In the finest of old folk traditions, I've made free with a suggestion made by Joe Offer in a recent post and dashed off a ditty combining his idea of a physician's lament and them low-down, no-count HMO Blues.

Herewith, I submit:

The Physician’s Lament

To the tune of Lady Franklin’s Lament

(With thanks to Joe Offer and apologies to Lord and Lady Franklin)

A poor physician, his spirits bent,

From his old squeeze-box wrung this sad lament

Of cruel treatment by a dreadful foe,

That bete noir yclept “The HMO”.

“When first I signed on, it made me smile,

But now I suffer in this durance vile:

I see ten patients where one used to do,

‘tis now the only way I'll ever get through!

“And now these claim forms do cause me grief,

I fill and mail’em by the bale and sheaf,

Until some bureaucrat with fell leaden pen

Doth strike them through and send them back again!

“’Tis incomplete!’ is the dour refrain

Of these insurance men who cause me pain,

Delaying payments that I fain would send

On me new Porsches and Mercedes Benz!”