Posted on 08/20/2003 3:13:22 PM PDT by El Conservador
Contacts: Steffie Woolhandler MD 518-794-8109 Quentin Young MD 312-782-6006 Kimberly Soenen 312-782-6006
Doctors Call for National Health Insurance Journal of the American Medical Association Publishes Physicians’ Proposal for National Health Insurance Signed by 7,782 Physicians
WASHINGTON, D.C., AUGUST 11, 2003 — In an unprecedented show of physician support for National Health Insurance (NHI), 7,782 U.S. physicians propose single payer NHI in an article in the August 13 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).
The “Physicians’ Proposal for National Health Insurance” was drafted by a blue ribbon panel of leading physicians. The signers include 2 former U.S. Surgeons General, the former Editor-in-Chief of the New England Journal of medicine,hundreds of medical school professors and deans, and thousands of practicing doctors throughout the nation. The Proposal will be presented in D.C. at The National Press Club on August 12 at 10am in the Murrow room.
“This is an historic moment. Today, thousands of physicians are taking a stand on the side of patients and repudiating the powerful insurance and drug lobbies that block wholesome reform,” said Dr. Quentin Young, a leading Chicago physician who chaired the Department of Medicine at Chicago’s Cook County Hospital and convened the group of prominent physicians that drafted the proposal.
The doctors’ article also critiques the health reform plans that have been offered by President Bush and the major Democratic presidential contenders. “Proposals that would retain the role of private insurers - such as calls for tax-credits, Medicaid/CHIP expansions, and pushing more seniors into private HMO’s - are prescriptions for failure. By perpetuating administrative waste, such proposals make universal coverage unaffordable,” said Dr. Young. The physicians call for national health insurance that would cover every American for all necessary medical care - in essence an expanded and improved version of traditional Medicare.
* Patients could choose to go to any doctor and hospital. Most hospitals and clinics would remain privately owned and operated, receiving a budget from the NHI to cover all operating costs. Physicians could continue to practice on a fee-for-service basis, or receive salaries from group practices, hospitals or clinics.
* The program would be paid for by combining current sources of government health spending into a single fund with modest new taxes that would be fully offset by reductions in premiums and out-of-pocket spending.
* The proposed single payer NHI would save at least $200 billion annually by eliminating the high overhead and profits of the private, investor-owned insurance industry and reducing spending for marketing and other satellite services.
* Administrative savings would fully offset the costs of covering the uninsured as well as giving full prescription drug coverage to all Americans.
“In the current economic climate, we can no longer afford to waste the vast resources we do on the administrative costs, executive salaries, and profiteering of the private insurance system”, states Dr. Marcia Angell, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and former Editor-in-Chief of the New England Journal of Medicine. “We get too little for our money. It’s time to put those resources into real health care— for everyone.”
The physicians’ call for NHI comes as rising health costs and premiums, and the increasing number of uninsured have stimulated a new round of health reform initiatives. Yet most politicians have steered clear of NHI, offering proposals for incremental reforms of the current system.
“How bad does it have to get before politicians are willing to prescribe the major surgery our health system needs? Premiums are skyrocketing and we already spend twice as much per capita on health care as any other nation. 41 million people are uninsured, and millions more are under-insured and can’t afford vital medicines. How bad does it have to get before our politicians admit we need national health insurance?” asked Dr. Steffie Woolhandler, lead author of the proposal and Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard.
The full list of signers is available on the internet, but will be password protected until the JAMA’s embargo is lifted. To obtain a password, members of the press may call (312) 782-6006.
Physicians for a National Health Program was founded in 1987 and includes physicians in every state and medical specialty. For local contacts or other information, contact PNHP’s headquarters in Chicago at (312) 782-6006 or visit: www.pnhp.org. Press/7.15 ver
Leaving an unprecedented 692,118 U. S. physicians who choose not to sign....I am so glad they are so enthusiastic about their 1% support level for this.
When you consider the fact that we are a nation of 270, or 280 MILLION people that 800,000 number kind of gets to you. I'm in medicine and it gets to me, I'll tell you that. It's "the Alamo" everyday! Everytime your practice costs go up Medicare reduces the reimbursment you get for your services. Don't get me started on the abuse the feds give out to hospitals.
You people want to go to a socialized form of medicine, fine but you give up your viagra, and your zantac, you give up your CT scans and your MRIs, you give up your "sports medicine", you give up your PET scans, you give up your emergency room visits (even when necessary), you give up your acute cardiac drugs and emergency surgeries. These idiots want a soft "no call, no weekends" type of affair that the government would impose (cut down on that nasty overtime, don't you know). I didn't get into medicine for a soft 9 to 5 job, I got into medicine because I want to help sick people get well. The 120 hour weeks in residency was truly a wonderful experience. Talk to most good physicians and they will tell you that was when they were most alive and vibrant. People ask me, "wasn't it exausting"?, my reply is much like the message on a bandage I saw on a freshly tattoed biker in South Dakota one year. It said "Yes, It hurt, you f*cking idiot".
I can't help but think what kind of care do these 8K "physicians" give their poor patients. Medicine in this country is the benchmark for any system. It is that because we value human life more than any other peoples on the face of this tired earth. We do that because we are, by and large, a christian society (sorry, jewdeo-christian). We value human life....every human life. Nothing makes me feel better than taking care of my patients, and I'm damned good at it. I can't build a building, I can't make plumming work, I can't wire a house for electricity, I can't drive a truck, I can't lay bricks, I can't make beautiful furniture, and I can't make crops grow, all I can do, in this world, is make people well. I rely on the rest of dedicated professions to do the above, and take pride in what they do.
People always think that a doctor is rich, think again folks. 60% of patients are on medicare or medicaid, or both. Both of these agencies have reduced physician's income drastically. Sure, I have a nice house, and a little lake cabin (I wasn't kidding about little) but I work much longer hours at greatly reduced benefits for the honor and priviledge to do my work. Would I quit? Not ever! I'm going to work till I drop, I love it so. My income has to be "sheltered" or the government will take a large portion of it. I'm left with an "allowance" (Gee, I'm a 15 year old kid again at 56).
The practice that I am a member of is a contract practice. This means that we bid on contracts from HMOs. We have reduced our fees and increased our services, with several outpatient clinic that offer much better service that hospitals. We are all vested in the practice and we share in the income. We fought back against the regulation and we won. We provide an excellant product for a very fair price. We offer more than any other practice and we offer services that even the hospitals can't afford to offer. If you, as a physician, are going to apply for partnership in our practice you had better have graduated in the top 5% of your class or your are not even considered. Even at that we turn down 80% of our applicants. We have 85 physicians that share in the practice. The professional components of our practice are not "employees", they are associates, and they have a 2 vote presence on our board of 15. We have a turnover rate among these associates of 2%....yes I said 2%. The associate professions are vested in profit sharing and 401K (the profit sharing is much more attractive) in the 2nd year of employment.
In short, doctors in this country have adjusted and we have taken down the pricetag of medical care. The other side of the coin has not adjusted and they are driving up the cost of medicine. I'm not a politician, nor would I ever be one, I'm not a hospital administrator, nor would I ever be one, I'm not a union boss, nor would I ever be one, I'm a professional, and that's all I want to do. Leave me alone and let me do what I do best...take care of my patients. We, doctors, cut our cost to the system, let the others follow our lead.
I'm a little sick and tired of a liberal, socialist, commie little scumbag with a PhD in Art History telling me that I make too much money. I have 4 years of under grad, 4 years of med school, 1 year internship, and 4 years of residency, and state board medical exams before I see the fruits of my labor. All that is fair, considering that I deal in human life. I would have it no other way, and I excepted the responsibility and the consequences for this wonderful thing that I do. Look closely at the people's credentials that berate physician's income and you will find the true communism, and envy that infects this nation. You work for what you want, and you sacrifice, and after that you are happy in your chosen profession. Happy in the pureness, the humility, and the love and respect you have for it. You will ever be a student, you will ever be a seeker of truth, you will ever be a logician and a scientist, and most importantly, you will be a "healer". Closer to Christ that anything you can do.
I don't have a "Christ complex" but I do have a responsibility to my patients, and that bond and contract is more important than anything. Being a Roman Catholic I sometimes represent things in that light.
One problem with socialized medicine which I think needs to be made more clear is that there are two general levels of doctor pay:
Imagine a store that sold goods at 90% of cost, and used 83% of revenue to replenish store shelves (while magagement gave 11% to stockholders and pocketed the other 6%). If the store started with a sufficiently large inventory, it may be able to offer customers good deals for awhile. And for awhile it could even present a nice picture to stockholders. Provided he chose the right time to exit, the managers could say that they worked wonders at revitalizing the store; when their successors come in, all the problems can conveniently be blamed on them.
As a member of a related healthcare profession (which shall go nameless here, since representatives of the field have been nominated on some of these FR threads at various times for burning at the stake, hanging, castration, and other gruesome rewards for their silliness and simplemindedness, some of which can't be denied), I worked in a large hospital with a number of physicians; I was hearing as long ago as ten or fifteen years that some would not recommend that their children follow them into medicine because of the conditions which even then they were putting up with. I also did some private practice, and know well of the limitations imposed under Medicare and Medicaid; the minimal schedules of compensation were bad enough, but even worse IMO were the bureaucratic hurdles such as constantly changing procedural codes needed for record keeping and filing claims and the need to be able to justify at any time what one was doing as being "medically appropriate and necessary".
Now covered by Medicare myself (a system I was required to join as soon as I turned sixty-five) I no longer engage in active practice, but I have kept my license in force, and still get various notifications related to conditions of practice. A few weeks ago I received a notice form the NJ Department of Banking and Insurance related to the new HIPPA laws. If I interpret it correctly, all claims for compensation from any source must now be submitted under the precise format established under the law, and failure to follow the format will result not only in a denial of the claim but will also expose one to the probability of a monetary fine - astounding. It takes a heroic degree of stamina and dedication to continue in practice in medicine today. Good luck......
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