How Rand Paul tried to lead an eye doctors’ rebellion

[mahatmakanejeeves]

How Rand Paul tried to lead an eye doctors’ rebellion

Politics

By David A. Fahrenthold February 1 at 9:15 PM
@Fahrenthold

The letters came from a young ophthalmologist in Kentucky. He was recruiting for an eye doctors’ rebellion. ... “We won’t be trod upon,” he wrote, using the language of 1776. “You can’t promulgate injustice without consequences.” ... The injustice he was talking about was a new rule, from the powerful group that deems American ophthalmologists to be “board-certified.” It required younger doctors to take a test that older doctors did not have to take. ... The Kentucky doctor was so outraged that he seceded — and started his own Board of Ophthalmology, so he could certify himself. ... “You can send a clear message to the establishment” by signing up to be certified by the new board, too, the letter said. “Check the appropriate box and return the card with your $500. Sincerely, Rand Paul, M.D.”

The letter, from about 2003, helps illuminate a little-understood (and mostly ridiculed) chapter of Paul’s life before politics: how he became a self-certified ophthalmologist. ... The saga began in the 1990s, when Paul — now a senator representing Kentucky and a GOP presidential contender — hatched a plan to put his family’s free-market ideals into practice. He wouldn’t submit to the establishment. He would out-compete it by offering doctors an alternative with lower fees and fairer rules. His do-it-yourself medical board lasted more than a decade, becoming one of the most complex organizations Paul ever led on his own.

But it didn’t work. Indeed, in a life of successes, it became one of Paul’s biggest flops. ... he board certified only 50 or 60 doctors, by Paul’s count, and was never accepted by the medical establishment. It failed partly because of resistance from the old guard — but also because Paul hurt his own cause with shortcuts and oversights that made his big effort seem small. ... The other officers of his board, for instance, weren’t ophthalmologists. They were his wife and father-in-law. His Web site was mainly a mission statement, and his mission statement had grammatical errors. And, after Paul missed a filing deadline in 2000, the state legally dissolved his board. Although Paul kept it operating, it remained unrecognized by the state until he officially revived it in 2005.
....

Paul spent 17 years as an eye doctor in Bowling Green, Ky. He still has a license to practice in Kentucky — which doesn’t require doctors to be board-certified — and does free surgeries at home and abroad. ... "He’s a very gifted, skilled surgeon, or I wouldn’t be working with him,” said Barbara Bowers, a Paducah doctor who has done surgeries with him since 2012. She said Paul had handled the most difficult kind of case she had: patients without insurance, whose untreated cataracts had hardened inside their eyes. ... “It literally becomes kind of like a rock that you have to chisel out, and replace piece by piece,” Bowers said. “They’re kind of like Third-World-country cataracts.”

[louis-t]

1. "Eye doctors' rebellion"

I just have this vision of a bunch of guys with flashlights on their heads marching with protest signs......

[Blue Owl]

2. Jeepers Creepers, don't let him operate on my peepers

[former9thward]

3. I guess you didn't read the last paragraph.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

4. Thanks for mentioning that.

I made sure to include that passage, as there is no indication that he lacks medical skills.

I have seen lately that a lot of DU is turning into demonization of people who do not share our beliefs, and I do not like that trend.

Best wishes.

[Blue Owl]

5. I read the last paragraph

But sorry, I still don't relish the thought of Dr. Paul doing home surgery on my eyes...

[former9thward]

6. People in developing countries who want their sight restored

often don't have the luxuries we do.

[JHB]

10. Nor do uninsured people in Kentucky...

...which was who he was working on in that paragraph.

[libodem]

7. .

[Sunlei]

8. What do you call the Doctor who graduates last in his class?

Doctor.

[TBF]

9. I'd like to see him return

To opthamology. Perhaps he could join Doctors without borders. It would be a fantastic way to get him out of the country!