Web Letters: Public Option Now!

Editorial

This article appeared in the July 20, 2009 edition of The Nation.

July 1, 2009

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To make the record crystal clear: a majority of American physicians now favor a single-payer solution, similar to what our neighbors in Canada employ. This was indicated by a poll published in the Annals of Internal Medicine (the largest survey ever conducted among doctors on the issue of healthcare financing reform). Fewer physicians, it should be noted, were in favor of incremental reform, such as the "public option" being floated by team Obama.

Congressional votes appear to be bought by the $1.4 million per day that the for-profit healthcare industry spends lobbying. How else do we explain the sad spectacle of Congressmen and Congresswomen trotted out on camera as spokesmodels to defend our broken health insurance system that works "for the wealthy and the healthy" (to paraphrase Ezekiel Emanuel)? If the votes weren't for sale, one doubts that industry would spend so much money. So you should be crystal clear about that: when you write that key Senate Democrats are vulnerable to "pressure from the healthcare industry," the sentence should be read as describing acts of legalized bribery that appear to be determining the future of healthcare in this country.

Except for the lobbying money and the part about working "for the wealthy and the healthy," our present system has absolutely nothing to recommend it.

Myles Sussman

San Francisco, CA
07/07/2009 @ 01:25am
I'd bet that a majority of doctors and other medical professionals would not fall for this trap.

How would you plan to force them to take the puny payments, which often don't even cover the doctors' and hospitals' expenses?

Should we adopt the system that is falling apart in slow motion next door in Canada?

John D. Froelich

Upper Darby, PA
07/03/2009 @ 5:45pm

Web Letters: Public Option Now!

Editorial

July 1, 2009

San Francisco, CA

Upper Darby, PA

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