What the $^@# is Wrong?

Facebook Viral – Dr. Roger Starner Jones

25 comments

I have seen a viral letter to the editor go around Facebook lately.  Like most things that go viral via email or Facebook, I figured that it can’t all be true.

Well, it partially is.

Dr. Roger Starner Jones did write a Letter to the Editor, but what he wrote isn’t what is going viral on Facebook at this time.

Here is what he wrote on August 23, 2009 in the Mississippi Clarion Ledger

During my last shift in the ER, I had the pleasure of evaluating a patient with a shiny new gold tooth, multiple elaborate tatoos and a new cellular telephone equipped with her favorite R&B tune for a ring tone.

Glancing over the chart, one could not help noticing her payer status: Medicaid.

She smokes a costly pack of cigarettes every day and, somehow, still has money to buy beer.

And our president expects me to pay for this woman’s health care?

Our nation’s health care crisis is not a shortage of quality hospitals, doctors or nurses. It is a crisis of culture – a culture in which it is perfectly acceptable to spend money on vices while refusing to take care of one’s self or, heaven forbid, purchase health insurance.

Life is really not that hard. Most of us reap what we sow.

Starner Jones, MD
Jackson

Source – Snopes

Here is what is going viral on Facebook right now.

Dear Mr. President:
During my shift in the Emergency Room last night, I had the pleasure of evaluating a patient whose smile revealed an expensive shiny gold tooth, whose body was adorned with a wide assortment of elaborate and costly tattoos, who wore a very expensive brand of tennis shoes and who chatted on a new cellular telephone equipped with a popular R&B ringtone.

While glancing over her patient chart, I happened to notice that her payer status was listed as “Medicaid”! During my examination of her, the patient informed me that she smokes more than one pack of cigarettes every day, eats only at fast-food take-outs, and somehow still has money to buy pretzels and beer. And, you and our Congress expect me to pay for this woman’s health care? I contend that our nation’s “health care crisis” is not the result of a shortage of quality hospitals, doctors or nurses. Rather, it is the result of a “crisis of culture” a culture in which it is perfectly acceptable to spend money on luxuries and vices while refusing to take care of one’s self or, heaven forbid, purchase health insurance. It is a culture based in the irresponsible credo that “I can do whatever I want to because someone else will always take care of me”. Once you fix this “culture crisis” that rewards irresponsibility and dependency, you’ll be amazed at how quickly our nation’s health care difficulties will disappear.

Respectfully,
ROGER STARNER JONES, MD
If you agree…pass it on.

It’s a bit different isn’t it?

When you spread the word of someone that is trying to send a message, you might as well send the correct message and not a distorted or “doctored” message to fit your own political conviction.  If that is the case, write your own letter to the editor.

Written by SaumZ

September 16th, 2010 at 5:53 pm

Posted in Facebook,Politics

Tagged with , ,

«
»

25 Responses to 'Facebook Viral – Dr. Roger Starner Jones'

Subscribe to comments with RSS or TrackBack to 'Facebook Viral – Dr. Roger Starner Jones'.

  1. [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by wtfiswrongcom, wtfiswrongcom. wtfiswrongcom said: #Facebook #Viral – Dr. Roger Starner Jones http://t.co/6FjqORx [...]

    Tweets that mention Facebook Viral - Dr. Roger Starner Jones | WTFisWrong -- Topsy.com

    16 Sep 10 at 6:14 pm

  2. Richard Meckstroth… Check your sources! The way this letter sounded was a little off. Sure enough after Googling Roger Starner Jones, it turns out his original sentiments were distorted with further embellishing emphasis.

    Just another example of blaming the little people. Look instead at the moral corruption of the medical care industry… insurance companies, for profit hospitals, and drug companies.

    When something goes viral on Facebook it often isn’t accurate.

    Rob MacDonald

    18 Sep 10 at 12:03 am

  3. He needs to stop moralizing. The majority of people (unless health care is provided by their employer) can’t afford the premiums. These people aren’t always the people he talked about. Until this country decides that maybe we are our brothers keeper this will continue to be a problem. Getting rid of abuse WILL NOT SOLVE the health care crisis. We don’t have a health insurance crisis. Those companies are doing well.

    marilyn dyer

    18 Sep 10 at 6:32 am

  4. Jesus said ” The poor we will always have with us ”
    Oscar Wilde said ” the only thing that eases the pain of poverty is extravagance”

    William Wilson

    18 Sep 10 at 8:43 am

  5. While I believe the embelishments of the letter were wrong, I believe the point that it states is relivant. When did health care become a right? ACCESS to healthcare should be a right, but it is a service that should require a payment. The healthcare industry is the only industry where services are expected, but compensation is not. Something needs to change, I in no way know how to accomplish the change. I do believe it is not only the in way we treat patients, but also in the way patients view healthcare.

    Arthur

    18 Sep 10 at 5:24 pm

  6. What this Mississippi doctor needs to come to grips with is the fact that he takes a hundred times more money from Medicare every year than any of the patients he is so quick to criticize.

    Medicare does not hand cash money to applicants; it pays doctors. Every time this man treats a poor person, he is paid directly by Medicare, and in his position, he makes an average of over $200,000 per year.

    In our neck of the woods (the Deep South), many hospitals and HMOs are in absolute panic about having to downsize or go under because they are not taking in as much Medicare dollars as they are used to. These hospitals, known privately to their workers as “Medicare Mills” are losing money due to legislation that has made it harder to get on Medicare and quicker to be booted off of it.

    That doctor’s level of insensitivity is astounding; his sense of entitlement and bigotry is even worse. He whines about his tax dollars paying for someone else’s heath care, yet doesn’t even realize that everyone’s tax dollars fund his top-bracket salary. If my tax dollars help pay his salary, the least I’d expect is treatment from a doctor who doesn’t look down his nose at me like I’m some fucking peasant because I have tattoos and long hair. I have as much higher education has he does, in a different field that doesn’t pay as much because it isn’t funded by federal money.

    Matthew White

    19 Sep 10 at 7:29 am

  7. I’m sure not all of his patients are paying with medicare. It is so easy for people to defraud the system it’s astounding I see it everyday. People who barely speak english, working for cash in a family owned place of employment, collecting food stamps and health care while they drive BMWs and live in huge houses. How do I know? THEY BRAGG ABOUT IT! There is no way of turning these people in or having them prove they are eligible for this government assistance. If there were not so many people taking what they are not entitled too there would be plenty for the people who are entitled to it.
    TAHT IS THE PROBLEM IN THIS COUNTRY, TOO MANY LOOP HOLES!

    Jennifer

    19 Sep 10 at 7:52 am

  8. Some additional info regarding the Dr. Rodger Starner Jones letter.

    Dave Rowe

    19 Sep 10 at 1:11 pm

  9. Matthew White :What this Mississippi doctor needs to come to grips with is the fact that he takes a hundred times more money from Medicare every year than any of the patients he is so quick to criticize.
    Medicare does not hand cash money to applicants; it pays doctors. Every time this man treats a poor person, he is paid directly by Medicare, and in his position, he makes an average of over $200,000 per year.
    In our neck of the woods (the Deep South), many hospitals and HMOs are in absolute panic about having to downsize or go under because they are not taking in as much Medicare dollars as they are used to. These hospitals, known privately to their workers as “Medicare Mills” are losing money due to legislation that has made it harder to get on Medicare and quicker to be booted off of it.
    That doctor’s level of insensitivity is astounding; his sense of entitlement and bigotry is even worse. He whines about his tax dollars paying for someone else’s heath care, yet doesn’t even realize that everyone’s tax dollars fund his top-bracket salary. If my tax dollars help pay his salary, the least I’d expect is treatment from a doctor who doesn’t look down his nose at me like I’m some fucking peasant because I have tattoos and long hair. I have as much higher education has he does, in a different field that doesn’t pay as much because it isn’t funded by federal money.

    Dave Rowe

    19 Sep 10 at 1:24 pm

  10. Dave Rowe :

    Matthew White :What this Mississippi doctor needs to come to grips with is the fact that he takes a hundred times more money from Medicare every year than any of the patients he is so quick to criticize.
    Medicare does not hand cash money to applicants; it pays doctors. Every time this man treats a poor person, he is paid directly by Medicare, and in his position, he makes an average of over $200,000 per year.
    In our neck of the woods (the Deep South), many hospitals and HMOs are in absolute panic about having to downsize or go under because they are not taking in as much Medicare dollars as they are used to. These hospitals, known privately to their workers as “Medicare Mills” are losing money due to legislation that has made it harder to get on Medicare and quicker to be booted off of it.
    That doctor’s level of insensitivity is astounding; his sense of entitlement and bigotry is even worse. He whines about his tax dollars paying for someone else’s heath care, yet doesn’t even realize that everyone’s tax dollars fund his top-bracket salary. If my tax dollars help pay his salary, the least I’d expect is treatment from a doctor who doesn’t look down his nose at me like I’m some fucking peasant because I have tattoos and long hair. I have as much higher education has he does, in a different field that doesn’t pay as much because it isn’t funded by federal money.

    Rich Miller

    20 Sep 10 at 6:32 am

  11. @Matthew White
    Amen! I’m glad that someone called this hypocrite out.

    Michael Williams

    20 Sep 10 at 3:50 pm

  12. Dear Dr. Starner Jones,
    This example is one which provokes the visceral reaction as intended, and I appreciate how upsetting it is to see a system designed to help people with real needs be abused.

    Yet I personally know of rich people who have cheated the system much more cynically than this example. Take the wealthy VP of a fortune 500 company who bought a “farm” in upstate NY and installed just enough livestock to qualify for a tax credit meant to keep real struggling farmers from loosing their businesses. His real intention was not to survive as a farmer but to later subdivide the land for mansions, and a golf course.

    It’s valid and very important to ask whose “gaming of the system” is more objectionable, and ultimately more costly to “honest hardworking American”s, as this is truly the “crisis of culture” to which you refer…Is it the guy with 4 horses and 12 chickens or the woman with a gold tooth? I don’t want to pay for this guy’s golf course any more than that woman’s tattoos.

    Whether it was a R&B ringtone on a new cellphone or country music on Sirius radio in a BMW, I submit that greed is at the root of the “crisis”, no matter which “culture” ( or race) is represented.

    BTW after the real estate market took a dive, the VP made us all pay for his mistake, we not only give him the tax credit for the “farm” but for the loss on his risky venture.

    PMK

    20 Sep 10 at 6:55 pm

  13. When I read this letter, other versions of it and some of the posted comments, a few thoughts came to mind: (1) The internet is ripe for distortion and Dr. Jones is probably displeased with some of the vitriolic versions of his letter, (2) Personal responsibility is critical to any functioning society, whether we are talking about health, safety, education, democracy, energy usage or other public concerns, (3) Many Americans simply don’t believe that basic healthcare is a human right in contrast to international declarations and the standards in other wealthy countries and (4) Current health care reform discussions are laced with the same ugly racial and class overtones of the Reagan-era initiated Welfare Queen.

    I write more about it on my blog

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/howard-steven-friedman/reagans-welfare-queen-has_b_733747.html

    Howard S Friedman

    21 Sep 10 at 1:57 pm

  14. Medicare and Medicaid are not the same thing. Medicare is generally for retirees. Medicaid is for people too poor to pay for health insurance.

    Question: Do you think it’s right to deny a kid asthma medicine to help her breathe because her dad lost his job and health insurance (and don’t even suggest COBRA–ridiculously expensive)? IF you’re OK with that, then you are one sorry son of a bitch

    Dave

    23 Sep 10 at 11:45 am

  15. What the doctor was talking about is a mindset that is rife throughout our country. The attitude that the money we make is ours alone, and healthcare should be paid for by someone else.

    I worked in a clinic close to the poorer side of town. We had no appointments left one day when a woman called to see a doctor. Said her need was urgent. I told her she could go to our After Hours clinic and offered to book her an appointment there. She said the After Hours $15 additional fee was too much for her to pay, but she really needed to see someone today, not tomorrow.

    So I went to one of our physicians, pleaded the woman’s case, and he agreed to fit her in. I then called the woman back, very proud that I had done a good deed for an obviously needy, ill person.

    When I told her the time of her appointment, she hesitated. She said “Oh, I was going to get my nails done then.” I was absolutely speechless. She must have noticed. Then she said, “Well, that’s OK, I’ll see the doctor then.”

    It’s that attitude that Dr. Jones was talking about. It makes me want to scream, “Where are your priorities?” Getting her nails done would have cost twice the convenience fee for the evening clinic visit!

    I’m not sure what the answer is for healthcare in this country, but changing the attitude of entitlement must surely be a part of it.

    Catherine O.

    26 Sep 10 at 6:52 am

  16. BTW, Dr. Jones’ letter is no longer available on Facebook.

    Catherine O.

    26 Sep 10 at 6:53 am

  17. Amazing – absolutely amazing. What the doctor didn’t mention is that we also have a crisis of culture in getting angry and defensive at people who have the bad taste to point out the TRUTH. “yeah, so what about them I know a rich guys who’s a crook too” doesn’t make what the Dr. was talking about wrong, PMK. And Matthew White – his PRACTICE or HOSPITAL may take in as much as you say, but how much of that is then paid out in malpractice premiums, overpriced supplies and pro bono services? THAT you fail to mention. Don’t demonize the doctor becuase he made the rigth choices and worked hard and made something of himself. What the man said was dead on the mark: he was RIGHT and smart people will listen and take note or the problem will continue.

    Vyper3000

    19 Nov 10 at 12:53 pm

  18. The bottom line is that our Federal Government is out-of-control with spending our so called “patriotic tax dollars”. Anyone who relies on government to fully protect themselves and their family is delirious.
    This is not about racism, but those who have no legit defense of the facts of the socialist direction of our country will do what any good lawyer would do, try to distract the issue with any means possible to confuse those from the facts. Using racism is the ultimate distraction and also provides an excuse and sympathy for ones own shortfalls. Sadly, because of this behavior, the cycle continues and is passed to each generation and continues to feed what racism is left towards one another. Go to mamby-pamby land and get some self-confidence…

    libsmntldisrdr

    4 Dec 10 at 10:06 am

  19. Dave Rowe : Matthew White :What this Mississippi doctor needs to come to grips with is the fact that he takes a hundred times more money from Medicare every year than any of the patients he is so quick to criticize. Medicare does not hand cash money to applicants; it pays doctors. Every time this man treats a poor person, he is paid directly by Medicare, and in his position, he makes an average of over $200,000 per year. In our neck of the woods (the Deep South), many hospitals and HMOs are in absolute panic about having to downsize or go under because they are not taking in as much Medicare dollars as they are used to. These hospitals, known privately to their workers as “Medicare Mills” are losing money due to legislation that has made it harder to get on Medicare and quicker to be booted off of it. That doctor’s level of insensitivity is astounding; his sense of entitlement and bigotry is even worse. He whines about his tax dollars paying for someone else’s heath care, yet doesn’t even realize that everyone’s tax dollars fund his top-bracket salary. If my tax dollars help pay his salary, the least I’d expect is treatment from a doctor who doesn’t look down his nose at me like I’m some fucking peasant because I have tattoos and long hair. I have as much higher education has he does, in a different field that doesn’t pay as much because it isn’t funded by federal money.

    Mamie Hatfield

    24 Dec 10 at 12:28 am

  20. OK,

    I have read it all here and I run a doctors office and the beleif that any doctor gets paid formk Medicare or even Medicaid any absorbant amount of money is just silly. I have had a doctor I worked for do a complete foot sugery and was paid the entire sum of $0.1 thats right one cent !!! Doctors are not getting paid the money you think and my husband has been treated by a doctor for two years and the doctor has yet to get any payment at all ! Medicare just keeps turning it away and my husband had cancer ! Be mire informed on how little the doctors are getting paid ( if any ) these days from medicare and much less medicaid. I agree with the good doctor. Your on medicaid and yet you can afford all the “luxuries ” life has put in front of you ? Are you asll kidding, my husband and I have worked for everything we have and now my husband is ill with cancer and we are losing our retirment day by day and you want us to support the lazy, money grabing, capibale of working , you know who you are people !! Enough is enough, work and earn it like the rest of us hard working people had to do …stop sucking off the system and its time to shut the system down and get rid of all the free loaders. You come here form other countries and want us to keep paying for you and you habits? No more !

    Michele

    18 Mar 11 at 7:20 pm

  21. The problem is NOT the doctor- it’s the attitudes of these responders! And I noticed that the same letter was attributed to many different names on here. And the one I’m talking about is how he is “not a fucking peasant.” He sounds like an illiterate idiot. Oh, and let’s criticize the doctor for having the audacity to go to college for 10 years to get a medical degree, and then, God forbid, make GOOD MONEY!!! How dare he!!! LOL, what morons- thank GOD they’re NOT doctors!

    Susan Wyche

    18 Jan 12 at 12:38 pm

  22. [...] Facebook Viral – Dr. Roger Starner Jones | What the $^@# is Wrong? [...]

    Rants and Chants » Blog Archive » Caring for Those Who Cannot Pay

    17 Apr 12 at 6:48 pm

  23. Amazing the ignorance of some commenters….doctors go to school and train for YEARS before making real money…..many get done training owing a couple hundred thousand dollars for med school….many are 30-35 years old by the time they are done. Medicare/medicaid reimburses smaller amounts all the time, and yet, these ne’er do wells that go to the ER, have plenty to spend on the things they want to but take no responsibility for themselves/health…..so WE the taxpayer have to be responsible for the losers now too…..things are sooooo wrong in this country now…….And Obama and his healthcare is nothing more than a power grab and more taxes for everyone…….we should all thank our lucky stars for our healthcare system NOW and our doctors/nurses…..they do a great job overall

    Brenda

    22 Apr 12 at 11:42 am

  24. I don’t know about that! Awfully judgemental! Thr only thing I’m missing is the shoes. The “expensive” jewlery I wear I inherited from my grandmother and mum that have passed. That gold cap on my molar tooth I got because it was cheaper and lasted longerr than a porcelin one. It has taken me an entire lifetime to “adorne” myself with tattoos that are in memory of loved ones and patients I have lost. I don’t even have the lucury of Medicaide. There is something terribly wrong with me, but my urologist said “In a perfect world and IF you had good insurance, I would refer you to an endocronologist and neurologist; but since you don’t, I’m not going to.” I can see that his hinass’ ideodic and anal thinking has gone viral in he medical community; but there has always been a baseline of swirlie doctors. I hope to gawd I don’t have the misfortune to be treated by that judgemental basturd under ANY circumstance!

    Dara Ahrens

    26 Jul 12 at 6:12 am

  25. OK, stepping aside from the political issue that surrounds this letter from the doctor, what is the point of this article comparing the two different letters? They claim that the letter has been “doctored” to fit someone’s own “political conviction.” Did the author of this actually read the two letters? I did, here are the differences: the “doctored” version is embellished by adding that the lady has expensive shoes and eats fast food. Oh, and also the altered version questions congress as well as the President. So to summarize my point, is the altered letter embellished? Yes. Is the “political conviction” any different? No. I’m not sure why someone felt it necessary to alter the letter because the doctor stated the same “political conviction” as the doctored letter without any need for embellishment.

    James Allred

    6 Dec 12 at 4:32 pm

Leave a Reply

Login with Facebook: