The health care reform debate continues even as the economy continues to falter. We will bring you the best of the commentary and our own take on some of the more pressing issues as this important dialogue continues.
Here, a physician from Fort Collins weighs in:
I am a board-certified family physician who has been practicing medicine in Fort Collins for the past 16 years. I have recently been solicited by a private for-profit company to turn my practice into a concierge model (where a select "rich" group pays an additional fee - in addition to insurance - to be my patients).
What they didn't say is that 90 percent to 95 percent of my current patients would not qualify/afford/choose this "elite practice."
In the new practice I would have to "dedicate" my services to the new select group of patients and reduce the number of patients I care for to approximately one-third of my current enrollment.
The truth is that this for-profit concierge model will increase my revenue and reduce my workload. However, despite having more money and time, I would not be able to live with the "new" Carroll since, to me, being a physician is more than just a way to make money. I have never compromised my professionalism to make more money.
Don't get me wrong, I do feel underpaid as a primary care physician, but I will never be able to replace the feeling I get in helping my patients (especially those who need my care the most - the poor and under/uninsured). I get so much more from my work than a paycheck, and I will not compromise that process, even if I lose money. Compassion is what defines us as human beings.
Our current health-care system is highly discriminatory. If you are old, you get Medicare; the severely impoverished get Medicaid; rich or lucky to have a job with benefits get private insurance and the rest - 47 million - get nothing.
This discrimination is in the same country with a world respected Bill of Rights and Constitution. How can we allow so many of our neighbors to suffer when the resources are there to provide the best care to all our citizens?
What angers me the most is that the money we spend in our current system is more than enough to cover all our citizens. Financing of health care in America doesn't need a bailout, just a redistribution of the money.
I am convinced that our health-care system can be the best in the world - for all our citizens - if we comprehensively reform our financing system. The solution is not more for-profit companies and a race to the bank. We need to put patients above profit and reform our system to be one that truly delivers health rather than taking advantage of disease.
My practice delivers the best medicine that I know and I feel strongly that my practice delivers "concierge" service to all my patients despite their lack of a "membership card." I am the one that thanks them for their confidence and for allowing me to be a part of their and their families' lives.
The World Health Organization currently ranks the U.S. as 37th. We're not even in the Top 10. This is unconscionable. How would we react if the United States was 37th in the Olympics?
The time is now for us to reform our health-care system by removing discrimination and allow all of our citizens' access to medical care and move the U.S. from 37th to first in the world ranking of health care.
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Posted by: dayana989 | January 16, 2009 at 11:47 PM