What do the doctors think?

I am hospital based with my group involved in exclusive contracts. I see government based healthcare as being crony based, government interference with the goal of taking over another aspect of American life.

We need free market reforms. Insurance across state lines; ending corporate tax deduction on insurance premiums; tort reform. These will make a real difference. Not more government. That is how we got into the mess we have today.

Unless the government addresses liability reform, there will be little to gain from the current health care reform.

Primary care is vanishing fast. Only 7% of medical school graduates are choosing primary care.

Unless there is a clear and open relationship between the patient and their physician, without third party or government interference in determining the best course for a patient's management, there will be a rapid and deadly breakdown of medical care. Medical care is not a right, nor is medical insurance, it must be determined by each individual what thier health needs are and how they will achieve that, but not for society to be burdened with thier poor choices. Death is a natural state.

there are contingencies to everything. a certain amount of medical care is expected as a public obligation if necessary such as delivering a baby or attending to trauma. right now we have a mess that is not good for patients or for a lot of doctors. the private sector had its chance, left much of the public either at risk or dissatisfied and now depends on the fundamental role of government to protect its citizens. it may not be popular but it beats drifting aimlessly amid the status quo

If we can spend billions of dollars to kill poor people in Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen and whoever else is deemed a terrorist then we can have healthcare. Healthcare not warfare

I work away from home, and only as much as I must; I am already planning to spend all my time at home and get into something else as my primary occupation. The stresses are tremendous, yet everybody seems oblivious to what we go through with the government to take care of our patients. Yet, we are human, too. We gave up our twenties and part of our thirties, up all night, daily seeing death, grief, illness, horrifying injuries, children dying...we'd like to live, too. In my case, my parents died, leaving four minor children and no money. I masde a tremendous effort to become a physician, and it has become a living hell.

Healthcare "Reform" is only that in name. Making the States, the Hospitals and the Doctors responsible for your health care costs is not reform. The waste of defensive medicine will continue until Malpractice reform is a reality. As long as TV ads tell people that everything that went wrong in their lives is someone else's fault (and you can get money for it), medicine will not move forward from the "Cover Your A--" style of the last twenty years. We Doctors tried to something Good in our lives. Make Lawyers do the same thing. Send them to help the tribes of the Amazon, or Africa. Have them "outlaw" Malaria that still kills millions yearly.

These questions are a little too black and white, so some of them were difficult to answer. For example, I currently accept Medicare, but not Medicaid. Whether I accept Medicare in the future will depend on the payment rates. The bottom line to the health care debate is that doctors and nurses provide health care, not legislators, and it's government intrusion into the doctor-patient relationship that has created the mess we have now.

View more comments from doctors |