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
ATLAS Liberty Forum 09 in Los Angeles
April 29, 2009
Vicente Fox Jorge Quiroga
Two former presidents, Vicente Fox of Mexico and Jorge Quiroga of Bolivia spoke at the Atlas 2009 Liberty Forum in Los Angeles. President Fox called for an end to the ignominous wall that divides Mexico and America, while president Quiroga warned against Hugo Chavez's petro-totalitarism that uses oil money and drug cartels to submit his continent.
Bart Madden, Scott Riccio, Alphonse Crespo
Strategies to Develop Free-Market Medicine were also on the menu at the event (see video). Panelists Scott Riccio, Alphonse Crespo and Waldemar Ingdahl made a case for patient-driven access to innovation as proposed by Bart Madden's "dual tracking" concept for alternative lanes to experimental medicines.
Lessons from Abroad: An IPN-Galen Conference in Washington DC
March 9, 2009
Prof. Schlander
Prof. Michael Schlander of the University of Heidelberg (member of Medicine & Liberty's MedECON academic board) explained how comparative effectiveness systems can increase health spending. He warned against formulaic approaches to
health decision making that violate social value judgments about human life. Dr. Alphonse Crespo described how mandatory insurance
introduced in 1994 pushed Switzerland from an access oriented health system to one dominated by cost-containment and occult
rationing. Speakers included Prof. Karol Sikora, Dr Valentin Petkantchin and others.
To full package of conference materials & webcast
When Ethics go Hand in Hand with Profits: Dr Ouimet at the Zurich Polytechnicum
March 3, 2009
Nicoleta Acatrinei who joined Medicine & Liberty as its Ethics in Economics research felow, invited Dr J.-Robert Ouimet, an unusual Canadian entrepreneur to speak on the role of spirituality in successful business practice at an event hosted by Zürich's renowned Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) on Tuesday 3 March 2009.
Nicoleta Acatrinei & Dr. J-Robert Ouimet
Dr Ouimet explained to a dazzled audience how a spritual approach to management and respect of human values can enhance productivity and competitive profits. Dr Ouimet whose family business "Ouimet - Cordon Bleu International - Tomasso" is worth $300 million in the food industry, also received a magna cum laude for his PhD at the University of Fribourg. He currently leads Our Project an experimental and innovative venture designed to expand and implement moral and spiritual values in business and industry management.
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Ethics of Capitalism educational course: Certification event at the New Economic School in Tbilisi
March 1, 2009
At an event held on March 1st 2009 in Tbilisi, the New Economic School of Georgia awarded certificates to students who successfuly completed the Educational Course on THE ETHICS OF CAPITALISM. Dr Alphonse Crespo who had lectured for the course was guest speaker at the certification event. He spoke on the role and limits of insurance in medical care.
LATEST
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.
2009
-
The 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
- SWISS HEALTH MINISTER RESIGNS
- Couchepin: I give up! - Physicians demonstrators: Not us!
By Barrigue: Source SVM
Federal
Health Minister Pascal Couchepin, who pushed for intrusive regulation of medical activity, announced
his resignation. As a consequence, doctor associations have asked their
members to stop their administrative strikes. For Swiss doctors &
patients this is a Pyrrhic victory. Couchepin's departure has not
stopped government from imposing 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
Source : Société Vaudoise de Médecine
- Stickers are ready for Swiss doctor's imminent adminstrative strikes
- Bern witnesses a national demonstration of GP's.
More than 2000 doctors demonstrate in the streets of
Lausanne & Geneva to protest against federal cost-containment
measures that threaten medical practice.
Source: SVM
BY BARRIGUE *
- In Swizerland, they are getting rid of GPs!
- Thank God we live here!
-First WE will choose your doctor... once this is settled WE will choose your illness!
* Source: Société Vaudoise de Médecine
Blog on Liberty and Medicine
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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.
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RECENT POSTS
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.
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)
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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.
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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.
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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)
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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...
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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.
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