Go forward on health reform - Washington Greene PA Letter to Editor - www.observer-reporter.com
I didn't realize this had been published until just now. Here is my letter for the DFA LTE Campaign:
I am a practicing physician who routinely sees the suffering and deaths caused by a health care system that leaves tens of millions of people on the outside, unable to access health care except when so desperately ill, they find their way to an emergency room, and often end up in my ICU, far sicker than they would have been with access to a doctor earlier in their illness - and at this point a drastically more expensive illness as well. Every doctor you know can tell you similar stories.
That is why it is no accident that the 10 largest physicians organizations support health reform including the House Bill that passed last year, which includes a public option and an individual mandate, so that private insurers will have a competitor and benchmark, and so that everyone will be "in," with an option to buy insurance from a true, not-for-profit insurer if they can't get it anywhere else.
It is no accident that the American Cancer Society has made reform its top advocacy priority, because they see the needless anguish of cancer patients trying to get the care that they need, fighting with insurers, struggling to pay the bills, begging not to be thrown off insurance plans.
So when you hear the naysayers complaining about this or that aspect of the bills, remember that your friends, your families, and our patients continue to struggle with getting good care and paying for it.
Forty-five thousand of us die every year due to lack of access to health care. And that number is only a fraction of those suffering due to untreated or under-treated illness and chronic conditions.
We need to move forward, not step back for all of our sakes.
The comments from the right wingers are, sadly, all too predictable, but hey, it had been read 422 times when I checked a bit ago. Sphere: Related Content
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