As a practicing physician for over 30 years, I can assure the president that the majority of physicians in this country are for health-care reform - just not the government-run reform he prefers.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
There is a consensus of willing leaders from both parties coalescing around the right way forward in health care. Reform should address government-imposed inequities and barriers to true choice and competition.
Please be assured that as we move along through the implementation of health insurance reform, making sure that we find efficiencies within the existing system, is foremost on the President's mind.
I don't believe we have defined health care reform very well in this country.
I believe our health care system is in drastic need of innovative, patient-centered reforms that encourage competition and increase consumer choice, not the bloated bureaucracy, tax increases, rationing, and mandates in the president's government takeover.
I'm not saying we don't need health care reform. We do need health care reform.
The bottom line: health care reform is about the patient, not about the physician.
As Congress debates overhauling the nation's health care system, it should not authorize a reform plan that would further our financial woes. We must avoid creating an unsustainable government program. There is no question that reform is needed, but health care can be made more affordable without massive and expensive new bureaucracies.
I welcome the President and working with him to try to get some of that medical malpractice reform so we can get the cost of health care to come down.
I have been absolutely clear where I'm coming from about health care reform. This is something this nation has to do and a robust public option has been the mantra of my campaign from the very outset.
Healthcare reform is a paradigmatic case. It is self-evidently necessary and inevitable and has been on the agenda for 35 years, and the political class seems completely unable to respond to it.