There's an interesting article in USA Today on June 1, 2009. It talks about the coming health care reform. It mentions how the insurance industry is lobbying because it has concerns that the government might create a government insurance industry competing with its interests. It also talks about the pharmaceutical industry that is worried about the imposition of price controls, and how it is fighting to prevent that from happening. Unfortunately, there is a notable absence of any mention of an important contributor to medical care delivery- the physician.
It's almost as if the physicians don't matter and, unfortunately, I don't think we do. We are regarded as "workers" in this system. We do what we're told, we continue to "provide" and why does anyone have to shape any of this imminent change to suite our needs? The government has cut our reimbursement for the past 15+ years, and no one has done anything about it. In addition, multiple regulating agencies have "controlled" us from every direction without much more than a peep from any of us. We are pushovers.
Someone better get into this debate that
represents the "interests" of the physicians. Those interests can be satisfied in a simple way. The message is, we need a health care system that considers the needs of the providers, and creates an environment that allows physicians to feel free to take care of patients without government oppression and manipulation. Is that possible? You bet it is, but not with the attitudes I see in the current news. If it doesn't change, we will have too many disappointed physicians in their 40s who don't like the job situation they are in. They will provide perfunctory care, and neither the doctors nor the patients will be satisfied.
James P. Weaver, M.D.,FACS
