Doctors’ Prescription for Health Care Reform

By Rick Banas, Vice President of Strategic Marketing

What is the use of passing health care reform legislation that ensures that everyone has health insurance if there are not enough doctors to see everyone who needs to be seen?

That is a question raised by two organizations of physicians that are concerned about the health care reform legislation currently in the U.S. House and Senate.

Both of the organizations, Docs for Patient Care and MillionMedMarch, report that they embrace the need for health care reform, but contend that the reform must be designed to lower costs without decreasing quality and value.

MillionMedMarch represents doctors who support responsible health care reform but are against governmental takeover of the health care system in the United States, which the organization labels as one of America’s finest treasures.

Docs for Patient Care is an organization of physicians who are committed to a health care system that preserves the sanctity of the doctor-patient relationship; promotes quality care; supports affordable access for all Americans<; and protects the patient’s freedom of choice. The organization feels that the quality and outcomes of the health care system in this country are being unfairly criticized. The majority of Americans view our health care system as the best and the most compassionate in the world, a spokesperson says.

Rather than lowering cost and increasing access to health care, the two organizations believe that the current legislation will significantly raise the cost of healthcare delivery in the United States and decrease access. “As cost rise, access to care will diminish,” notes MillionMedMarch. “Eventually, thousands of physicians, clinics and hospitals will be forced out of business, leaving millions of patients insured but without a doctor.”

MillionMedMarch promotes Five Principles for Health Care Reform.

  1. Ultimately, medical decisions need to be made by doctors and patients.
  2. No legislation should become law without serious tort reform.
  3. Insurance can be made affordable through greater competition.
  4. Transform the reimbursement and billing systems that are strangling physician practices.
  5. Eliminate organizations such as the National Practioner Data Base that censure physicians without due process.

The prescription for health care reform cited by Docs for Patient Care include the following:

  • Make insurance vouchers and tax credits available for the purchase of health care insurance.
  • Allow individuals the ability to purchase health insurance across state lines and to receive the same tax benefits as employers.
  • Eliminate penalties for pre-existing conditions by extending high-risk pools across the nation.
  • Enact responsible tort reform to reduce the estimated $400 billion a year that is being spent on medical liability, which adds $2,000 a year to each family’s health insurance premiums.
  • Encourage health savings accounts.

You can visit the Docs for Patient Care website by clicking here and MillionMedMarch by clicking here.

The opinions of Docs for Patient Care and MillionMedMarch represent just two of the many different opinions that people and organizations are so adamantly expressing about health care reform.

Other views can be found in the following recent blogs posted on our website:


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