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
HEALTH IN MOTION
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
Regulation, Cartels, Quality & Choice : an Unsustainable Swiss Mix
Alphonse Crespo MD
Swiss
social security rests on private initiative, employer mandates and
government subsidy. Its original design allowed substantial room for
individual responsibility and competition while limiting government to the tasks of safeguarding public health and guaranteeing basic
provision for disability and age. (...) Compared to other systems,
Swiss health care still rates well and some of its specificities do
indeed deserve praise. However lessons can be learned from the
circumstances that brought quality downgrades and restriction of choice
into what was once an almost perfect health care system.
Read the article*
*Original English version of "Regolamentazione, cartelli, qualità e scelta: un mix svizero insostenibile" published by Bruno Leoni Institute 2010 in "Eppur si muove" (ISBN 978-88-6440-0818-1)
If Government Control is so Great, Why Are German Physicians so Unhappy?
Alphonse Crespo, Philip Stevens
Comparative effectiveness research is a bureaucratic gimmick that strikes at physician professional autonomy. It has significantly hurt physician motivation in Germany. It will do the same wherever it is implemented. It also lays the ground for conflict between modern precision medicine - that moves physicians towards genetically guided personalized treatment - and centralized administrative assessments of “effectiveness” grounded on volatile statistical estimates that blur individual patient characteristics.
Read the article in JPandS
What “Comparative Effectiveness Research” Means to You
Jane M. Orient MD
A billion dollar parasite posing as "comparative effectiveness" is ready to infest US health care while allowing pseudo-researchers to thrive on tax-booties and giving true bureaucrats more tools for rationing.
Read the Article in AAPS online
ARCHIVES
- June 17th: 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
HSA's in front page of AGEFI
read more
Health Banking enters the Swiss health care reform scene
read more
US Democrat's health care reform equated to a suicide pact
read more
US Senate opens door to Pelosicare
read more
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
Blog on Liberty and Medicine
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LATEST POST
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.
RECENT POSTS
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.
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)
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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.
GO TO VOXMED
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