{"id":994,"date":"2010-03-19T17:44:28","date_gmt":"2010-03-19T17:44:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/voteforjoe.com\/wheresjoe\/?p=432"},"modified":"2010-03-19T17:44:28","modified_gmt":"2010-03-19T17:44:28","slug":"were-going-to-the-doctor-too-much","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/?p=994","title":{"rendered":"…we’re going to the doctor too much."},"content":{"rendered":"

Talked with Don Shawl, 54, at the Mercy Health Clinic<\/em> \u00a0 (see previous entry) in Athens, Georgia. \u00a0 He is a construction worker who has been laid off for two years because of the recession. \u00a0 He also has a list of health problems: \u00a0 diabetes, heart issues, an infected tooth… \u00a0 He has no health care insurance currently. \u00a0 However, the services at Mercy<\/em> \u00a0 is free… and apparently quite good. \u00a0 Mr. Shawl said he’d been coming to the clinic for three months and had been treated with the utmost professionalism. \u00a0 For instance this day, he was seen by Dr. Jonathan Davis who volunteers at the clinic. \u00a0 He said Dr. Davis not only diagnosed a specific problem that he was having, but he took the time to give Mr. Shawl an in-depth explanation of the physiological dynamics of the issue. \u00a0 He said seldom, if ever, had he gotten such considered, thorough care… \u00a0 I spent the rest of the day talking with Dr. Davis, who is the kind of common sense doctor we would consider for: Secretary of Health. \u00a0 On the front end of the health care debate, Dr. Davis said a health care issue that’s not getting much discussion is, well, that we’re going to the doctor way too much these days. \u00a0 And we’re taking too much medicine to boot. \u00a0 He said that he estimated that as much as 30% of visits to doctors are simply not needed. \u00a0 Dr. Davis referred to these colloquially as “runny nose and sprained ankle visits.” \u00a0 What’s more, not only are we extraneously going for these kinds of visits, but we are often given medication for things we could simply tough out. \u00a0 We’ve, in essence, become addicted to always<\/em> \u00a0 being comfortable. \u00a0 “The immune system is a marvelous thing,” said Dr. Davis, referring to the curative properties of the immune system, given time. \u00a0 (Dr. Davis gives annual lectures to the new Chinese students at the University of Georgia here about common sense ways to treat these minor injuries and illnesses at home.) \u00a0 Dr. Davis said another reason that people aren’t discouraged for coming in for these minor things is because: \u00a0 “…medical people get paid for these visits.” \u00a0 \u00a0 Dr. Davis is a graduate of Covenant College in Look Out Mountain, Tennessee, and did his residency at a Community Health Center in Appalachia. \u00a0 He now works as an emergency room doctor in rural Georgia. \u00a0 Note:<\/strong> \u00a0 I put up a campaign flier in “Jittery Joe’s”<\/em> \u00a0 coffee shop in Athens. \u00a0 I’m sure my potential 2012 competition are indeed ‘jittery,’ knowing I’m out here. \u00a0 (Sorry.) \u00a0 More seriously, we’re asking our supporters to go to the home page, click on the “hand out” button at the top, and post them in your own local “Jittery Joe’s,”<\/em> or wherever. \u00a0 This is our answer to the million dollar TV advertising. \u00a0 Thanks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Talked with Don Shawl, 54, at the Mercy Health Clinic \u00a0 (see previous entry) in Athens, Georgia. \u00a0 He is a construction worker who has been laid off for two years because of the recession. \u00a0 He also has a …<\/span> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/994\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}