Local doc demonstrates in Washington, DC

Calls for healthcare reform

By FRITZ MAYER

WASHINGTON, DC — Dr. Paul Salzberg and 1,500 of his colleagues decided to send a message to lawmakers. On September 27, the doctors donned their white gowns, picked up signs and demonstrated in front of the Capital Building to let lawmakers know their concerns. The doctors were members of the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP). Salzberg, who practices medicine in Callicoon, NY, said that because of pressures facing doctors and the health care industry in general, “there is a real danger that many family doctors will no longer be able to continue to practice medicine.”

Of immediate concern is a cutback in reimbursement rates made to doctors who treat Medicare patients. If lawmakers don’t act before January 1, 2007, physicians will be facing a 5.1-percent decrease in those payments, and over 10 years the decrease would amount to 37 percent. This is due to a “sustainable growth rate formula” that was worked out in the 1980s regarding Medicaid payments.

Kevin Burk, the director of government relations for AAFP, said that the formula is faulty. He said that most members of congress want to change the formula, but it might not happen soon because it’s an election year. He said the chance of Congress taking action before January 1, 2007 was “50/50.”

AAFP, however, is even more concerned with the overall condition of health care in the United States. A new survey from the Commonwealth Fund, a private foundation that studies health care issues, found that increasing numbers of U.S. citizens are losing their health-care coverage because employers are cutting back on providing it to employees.

Nearly nine of 10 of the people who lose employee-sponsored health insurance, who then explore getting coverage through the individual market, never buy a plan, because they can’t find affordable coverage, or they are turned down. As a result of this and other factors, there are now 46 million Americans without health-care insurance. The United States is the only industrialized country that does not guarantee health care to all its citizens, despite spending twice as much per person on health care than any other nation on earth.

In June, the New York Academy of Family Physicians (NYAFP) passed a resolution supporting universal health care coverage in the United States, such as the kind that exists in Canada. Salzberg said he agrees with that goal.

Several states have moved in recent years to achieve universal coverage. In 2003, Maine passed legislation intended to provide every citizen with coverage by 2009. This year, Massachusetts and Vermont passed legislation to ensure that all state residents have access to healthcare.

But at least one state is saying no to universal coverage. Three weeks ago in California, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a bill that would have set up a universal healthcare system covering all Californians. Schwarzenegger said, “Socialized medicine is not the solution to our state’s healthcare problems.”