Doctors Tell Congress: Just Stop It
Tuesday, February 9, 2010 at 11:58AM by aaps The 2,000-page “Obamacare” agenda is stalled, but some want to try to jump-start “reform.” Republicans introduced a 200-page substitute for H.R. 3962, which failed on a vote of 176 to 258. Now the President plans to meet with Republican congressional leaders.
“A bipartisan clunker is still a clunker,” says George Watson, D.O., President of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS). “We say junk the clunker.”
It’s not the health care system that is broken, stated Mark Kellen, M.D., immediate past president of AAPS. “Government is broken,” he said.
Not only that: government is broke.
The third-party-payment system certainly needs reform, AAPS believes. Government needs to enable cross-state purchase of insurance, association plans, expanded health savings accounts, and equal tax treatment of individually owned policies.
Republicans promote some of these good ideas, but they need to be in simple stand-alone bills, not packaged with hundreds of pages that could hide a lot of lemons.
As the AMA said in the 1950s but has apparently forgotten, “The voluntary way is the American way.”
Insurance is a voluntary risk-sharing contract. But Congress is trying to “fix” it by forcing Americans to buy, or insurance companies to sell only products meeting government mandates.
Electronic records, prevention, wellness incentives, and other measures might offer great benefits. And if they do, people will choose them freely. Why force the government way on Americans from the top down? The very fact of closed-door meetings with special-interest groups should answer that question.
So far, the healthcare nondebate has been an appalling case of governmental malpractice. It’s time to have a sober discussion of real problems and solutions—instead of endless platitudes and posturing, frantic arm-twisting, back-door deal-making, and midnight Christmas Eve votes.
Instead of trying to “transform” American medicine, Washington should set its own house in order. That’s where the real emergency is.
Reader Comments (10)
You can't tell these liberal progressives any thing the people have done everything refuse to pay taxes and these fools don't understand that we don't want their damned health care . Maybe the only thing to do is to have a tax revolt cut off their money and they can't spend it ,if all of those that went DC on 9/12/09 would refuse to pay any taxes until they listened to what we had to say it would cause a mass revolt they can not arrest over a million or more people. I guaranty that if they did try to aresst all othese then you would see more revolt in this country than the first one against England and a revolt against these socialist jerks what is needed
Government has never done anything really well, so why do they think they can do it now. Tort reform, cross state insurance plan purchasing, HSAs, Health Status Insurance, removing governmental regulations already present on insurance companies and the medical community, and removal of government from the equation are the ways to improve the cost of medicine. With government involved, the doctor and the patient will have no incentive to lower costs because they do not know what the costs are. Congress has no idea what the costs are either.
Patients paying for their care and being reimbursed by their carriers will increase competition and quality of care. Patients can shop and physicians, therapists, hospital and other ancillary medical companies will fall in line to compete for their business. Free market answers, folks. NOT GOVERNMENT RUN BY MORONS!!
While I'm not a physician I have to wonder: Has our present screwball administration caused many youth to think strongly against going to medical school? Perhaps law school for better protection from Obama?
While I'm not a Dr. I support you 100% and really angry that we have a government we can't trust. They will continue to hide things and bring them out as needed to achieve their goal.. Some how we need to tell them to first straighten out the SS ,Medicare, Medicaid that they created..Find out the errors and correct and get it to work properly instead of going after us to pay for government messes. You cannot build a strong house until the foundation is solid and we don't have that . Fixing does not work and the private insurances can still function until the get their act together..We cannot trust them and must be very careful to watch for the tricks and lies coming and stay alert everyday.... I do not see why there is not an open conference with Physicians first instead of having Republicans submitting stuff...That is very dangerous for us due to hidden clauses written by inept people...
Give me liberty or give me death. Congress: Just stop it!
Vladimir Lenin said, "The road to socialism is through medicine."
I stongly urge Take Back Medicine to mount a huge public relations campaign, together with doctors, nurses and conservative elected officials to educate the public about the threat to the public from the current administration's agenda. Buy advertising in print and television. GO ON THE OFFENSIVE! This matter is not a mere matter of redressing a grievance; It is about medicine's survival and about our survival as a free people.
The 2/4/10, 29 p "Republican Alterrnative - ",
is not convincing. It needs succinct facts.
" 1 - CUT MANDATES! ($3.8 T out with $2.5 T in would jail private citizens.)
Save $ with vouchers to empower patients with high deductibles.
Importantly, save Medicare & MedicAid with this option (HSAs)."
2 - DENY TOOLS TO TYRANNY:
a, No Electronic Medical Records
1, Doc's eyes are on computer - detracting from care,
2, Costs more (numerous studies),
3, Confidential info. hackable (so less recorded).
4, Political abusers are empowered.
b, Stop Central "Quality" Controls.(leave to patients)
"Evidence-based care" studies do not show benefit!
Example: "Keep blood sugar below 140 in ICU" caused 3x mortality!
[Did you hear about the statistician who drowned?
He was wading a stream that AVERAGED one foot deep]
Emphasize also,
1, Pools for Preexisting
2, Portable Interstate Competition
3, Tort Reform - California proven
I am sick of our government's game playing with our money and freedoms. I am a babyboomer who was brought up believing in our government to be a true friend of the people ,looking out for our best interests with a hands off approach and letting us as individuals to be accountable for our own actions and choices in our lives as God intended. Everyday we take another step towards socialism . We as US citizens better wake up and let our voices be heard before it's too late! Just because it hasn't upset your applecart yet doesn't mean it isn't coming down the pike. All Americans whether Democrats , Republicans , Independants or Conservatives should be very concerned . This is not a partsian issue but a peoples rights issue no matter who you are white , black ,gay, straight, religious or atheist . Don't let them try to pit special interest groups against each other . This is much bigger than that ,its about your rights as a human being and our future generation's rights . We must act and come together as One Nation Under God!
I can't imagine what the government is getting us into?
STOP IT NOW I HAVE TO GET MEDICINES IN HALF THEY DECIDED TO CHANGE MY GENERIC
MEDS BY SELLING ME TWO INGREDIENTS IN ONE PILL AND THEN TWO OTHER INGREDIENTS IN ANOTHE PILL AT $15.00 EACH PRESCRIPTION. WHO DREAMPT THIS UP?
AND IF THE GOVERNMENT DOES NOT STAY OUT OF MY BUSINESS HOW CAN I STOP THEM ? I AM ALL FOR HOLDING BACK MY TAXES, SOUNDS GOOD TO ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
i am a dr and i totally agree with the doctors views. i have worked in the government run healthcare system for almost 30 years and it is extremely inefficient . you do not want to go that route. start over from scratch. most of the stupid ideas are comming from people that are in academics,students, politicians and current government employees. what about using the ideas from people in the field and out in the trenches every day. i say dump all the current politicians and start fresh with some new and innovative ideas provided by the doctors out there working everyday that see where the problems are and what needs to be done to provide a realistic fix. not the politicians that are robbing this country blind for their own political ambitions.