The 2011 Austin City Limits Music Festival was the 10th anniversary of this three day musical extravaganza. It has been quite a decade of live music on the great lawn of Zilker Park. Once again, it provided me with a strong reminder of the beauty of live music and the powerful messages it can deliver.

Music has a way of pulling people together – or at least putting them back on the same page if only for a moment or two. The complex interplay of notes - and spaces between the notes - breathes life into the old, and passion into the young. I guess I still have a mixture of both. When played by those having that special musical genius, you are witness to something that is simply beyond understanding and comprehension.

Such is the power of music. And such are the delights of ACL.

The 10th anniversary of the Austin City Limits Music Festival had many delights. With that in mind, here is my own brief personal diary of this year’s festival.

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Remember the Nike ad that proudly proclaimed that “Bo Knows Football”? Well, after reading Seth Godin’s post yesterday entitled “Denying Facts You Don’t Like”, I would suggest that “Seth Knows Health Care”.

That may not be his realm, nor specifically the context of the post as such, but he’s got it pegged nonetheless.

Godin noted that “once we start denying facts, it's difficult to know when to stop”. That tends to be the status quo in health care today. Of course, there is a fine line between “denying facts” and straight out-and-out agenda-peddling, but I digress.

With that said, this issue has a tremendous negative impact on a patient’s health care.

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This episode of the Rhubarb Report is chock full of vitamins and minerals – well, actually, just a few hot topics recently found in the Republican wilderness. The debates have the Republican Party front and center with the media and the public, so it’s only fitting that there would be plenty of Rhubarb generated at these little shindigs. If you have been able to watch these debates without squirming at the potential ramifications of them, then more power to you. I am certainly not of strong enough stomach to ponder Bachmann or Perry as our next President.

Onwards to this episode of the Report, where you will find the striking and perfectly coiffed presence of our own Governor Rick Perry.

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There is a shortage of primary care physicians in the United States. The problem is worsening, and access to care bears tremendous importance to the patient. There are a steady stream of blog posts that are expressing their concern over the problem. If you didn’t know better, you would have to believe that the sky is falling and that universal health care (or some iteration of it) would break the back of the primary care physician population.

This has become an annoying issue in health care. At this point, I am really getting tired of hearing this. Frankly, the solution exists as we speak. Yes, the answer exists today. But it is being ignored by those who have a vested interest in the status quo – the gatekeepers themselves.

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