A Doctor's View of the Healthcare Debate

A Doctor’s View of the Healthcare Debate

Health care as we know it today is over. Patients complain now about waiting 15 minutes to be seen in the office, wait till they can't get an appointment for weeks or months! Medicine has become a business, like any other free enterprise company. Without appropriate reimbursement, increasing overheads and burdensome government controls, the business fails. This is the direction we are heading.

As a local doctor seeing local patients, we can no longer invest in new state of the art technology, we have patients purchase their own supplies and drugs and bring them to the office, we function on skeleton staff, continue to pay exorbitant malpractice premiums, not to mention providing costly health insurance to our staff and families and our medical offices sees 25% more patients daily to keep our business afloat.

You tell me how adding 40 million new patients to the US health care pool with Medicaid like coverage, which actually cost us money to provide their care, is going to fix the system?
I agree health care spending is out of control. Yet, allow our free enterprise system to run itself. Healthcare is not a right in this country. It costs money like anything else. If you want to be healthy, take care of yourself and don't rely on your government to care for your self-inflicted obesity: Diabetes, arthritis, heart disease come from poor nutrition and sedentary life styles.

Allow a two tier system to flourish. Continue health care insurance, without allowing huge profits to the insurance companies and using that money to lower premiums, allow a state and federal Medicaid system for only those who cannot work, paid by increase taxes on junk food, cigarettes and alcohol. Let the American citizen decide on what their health is worth. They have no problem buying a new iPod, new 50 inch plasma TV or car, but when it comes to health care no one wants to pay!!!!

Enough said! Doc Rock (Williamsport, PA)

Editor Note: Dr. Steve Rockoff is a successful Urologist in Williamsport, PA and a close friend of my sister Carroll. According to my sister, Doc Rock is a great guy, great doctor, father of four, and a solid conservative.

© 2009, Jasper Welch, Four Corners Media, www.jasperwelch.org