

Anybody can sue anybody for anything at anytime. The sad part is they'll find an attorney who'll help them trump up something even if they can't think of something on their own. Look,we need attorneys and we need doctors. But, I'd bet there are more slimy attorneys than stupid doctors. I'm not saying all lawsuits are bogus, just most of them. Attorneys have given themselves a bad name and have no one else to blame but themselves. Not all attorneys are bad but the good ones won't point out the bad ones.

I'll leave the doctor question alone and try to answer the one that hasn't been answered. Lobbyists are paying for this party, in all likelihood. They do this all the time for particular committees and groups. There's probably a lobbying group that has casino and health care clients, and they've decided to have a big party for everyone. There's very little chance that taxpayer money is being spent on this. Bill Bilingsley

Sorry for the typos, I am in clinic and type way to fast to be accurate, but this is an issue that is a hot button for me. I work hard for my living, and have absolutely no guilt for the money I make. I work at least 60 plus hours a week in the office and stay on call all the time. My personal time is very valuable to me and I spend what little money I have left after I pay for my wife, kids, mortgage, office, and insurance, and saving for retirement, on having some fun. I am sick of the doctor stereotype being thrown in my face. If you are jealous, go back to school, study instead of drinking beer, give up 12 years of normal life and come do my job.

Such a martyr...lots of people work hard to pay their-Wives- ha ha ..mortgage etc. They don't think their God either.

It's hard for me to take seriously people who use the word "loose" when they mean "lose".

The real problem with health care is that the insurers have used their huge profits to buy Washington in order to keep themselves free of the Sherman Antitrust Act and, indeed, all federal regulation. 31% of the health care dollar goes to administrative costs. If Obama really wanted to fix the health care crises, he'd see to it that McCarran-Ferguson was repealed but, apparently, Obama's been bought off as well. And the American middle class, or what's left of it, is screwed again.

Look what happened when the feds deregulated the banking system - a financial tsunami.

I mean "If Obama really wanted to fix the health care CRISIS . . . ."

When are you going to get an edit feature, Kingfish?

For whoever it is up there having a heart attack over who pays and who benefits... The private sector pays for this every year. Usually the sponsors are listed and it is usually just a Gaming party. This year it grew so I imagine the sponsor list was pretty extensive.

I would say no one in particular benefits from it... maybe Hal and Mal's. It is just a big party at the end of the session that happens every single year.

I think it should be open to anyone who has ever been a patient as well. That would make for an interesting mixer!