Poetry and Medicine and was written by Deborah Smith Parker

With HMO'S - Well, Who Really Knows?

Employers got nervous with just fee for service,

their medical bills were too high

So they gave up their voice and physician choice

to give HMO'S a try.

But how we now cringe that this rationing binge

has sidetracked good care and health

Which today is replaced by a shiny new face,

the accumulation of wealth.

What we hope now prevails is a lifting of veils

to reveal the HMOs' greed,

To see through the sell and pull out of hell

subscribers who are truly in need.
 

With HMOs-well, who really knows,

since data collection's not done;

Now they are aware the data are there,

it's just a function they shun.

It's hard to take looks at their open books,

there's little they must disclose;

So what really occured is oddly obscured

and lined pockets for their CEOs.

They limit access while alleging success

and to customers they state

How much has been saved by excesses they've shaved

and then they raise the rate.
 

But God save your soul if you've a bad mole

or are losing your body hair,

Or a cyst pilonidal or you're suicidal

and need a specialist's care

If you've a strange rash, then you'd better have cash

for a skin doc you'll never see;

You'll first be deterred from being referred

for medical necessity.

It takes a magician to get past that physician,

your primary care designee,

Who must be a whiz to manage the biz

and is called a PCP.

On them you depend, but they must defend

the profit; on them is the onus

To keep the costs low (as to treatment you go)

so executives share in a bonus.

Now physicians who care feel great despair

that they must so closely ration,

But if they want work, they should act like clerks

and try to stifle all passions.

If they want to be good, then like Robin Hood

they steal from the lords of risk pools.

It's not treating disease or suffering to ease,

it's the almighty dollar that rules.