Routine Miracles

Restoring faith and hope in medicine.

by Conrad Fischer, M.D.

Rising Insurance Premiums Are Embarrasing to Me as a Doctor

The money is not coming to us as doctors, that's for sure! It is excruciating to hear of the price for individual plans for health insurance rising from $500 to $600 to $700 a month year by year. I see no evidence on the ground that there is some marked leap up in the amount of testing done. I did see 17 hospitals in the city of New York close since the year 2000. Read More

Becoming Batman: Properly applied narcissism is good!

Statistically, there is a greater likelihood of abused children becoming abusers as adults. Yet, overcoming bad parenting in all its forms is so much a part of our spiritual maturity. May I suggest that properly applied narcissism is good? Read More

How to Choose a Religion, What's Your Flavor?

In preparing for writing the biography of a Zen Priest, I am thoroughly immersed in the history and flavors of Buddhism. Take your pick! Austere Zen, colorful deep chanting Tibetan. Repetitive chanting Nichiren Shoshu ("Namu myoho renge kyo"). Ritualistic with the Buddhist Churches of America. Read More

The Uninsured Ambulance Driver

It has been more than forty years since the United States made the decision to insure everyone with end stage renal disese (dead kidneys) who needed dialysis.

South Park has the right to be in poor taste. I won't let my kids watch it. The show can be disgusting and insulting. The creators cater to the crassest and lowest parts of the culture...and they have the right to do so. Read More

My Hell: The "Pre-Approval' Call from the Insurance Company

I feel defeated. With a name out of a Hollywood script, "MedCo" practices rationing in the name of the private insurance industry. I am teaching class and a "blocked call" comes. I answer (because the last time this happened a patient was having a stroke), and I remind myself that as a doctor, the call I don't pick up is the one that can hurt someone. Read More

Auditory Hallucinations are by Definition Unpleasant

No one has come to the psychiatric ER saying, "I have have voices in my head telling me they love me and think I am beautiful." By definition, auditory hallucinations are unpleasant. They reinforce negative, critical views of ourselves. Read More

Fifty Percent Approving of Health Care Reform is Fantastically Positive!

How many other things can you think of where only 15 or 20% of the group will benefit and FIFTY PERCENT of the group thinks it is a great idea? We should not read too much "negativity" into or think there is bigger opposition to health care reform than there really is. Read More

The Negative Forces Opposing Healthcare Reform will not Disappear and it does not Matter

The voices shouting "repeal and reverse" regarding healthcare reform are no more powerful than an auditory hallucination. I don't have a particular objection to taking an active stance and not taking things for granted, but with majorities in both the house and the senate, the likelihood of a reversal is pretty dim. Read More

Exhilaration of Healthcare Reform Lasting Longer than I Expected

Every day I go to war against negativity by trying to convince people that many things are actually better than they think. I am delighted and a bit surprised to see that there is a persistent euphoria for those who supported healthcare reform and who have now seen it really happen. Read More

Cost Versus Compassion Grinds like Sandpaper against the Chairman's Heart

"I was just in the Emergency Department. His family said, 'Get a one way ticket to New York,' so they could get him his dialysis." Read More

Healthcare Reform Removes Guilt from Physicians

Could there be anything more "soul killing" for the physician than to have to exclude an ill person from his practice because of the absence or lack of insurance? Read More

Conrad Fischer, M.D., is a specialist in Internal Medicine and is the Director of Educational Development at the Jamaica Hospital Medical Center in NYC.

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