Thursday, May 08, 2008
Doctors Unite
An Open Letter from America's Physicians
Dear Fellow Americans,
For decades the United States has led the world in healthcare. We have enjoyed the finest hospitals, medical schools, research, technology, and resources. Unfortunately, our healthcare system has lost focus to the point where patient wellbeing is placed after politics, profits, and special interests. Healthcare costs are on the rise and patients have lost their freedom of choice. These trends are hurting our economy and compromising the doctor-patient relationship. As a result, it has become difficult for physicians to deliver the best possible care.
Our heavily fragmented healthcare system has made it very difficult for you, the American public, to get the care you need. As your physicians, we want to partner with you to address the critical defects of the system as outlined below:
* You are paying a lot for healthcare and not receiving enough in return. Your insurance premiums continue to increase while your healthcare options are dwindling. Gatekeepers, insurance networks, and restrictive regulations limit your choice of doctors and your access to care.
* You have been made dependent on complicated and expensive health insurance plans. Employers are forced to take money out of your paycheck to purchase health coverage. If you lose your job, you are left with no safety net and the money you have paid for health coverage vanishes.
* The time you spend with your physician has become remarkably brief due to regulatory hurdles requiring doctors to spend more time on documentation than with you.
We believe the following factors have made our current healthcare system unsustainable:
* The insurance industry's undue authority and oppressive control over healthcare processes
* Excessive and misguided government regulation
* The practice of defensive medicine in response to a harmful and costly legal environment
We, the physicians of the United States, will no longer remain silent. We will not tolerate a healthcare system where those without medical expertise or genuine interest in our patients' health have absolute control. This letter is merely a summary of the most important problems in our current system. We believe that by partnering with the public we can start to demand real change and formulate practical solutions.
We invite you, our patients, friends, neighbors, and employers to unite with us at this important time in the history of healthcare in the United States. Together, we can guarantee our nation a healthier tomorrow.
Please talk to your doctor about this letter and visit Doctors Unite for more information.
Respectfully,
The Undersigned U.S. Physicians
Go and sign the letter.
Posted by Kevin |
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Comments:
"This letter is merely a summary of the most important problems in our current system. "
You can say that again.
I'm sorry, maybe I'm missing the point but...what
exactly are we uniting for? There's a lot of broad,
generalized complaining going on without much in the way of proposed soltutions. It's hard to unite behind a cause when that cause isn't offering any real action. We seem to be in favor of health coverage for everyone but, at the same time, against "excessive government regulation". Yet, we're also against insurance companies with their "oppressive control of healthcare processes." That doesn't leave us much in the way of options (as evidenced by the blatant lack of alternatives offered in the letter). Maybe we're for McCain's capitalist model of health care delivery, particularly given our disdain for employee sponsored coverage. I'm just guessing since there are no answers given in the letter. I won't sign anything until I know what I'm backing.
This letter is filled with the same ineffectual
ranting that has always characterized organized physician approaches to health care reform - great at pointing out the problems (which, by now, have been thoroughly ingrained in our collective conscience) and short on solutions.
And please, if you're going to make broad
generalizations, at least make sure their true.
Americans pay a lot in health care but "don't get
enough in return"? We are the most over-managed,
over-medicated, over-diagnosed society on the planet. We certainly don't need MORE healthcare - if anything we need more people each getting LESS healthcare. As we've learned recently, more health care doesn't equal better healthcare.
You can say that again.
I'm sorry, maybe I'm missing the point but...what
exactly are we uniting for? There's a lot of broad,
generalized complaining going on without much in the way of proposed soltutions. It's hard to unite behind a cause when that cause isn't offering any real action. We seem to be in favor of health coverage for everyone but, at the same time, against "excessive government regulation". Yet, we're also against insurance companies with their "oppressive control of healthcare processes." That doesn't leave us much in the way of options (as evidenced by the blatant lack of alternatives offered in the letter). Maybe we're for McCain's capitalist model of health care delivery, particularly given our disdain for employee sponsored coverage. I'm just guessing since there are no answers given in the letter. I won't sign anything until I know what I'm backing.
This letter is filled with the same ineffectual
ranting that has always characterized organized physician approaches to health care reform - great at pointing out the problems (which, by now, have been thoroughly ingrained in our collective conscience) and short on solutions.
And please, if you're going to make broad
generalizations, at least make sure their true.
Americans pay a lot in health care but "don't get
enough in return"? We are the most over-managed,
over-medicated, over-diagnosed society on the planet. We certainly don't need MORE healthcare - if anything we need more people each getting LESS healthcare. As we've learned recently, more health care doesn't equal better healthcare.
# posted by 
: 4:57 PM
: 4:57 PM
I guess I pretty much agree with the above comenter. In addition, I am a little troubled that this apparently is being sponsored by Sermo--isn't this just a thinly veiled ploy for Sermo to get more MD contacts/members??
Well, we can bet it's not the AMA (or any other medical 'society') sponsoring something that actually matters and initiates constructive dialogue regarding the *real* problems with healthcare today in America.
And this is why we physicians fail.
We cannot even agree to support a letter stating that we are unhappy with the system. We cannot sign because we have not spelled out the exact steps to solve the problem, or the AMA is behind it, or big pharma, or a myriad of excuses to cloud the issue. The government, big pharma, the medico-legal complex and the insurance industry know this, and it makes us weak and exploitable.
As far as the general public is concerned, the average person thinks we are actually in charge and happy with this abomination of a system. Most feel we are the cliche of the overpaid and underworked doctor, driving our high priced sports car to the golf course on a Wednesday afternoon. Universal healthcare is a must to reign in the fat cat doctors and make them accountable. Just ask your patients what they think, and the stereotype emerges.
But ask yourself this. What would the ramifications be if most of the physicians in the country signed this letter? Would the politicians worry? Would the press ask what is going on? Would your patients maybe ask why you feel so strong about an issue?
So I ask you non-signers to reconsider. We must let the general public know that we are not happy, and some of the reasons why. Discussions and solutions will follow. To say nothing to the general public is to suffer in silence, perpetuate the stereotype, and seal this system in concrete.
Baby steps, my fellow physicians, baby steps!
We cannot even agree to support a letter stating that we are unhappy with the system. We cannot sign because we have not spelled out the exact steps to solve the problem, or the AMA is behind it, or big pharma, or a myriad of excuses to cloud the issue. The government, big pharma, the medico-legal complex and the insurance industry know this, and it makes us weak and exploitable.
As far as the general public is concerned, the average person thinks we are actually in charge and happy with this abomination of a system. Most feel we are the cliche of the overpaid and underworked doctor, driving our high priced sports car to the golf course on a Wednesday afternoon. Universal healthcare is a must to reign in the fat cat doctors and make them accountable. Just ask your patients what they think, and the stereotype emerges.
But ask yourself this. What would the ramifications be if most of the physicians in the country signed this letter? Would the politicians worry? Would the press ask what is going on? Would your patients maybe ask why you feel so strong about an issue?
So I ask you non-signers to reconsider. We must let the general public know that we are not happy, and some of the reasons why. Discussions and solutions will follow. To say nothing to the general public is to suffer in silence, perpetuate the stereotype, and seal this system in concrete.
Baby steps, my fellow physicians, baby steps!
# posted by : 10:20 PM
: 10:20 PM
If I were the public, I would want proof that supporting better treatment of doctors really will lead to better treatment of patients before I signed. I have a feeling that doctors wouldn't unite behind that.
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