Dear Editor,
Upon reading the off the hill published in the Tufts Daily's Op-Ed section on Feb. 11, 2010 titled, "For the love of doctors and capitalism" (originally from Marshall University's "The Parthenon"), I was disturbed by what I see as the author's almost complete ignorance on this topic and the fact that the Daily published it.
Amanda White, the article's author, expresses her love for the United States and the capitalist system, which leads her to oppose the health care plan. She then explains how much debt doctors generally incur in education ("thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of dollars") and how hard they typically work. In addition, she makes it known that she has a relative who is a very successful, hard-working doctor and that she recently underwent successful surgery, two experiences she thinks are evidence that doctors deserve what they're paid. Clearly she has a biased and uninformed opinion based mostly on her own experience.
Her article articulates a lack of understanding of both the current health care system and the congressional proposals. While there are certainly some doctors who make more than they should, I don't think the legislation is suggesting a significant pay cut for doctors. As it now stands, health insurance companies typically have arrangements in which they pay doctors and hospitals less than they would like to charge. For better or for worse, I don't see how universal health care would change this. The plan isn't for a complete government takeover of all health care; instead it is to mandate that everyone receive some form of health care plan, in some cases subsidized or sponsored by the government. This doesn't mean that doctors would be paid substantially less — health care would still involve the same hospitals, practitioners and insurance companies operating in a very similar fashion, just serving more customers and with slightly different regulations.
To answer Ms. White's first question, under the universal health care system doctors will continue to be trained just as they are now. And to respond to her other question, development of "new medicines, vaccines, and cures" is almost completely unrelated to health care reform. In fact, reform of the pharmaceutical industry is another issue that should be addressed, but is beyond the scope of this article. There are plenty of issues affecting doctors that Ms. White should be concerned about, but universal health care is not one of them. If anything, she should be in support of it so that everyone in this country that she so loves can have access to the quality of care that she received.
Sincerely,
Cliff Bargar
Class of 2012
