What Do Doctors Think About the Healthcare Bill

I have been pounding my head against this one for a while now. Maybe everyone thinks I am nuts. Maybe everyone thinks I don't have a clue on this issue. Let me set aside my obvious bias against this bill and simply quote Doctors who will be directly effected by this.

You can go and Read these quotes here, or you can just read them unchanged by me as I post them.

These come from a summation article on the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons website.

Mark A. Hurt, MD--

I am not impressed. This S.391 bill is another attempt for the government to take health care over completely; it is not hidden at all. The provisions are examples of explicit government coercion.

-New bureaucracies – paid for by? coercion of private citizens
-Individual mandate – coercion of private citizens
-Penalties – government coercion of private citizens
-Insurance mandates – more government of private businessmen
-Progressive taxation equivalent – more taxation (coercion)
-School-based clinics – more coercion
-Job killer – government coercion of employers
-Savings – translated: rationing

Yes, this is a lovely plan: government thugs stealing your money, forcing your will, limiting your choices. Americans must say NO to this!

If we do not fight for political freedom in medicine — Capitalism — we have nothing to fight for, no cause, no real goal, no purpose. The fight for Capitalism in politics is the fight for freedom of choice in medicine.

Steve Horvitz, D.O.

Agree with Dr. Hurt.

This is another govt takeover with loss of individual freedoms and a job killer all in the name of budgetary constraints.

If republicans vote for this, they will go down in elections along with the democrats.

Gary Gillespie, M.D.--

Appears that private healthcare is being co-opted, and the most vulnerable in our society, our seniors, will be very low on this doctor’s ‘hierarchy of needs’. The plan seems to include much control by the government, with little mention of any freedom to pursue options for treatment. In sum: a sly, bait-and-switch version of the House plan; presented for public consumtion by someone with medical credentials. It simply doesn’t pass the ’sniff test’.

Brad Vilims, M.D., D.A.B.P.M.--

We need to emphasize that this is not an argument of cost/profit, access, or even of quality of care but one of Liberty and Freedom.

We have a situation where Congress and the President believe that one man has a “Right” to another man’s labor, made even worse by the fact that the laborer has little or no say in how they provide the labor or the fees they can charge.

It is quite ironic that the first “Person of color” to be elected President is attempting to reinstate slavery.

David C. Johnson, MD --

I did not see mention made of tort reform in this proposal. Did I miss something important?

Howard Long MD MPH --

Oust any Rep. who votes for these dictates!

The Health-Care ‘Wedge’ Fix (Laffer,WSJ Opinion 8/5/09)
of patient power does work well. Not only the > 8 M Americans
with Health Savings Accounts (dumped in present plan of Congress)
but my patients, many uninsured, are happy with the availability,
thrift and quality of paying (much less) at the time of care.

Weekly, I see many patients who regret care like Congress plans.
Examples: HMO, ER or Medicaid clinic treated negative X-rays with
just cough syrup, but careful exam finds rales, indicating antibiotic
for early pneumonia. Patients with back pain get pain pills
and a work excuse when my careful deep palpation often reveals
tender spots, curable like shoulder bursitis.

I confirm Laffer’s “Fix” many times daily: patient power, not regulation,
reduces costs while improving quality. It is a worthy corollary
to the famous Laffer documentation that lower taxes bring more revenue.

Daniel T Sullivan, DDS --

This is another example of the mentality of today’s politicians. All of us — doctors, patients, young, old — should tell all these big government twerps: No – No – NO!!! None of your plans are acceptable. Just back off. Give us back our freedom! We want the government OUT of medicine — and pretty much everything else. The answer to what ails medicine, the economy, our country is: Capitalism — period.

Lester Karotkin, M.D. --

The use of “Health Insurance” as a mechanism for paying for medical services adds tremendously to the cost, whether the insurer is a private or a government entity. Furthermore, the use of “insurance” as a payment mechanism impairs the patient-doctor relationship. The angrily disruptive controversy now so prevalent stems from the widespread delusion that “insurance” is the only proper way to provide medical services. I hold my concept fundamental and irrefutable. I may be the only human left on earth who believes and understands this, but I challenge anyone to prove me wrong!

I think that sums it up nicely.