Medicine & Liberty : Network of liberty oriented doctors

Recently published

AT THE BEDSIDE OF HEALTHCARE


Published by the Liberal Institute in partnership with Medicine & Liberty, this work shows paths to move health care away from over regulation  to responsibility and choice. A full page of Swiss financial daily l'AGEFI quotes a chapter of the book.

Order here

CALENDAR

SAVE THE DATE

Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) 75th Annual meeting, October 3-6, 2018 Indianapolis  IN 

 



PAST EVENTS

Med-Econ Socratic seminar 2017 organized in patnership with the Liberal Institute on June 9-10, 2017 at the Hostellerie Bon Rivage enabled a mutidiciplinary group of partticipants to discuss ethics and economics in modern health care.

Journée Libérale Romande, November 2016 Lausanne This one-day conference organized by the Liberales Institut and Medicine & Liberty, discussed different problems faced by present Swiss Health care. 

The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) The 73rd annual meeting in september 2016 successfully voiced the legitimate concerns of private doctors determined to resist regulatory trends that threaten their mssion to treat patients to the best of their ability.

6th Annual PIMS Leaders Summit held in Berlin, Germany - February 10-11, 2016, brought together decision makers and thought leaders to share views on key issues related to Pharmaceutical and Supply chain Innovation. Dr Alphonse Crespo spoke on the added values of medical  innovation.

Socratic seminar  on Medicine & Economy  held in Sierre, Switzerland - October 23-24, 2016 in partnership with the Liberal Institute inititated a fruitful multidisciplinary discussion on the intricate relationship beween the medical mission and economical frameworks. Read more  in Francis Richard's account  (in french)   (Go to his blog)

Journée Libérale Romande November 2014 Lausanne Included a panel on Medicine & Liberalism directed by Dr Patrick Ruchat & Dr Alphonse Crespo  


AIX-EN-PROVENCE , France, -  27-29 Juin 2014

11th European Resource Bank Meeting  hosted by the Institute of Economic Studies included a french session on health care reform with panelists PIerre Bessard, Alphonse Crespo, Kerry Halferty-Hardy and Michel Kelly-Gagnon.


CHARLESTON South Carolina September 4 - 6, 2014  

AAPS 71st Annual Meeting The Association of Americsn Physicians and Surgeon's annual meeting brought together physicians at the front line of the battle to free American medicine from destruction by third parties.


BASEL Bs, Switzerland  Congress center April 07-10,2014

LogiPharma 2014 - Life Sciences Supply Chain Conference - this meeting brought together over 400 life sciences supply chain executives. First day session featured a panel on customer centered innovation including Manel Luis, Roderick Beard, Francois Bisch, Alison Kirkpatrick, Johnathon Marshall and Alphonse Crespo 


LAUSANNE Clinique Bois-Cerf  Nov 5, 2013

Liberal Institute conference  "Healthcare at a Crossroads: Liberty or Regulation"  To feature: Cedric Bossart, Yves Seydoux and Alphonse Crespo.


DENVER Colorado - September 25-28, 2013

AAPS 70th Annual Meeting Summit to Save American Medicine


ZURICH - 31 May - 1 June 2012

Liberales Institut Symposium  Health Care's dilema: Provision or Redistribution 


BRUSSELS - 28 March 2012 

Stockholm Network  lunchtime event on A new vision for the future of healthcare - inclduded a panel of experts and innovators Read more



 

MONOGRAPH

Now IN FRENCH


Published by Medicine & Liberty

"CHOISIR POUR GUERIR"

 French edition of

Bartley Madden's "MORE CHOICES BETTER HEALTH: Free to choose experimetnal drugs"

 

Books

WHY OBAMACARE IS WRONG FOR AMERICA


 

Authored by Grace Marie Turner & other prominent experts, a must-read for Americans who want to know what  their bungled health care reform really has to offer.

To book launch webcast

Order here.



FREE  TO CHOOSE MEDICINE


    

Bartley Madden's brilliant Dual Tracking concept explained in his new book, opens a fast lane to therapeutic innovation that can prove crucial for individuals fighting life-threatening conditions. Dual tracking corrects lethal collateral efffects of bureaucratic regulation and replaces therapeutic choice in the hands of doctors and patients.

Order here



 A BRUNO LEONI PUBLICATION ON EUROPEAN HEALTH CARE


    

Edited by Gabriele Pelissero & Alberto Migardi

Co-authors Andreas Beivers, Alphonse Crespo, Alberto Mingardi, Günter Neubauer, Gabriele Pelissero e Valentin Petkantchin offer an update on health care reform in their respective countries.

Order here



ASSESSING  TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENTS


    

Professor Michael Schlander member of MedECON's Academic board is both an economist and a physician. He offers his unique expertise in this in-depth study on the scope and limits of health technology assessment as illustrated by UK's National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE)

Order here



ECONOMICS MADE EASY


 

    

"Economics has little to do with money: it is above all about choices and their impact on society."

Professor Pierre Lemieux, MedEcon' Academic Board member, in his latest book "Comprendre l'Economie" (Understanding Economics) pubished by Les Belles-Lettres (Paris).

Order here


From Adam Smith to Karl Marx and back

Lessons from the Coppet group

by Alphonse Crespo

NEW: E-book French version published by Institut Coppet

followed by original English essay (edited by the author).

Medicine & Liberty
Sentier de la Tour-Carrée 9
CH-1800 Vevey - Switzerland
Tel & fax: 41 21 922 60 82

info@medlib.ch

MedLib

Medicine & Liberty (MedLib) is an independent medical network founded in 2007, dedicated to the study and advocacy of liberty, ethics & market in medical services.

  • We support professional autonomy for doctors & freedom of choice for patients
  • We uphold the Hippocratic covenant that forbids action harmful to the patient
  • We advocate access to therapeutic innovation free from bureaucratic obstruction
  • We work to further the understanding of the role & importance of  free markets in health care

MedLib is part of a wide movement of ideas that defends:

  • self-ownership & property rights of individuals on the products of their physical and intellectual work
  • free markets, free entreprise and strict limits to the role of the State

Events

  • AAPS 75th Annual Meeting 2018

    October 3-6 2018

    Save the date for AAPS's 75th anniversary meeting in Indianapolis. Registration open at www.aapsonline.org

     


  • Med-Econ Socratic Seminar 2017

    June 10, 2017

    This Med-Econ socratic seminar was organized in patnership with the Liberal Institute on June 9-10, 2017 at the Hostellerie Bon Rivage, La Tour-de-Peilz (Switzerland). It enabled a multidisciplinary group of participants from various backgrounds (physicians, academics & other professionals) to discuss ethics and economics in modern healthcare.

     

     



  • Socratic Seminar on Medicine & Economy

    October 23-24.2015

    This socratic seminar organized by MedLib at the Chateau Mercier, Sierre in partnership with  the Liberal institute, brought together a multidisicplinary and multigenerational group of 18 participants for a rich discussion of issues linked to liberty, economics and the medical mission. Francis Richard's blog wonderfully describes the event.

    To Francis Richard's Blog

     


  • ESL 2015 Conference Berlin

    April 18, 2015

    European Students for Liberty held their 2015 annual conference in Berlin. "Opening Boarders" was the main theme of discussion. No better and  inspiring venue for such a topic than post-1989 Berlin! The event counted Tom Palmer, Pierre Bessard, Frederic Jollien, Christian Michel and many other illustrious freedom speakers and was thoroughly enjoyed by all those present.

     


     

News briefs

  • J.Robert Ouimet : An Apostle of Spirituality in Entrepreneurship leaves us

    read more

  • Bart Madden :The Right to Try Medicines

    read more

  • ESL 2015 Conference Berlin

    read more

  • HSA's in front page of AGEFI

    read more

Articles

 

HEALTH IN MOTION

 


 

  • Free To Choose Medicine in Japan

    Edward Hudgins, Ph.D,

    Heartland Insistute's June 2018 Polciy Brief, offers readers an update on the impementation in Japan of Bart Madden's Free To Choose Medicine concept, a model for America and at the core of a campaign to reform the FDA.

    Read More at FTCM  


    read more

  • The right to try new medicines

     

    Bart Madden aptly puts forward his Free to Choose Medicine & Right to Try concept in an enlightening presentation that thoughfully summarizes novative proposals designed to open patient accesss to innovation in respect of their fundamental rights. 

    To the pdf 


  • What is our Mission

    by Melinda Woofter MD

    Melinda Woofter president of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) reminds physicians of their essential mission and aptly singles out destructive facets of big brother governement regulation that threaten it. 

    Read the article in AAPSonline


  • Criminalizing Healthcare

    Alphonse Crespo

    Criminalizing Health Care, Old Scapegoats and New Targets

    How regulation treats health care professionals and Pharmaceutical industries as criminals until proved innocent.

    To the essay


Swiss Healthlines

 

 

 

September 28, 2014 : Swiss citizens say NO to public health insurance

62% of Swiss voters reject the socialist proposal for a state public health insurance system. Given the powerful public media campaign against private insurers the relatively high proportion of "neinsagers" came as a surprise.

 


 

 

ARCHIVES

  • Switzerland to vote on single public payer for health insurance - The September 2014 issue of Courrier du Médecin Vaudois highlights the pros and the cons.

  • June 17th 2012: Swiss massively reject a "Managed Care" parliamentary proposition designed to cut costs by taxing patient's liberty to choose his doctor. Read more 

 

 

Read the newsfeed

  • Despite the referendum vote that refused a single payer system in 2007, Swiss Socialists announce that they will put the issue of a single public health insurance again on the table in 2010. Spiralling premiums that plague the current mandatory insurance system may lure more voters to move towards socialized health care.      

Read the newsfeed

  • Pascal Couchepin, former president of Switzerland, outbids Thomas Zeltner: he calls to close 200 Hospitals in order to control costs !!! Professor Leyvraz of CHUV, one of the major University Hospitals aptly points out that patients already have to face an acute shortage of beds. High rates of severe nosocomial infections are directly linked to overcrowded hospitals: a consequence of government driven rationing policies. More than 10% of in-patients suffer contamination from a resistant germs while receiving treatment in major Swiss hospitals. Read the newsfeed
  • Switzerland has slashed 20% of its hospitals in the past 10 years to cut costs. Not good enough, claims Thomas Zeltner chief of Federal Public Health Office who wants to shut down 100 out of 320 remaining hospitals: He indicates that Swiss patients must be prepared to travel further for care. Read the Newsfeed


  • Swiss National Council votes (113 in favor, 56 against) to double patient co-payments for specialized care, in an attempt to control the soaring costs of mandatory health insurance. A proposed increase of the current 2 billion federal subsidiy designed to bring down health insurance premiums of lower income groups insurance was rejected (105 against, 64 in favor). Read the newsfeed


  • A Sante Suisse study indicates that four out of five Swiss worry about high health insurance premiums. A majority also questions madatory insurance and call for greater flexibility in madates (i.e. a return to volontary health insurance!). Read the newsfeed


  • New study on Switzerland's growing shortage of nurses causes alarm. Cost-containment policies in health care not only lead to overworked physician and nursing staffs, they also discourage entry into crucial health professions. Read the newsfeed
  • One out of three women with breast cancer does not get adequate treatment in Swiss hospitals judging by a study of 4749 cases conducted by Dr Beat Thurliman. Read the newsfeed
  • Patients contaminated by swine flu in major Swiss public hospitals. Overworked doctors & understaffed medical teams of major University Hospitals in the spotlight. Read the newsfeed
  • Mandatory health insurance premium hikes of up to 27% are predicted for 2010. Swiss citizens who have opted for high deductible plans likely to be the hardest hit  Read the newsfeed
  • Martine BRUNCHWIG-GRAF liberal candidate to Couchepin's federal seat voices concerns about drastic rationing of health care for senior citizens in Switzerland Read the newsfeed

  • Swiss health minister quits

- Couchepin: I give up! - Physicians demonstrators: Not us!

By Barrigue: Source SVM

  • Federal minister Pascal Couchepin pushed for intrusive regulation of medical activity. News of his resignation has led medical associations to call for a stop of doctor administrative strikes. A Pyrrhic victory for Swiss doctors & patients: Couchepin's demise has not stopped government from ordering drastic cuts in lab-test reimbursement fees (that spell the end of GP's office labs) and other disputable regulatory measures.
  • Swiss Federal Council hands parliament a catalogue of urgent changes in federal health insurance laws, exclusively aimed at cost-containment. Added taxes on doctors visits and a push to favor "telephone medicine" (at the expense of clinical examination) amongst the measures proposed. READ Federal Council's message to Parliament
  • Stickers ready for Swiss doctor's imminent adminstrative strikes


  • Bern witnesses a national demonstration of GP's.

Over 2000 doctors demonstrate in Lausanne & Geneva to protest against federal cost-containment measures that threaten medical practice.

Source: SVM


Esculape Foudroyé

NOW A CLASSIC


Les Belles Lettres

How Greek mythology helps us understand crisis in modern health care.

Belles Lettres order

Order through Amazon

MULTICAST

Multicast produced by MedLib and AAPS, voices opinions of doctors from US, Switzerland and Germany, on role of Government in healthcare.


Split Loyalties       Voice of Doctors USA

Click to view

Vox Medici

  • MedLib Comparative Study on Physician Autonomy

       

    Cross-country physician survey conducted for MedLib by Consensus Research covering US, Switzerland, Germany & Singapore, on the impact of health care environments on professional autonomy and mission.

    To  video presentation of preliminary results:

    AAPS Conference 2010 (Speaker Dr Alphonse Crespo/You-Tube)

    To media summaries:

    US  -  Singapore  - German/Swiss 

     

    read more

VoxMed Blog


Blog on Liberty and Medicine

 

 Go To BLOG


LATEST POST

The Body Language of Assisted Suicide

Another thoughtful Alert and Oriented piece by Michel Accad MD  tackles the moral and ethical dilemna tied to assisted suicide.


RECENT POSTS

Free Markets and the birth of the Mayo Clinic

The success story of William W. Mayo, founder of the Mayo Clinic, highlighted by Michel Accad MD demonstrates the power of laissez-faire in health care.

Back in the USSR:  a Sour Recipe for Lithuanian Healthcare

Lithuania's newly appointed healthcare minister Vytenis Andriukaitis recently advanced that the USSR had offered one of the best health care models in the world.  He mentioned the United Kingdom's NHS as his other icon. Lithuania's minister either suffers from a short memory, from a short sight... or was (hopefully) misquoted.


AMA Votes against Patients and Physicians

The American Medical Association (AMA) recently voted to reaffirm support of compulsory health insurance. Medical corporate lobbies generally end up bowing to power, even if this means betraying the legitimate interests of front-line working doctors and of suffering patients. The AMA does no better in this respect, than many of its European equivalents. 


"From Adam Smith to Karl Marx... and Back"

A timely reappraisal of the contribution of Rousseau, Necker, Mme de Stael, Constant and Sismondi  to modern political thought. This paper describes how these pivotal figures can teach us how to move from social-democratic quagmires to a free society.

French version & edited English original essay now downloadable in E-book format


Swiss medical students yearn to treat patients not paper

Three powerful clips from SwiMSA their association, call for a moratorium on DRG's


Government Goliaths against WikiLeak's David

WikiLeaks unveils only marginal and anecdotic aspects of political hypocrisy. Yet this proves sufficient to unleash the wrath of government Goliaths peeved by Julian Assange's quixotic challenge.

 


Hippocratic Entrepreneurship

 

Hippocrates acknowledged the contractual nature of patient-physician relationship and laid down basic rules to keep the economical interface of medical service within an ethical framework. Hippocratic precepts leave little room for third parties. Third-party-free practices as promoted by AAPS signal a revival of Hippocratic entrepreneurship.


Singapore's Health Savings Accounts Model Intrigues Swiss Media

The Courrier du Medecin Vaudois a Swiss medical journal, published a special feature on Health Savings Accounts (HSA's) including articles from Guillaume Vuillemey, Georges Lane and Alphonse Crespo. Proposals to look at Singapore's Medisave success story were relayed by journals such as Le Temps and the Swiss Radio Journal


Envy, demagogy, Obamacare and the destruction of wealth

Bludgeoning wealth is a seasoned tool of demagogic reform. Envy always finds a constituency that enables irresponsible political leaders – such as those that strive to confiscate American health care... and more – to tax their way to their misdeeds. Wealth, however can unfortunately only be confiscated once. Once wasted by government and its bureaucracies it can't be confiscated again.



The Voice of Doctors - Medical Independence in America.

The eloquent voice of physicians that truly care for their patients at last heard loud and clear.

Watch the latest video released by Medicine & Liberty & AAPS


Kill Altruism in the Name of Morality

Obama equates compulsory health insurance with "a core ethical and moral obligation". Compelling citizen A to pay provider B for care of patient C is not the same thing as “looking out for one another.” The moral premise that claims to drive Obamacare is tainted by coercion. Public welfare and its clones kill altruism and charity whenever and wherever they are instituted. (Read more)


Spin and Tax, Tax and Spin: The Treacherous Trail to the Bismarckian States of America

America's spin doctor in chief demonstrated - in a forceful attempt to impose his views on health care - how deep the gulf can be, that separates political rhetoric from reason. His eloquence however was not sufficient to blur hard facts. Forcing Bismarckian iron social security blueprints into the American way of life will come with more taxes.


Sovietizing US Health Care: Here comes the time of "official truths" and unofficial censure

Once upon a time there was Pravda. Today "official truths" elbow their way in more covert fashion as the recent muzzling of a League of American Voters' ad opposing Obamacare demonstrates.


Spin doctors might save Obamacare. They will not save patients!

An armada of spin doctors has been called at the bedside of Obamacare. Their mission is simple: to save Obama's pet project from the growing tide of grass root objections that rise from all corners: taxpayers, physicians, seniors.


Can common sense defeat health care demagogy? US polls tend to prove so!

Polls show that Americans begin to see through the demagogic smoke that obscures the bottom line of current road maps for health reform. Swiss citizens demonstrated the same wisdom when 71% (!!!) of them told their politicians that they did not need a single payer (i.e. a single decider) to manage their health care. This was not a poll but a referendum vote, March 11th 2007


Obama officials want their health taxes

Health care taxes not only bring more pork to politicians, they also mean veterinarian care for humans... When we're old and ailing, officials will decide whether we get treatment or a mercy shot!


Obamacare puts Obamacracy at test

Complex and cautious democratic processes aimed at consensus, such as those of Switzerland do not always yield expected results (particularly in health care). However, they protect citizens from the mischiefs of demagogy and limit ruinous tributes to special interest groups.


5 F's you will not find in Government Run healthcare

Americans have started reading the small print of socialized health reforms pushed by president Obama and do not like what they see. Five major freedoms lost in Congressional reform schemes have already been identified.


The Toxic T's that take you to Nobamacare

Taxes, Taxes,Taxes and...more Taxes

When they promise taxes, most politicians love to keep their word. Health care allows them to surtax, under-supply & get away with it.

Small businesses & families will soon feel the pinch of Obamacare(-less) super Health TAXES

More about the health surtax


Obama's Pied Piper Rush to Rationed Health care

Obama wants new health care laws voted by October. Two declared objectives: cutting health costs and “taking care of the uninsured”. The true name of the game is to increase the power of insurers at the expense of patients, doctors and health industries. (Read more)

GO TO POST


 

Before inviting Government into health care: Don't forget you'll be a patient one day!

Americans must look at European and Canadian government-run health care before allowing legislators to force them into Obamacare's demagogic health trap.

GO TO POST


Swiss Doctor Associations Bow to Mandatory Insurance Predators

After calling for “pencil strikes” to protest against lab test rationing, Swiss doctor associations now lamely ask physicians to get back to the paperwork… despite the fact that federal health authorities regally ignored their demands.

GO TO POST


The 4 Insidious I's of Government Run Health Insurance

Irresponsibility (of consumers), Inflation (in the health care sector), Interference (of buraucrats), Indifference (of providers)

GO TO POST


Obama's Doctor's Diagnosis of ObamaCare... and the Neurosurgeons

Obama's former doctor, David Scheiner suggests his illustrious patient has been misled into promoting health reforms cut off from the realities of patient suffering. Dr Scheiners' cures however, will not help neurologic patients...

GO TO POST


The Voice of Patients

Regulated medicine dulls the compassion of doctors. Voices in defense of patients threatened by social-fascist health reform must rise from other quarters...

The 4 deadly R's of Social-fascist health care reform

Ransom, Redistribution, Regulation and Rationing

 

GO TO POST


Dear American citizens: Allow your country to remain a caring nation

The US invests 17% of GDP in health care because it is a caring nation. Reformers want to change this.

Swiss Voters Deal a Blow to "Evidence based" Medicine

Two thirds of Swiss voters called for mandatory insurance to include coverage of alternative medicines. Will their health insurance regulators be able continue using the "evidence based" myth as a tool to ration care?



Profit benefits all whereas deficits punish many. Dr.Richard Durana director of INESS demonstrates this in a healthy study on the value of profit in health care. Profit gives health professions and industries resources and incentives to pursue their battle against human suffering and disease. Government regulation and rationing do just the opposite.




The US managed care industry proposes a "simple formula" for health care reform that hinges on the reduction by 1% of the annual growth of all stakeholders in the debate and is currently working on restricting its own growth. Should others follow suit?




Encrypted war economies of major nations engaged in ruinous military quagmires are the true causes of global economic crisis. The State is a powerful destructor but a weak mender. Printed money will not repair the financial craters caused by war.


Keynesian wishful thinking and outdated social security recipes will deliver neither wealth, health nor security. They will cost Americans dearly . Not only in wasted resources but also in terms of liberties.




We'll pay twice for current political profligacy: out of our empty pockets when debts of reckless goverment spending come due and in our flesh when we taste rationed bureaucratic medicine bought in a panic. Mike Tanner and Mike Cannon from Cato Institute blow the whistle.

GO TO VOXMED


Video Vox

 NEW RELEASE

 

From  New Media UFM

 

Poder y democracia segun Bertrand de Jouvenel - Universidad Francisco Marroquin

PRESENTACION de Alphonse Crespo (in Spanish)

GO TO VIDEO



From New Media UFM

 

Regulaciones y progreso de la medicina - Universidad Francisco Marroquin

ENTREVISTA con Alphonse Crespo (in Spanish)

GO TO VIDEO



From You Tube

 

INTERVIEW featuring Bart Madden and Jim Doti president of Chapman University shows how dual tracking can save lives.

GO TO VIDEO



From You Tube

 

PRESENTATION of preliminary results of multi-national physician autonomy study by Dr Alphonse Crespo at 2010 AAPS Conference in Salt Lake City

 GO TO VIDEO



From AAPS

Medical  Freedom Report (Podcast)

A series of interviews with professionals determined to keep freedom alive in American medicine.



From SwiMSA

Swiss med students yearn to treat patients not paper

 

 

Swiss medical students have identified the rationing and bureaucratic paperwork that loom behind DRG's (Diagnostic Related Groups). They prove it in 3 powerful video clips.

 



From AAPS

Merryl Mathews at AAPS on defunding and repeal of Obamacare