To My Patients,

I have had the pleasure of being one of your physicians in a system which has traditionally fostered the physician-patient relationship as the basis for decision-making. There are those now who claim that the current system is “broken”. This claim is not consistent with the reality experienced by most patients who have access to innovative technology and a plethora of new medications produced by a research system second to none. While incremental changes might be in order, the current movement for “reform” is designed to replace, not improve, the current system. While the goal is stated to be universal health care, the actual goal is a government controlled system that will result in less decision making with you in consultation with your physician, and the rationing of health care for the individual. In fact, a recent gallup poll states that nearly 85% of all U.S. citizens are satisfied with their current health care. So, why all the movement for health care “reform” from our government? I don’t claim to have the answers as to the motives behind the government, I just know that this is a disastrous course, for you, my patients. The current movement may be called health care reform or universal health care, both of which sound well intentioned, but make no mistake, the goal is nationalized health care, socialized health care, government controlled health care. While we support universal access to health care for all, we do not support a system which, as we have seen elsewhere, leads to rationing of health care for the individual, and health care decision-making by bureaucrats.

President’s Obama’s new budget allocates $634 billion dollars over the next ten years for health care reform. This is above the billions of dollars dedicated to health care in the recently passed stimulus package. The magnitude of this spending would allow the government to completely overhaul our health care system. We must carefully watch the rhetoric behind the spending. It may claim to ease the burden of the uninsured, or defray the costs incurred on small businesses, or help those who are losing their jobs. However, the end result will be the same: a shift of health care from the private sector to the government, and in the process, you will lose your ability to make decisions about your own individual health care.

You have heard the cries from both Congress and our President about the nearly 46 million uninsured Americans. This number is cited to rally all of you to support health care reform. But, if we dissect this number you will soon see how disingenuous these claims are. Approximately 14 million of this number are already eligible for government programs like Medicare, Medicaid and SCHIP, but haven’t yet signed up. Approximately 18 million of the uninsured make more than $50,000 a year with over half this number making over $75,000. These individuals could afford health insurance but they choose not to purchase it. Lastly, over 10 million of the uninsured are not U.S. citizens. So if you carefully analyze the numbers the true number of uninsured Americans who cannot afford health insurance is not 46 million, but instead four  to eight million (estimated U.S. population approximately 304 million). You really have to ask yourself if you are willing to allow a permanent worsening of your own health care when the number of uninsured Americans is this low. The solution should address the four to eight million who need care, not the 304 million.

You must understand that socialized medicine is practiced in many other countries. So, there truly is no mystery as to what you can expect of your new health care delivery system should this change occur. In the United States, patients have short wait times from diagnosis to treatment for a wide range of medical conditions. This is not the case in those countries with a socialized system. For instance, for patients who receive coronary angiography in the United States, 80% have their procedure within three days with virtually 100% in less than two weeks. In the United Kingdom more than 65% have to wait more than six weeks, with over 20% waiting over three months. These numbers are similar for a whole array of treatments including cancer treatment. These waiting times are both dangerous and psychologically devastating. In a government run delivery system you can also expect rationing of your health care in the form of medication denials, and denial of procedures based on age, etc. In the United Kingdom, there is a group called the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE). NICE decides whether certain drug treatments will be made available. Recently British patients with kidney cancer were denied four life-saving drugs because, according to the director of NICE, “Although these treatments are clinically effective, regrettably the cost to the National Health Service is such that they are not a cost-effective use of NHS resources”. So the treatments work but the British government won’t pay for them. In President Obama’s stimulus bill, he has just designated one billion dollars for “comprehensive effectiveness research”. A recent analysis by Scott Atlas (which is included in this package) further delineates a number of disparities between current American healthcare systems, and other systems on which the current reform movement is seeking to model our system.

I am writing now to ask for your help in making a difference. If you feel as strongly as I do about this, please let your legislators know. Attached is a copy of your U.S. Senators and Congressmen. You can call them, e-mail them, or write to them. On the next page is a sample letter, which you can use or alter to suit your views. Feel free to copy this for family and friends. You have the ability to stop the proposed government intrusion into the medical decision-making process that will affect patients directly. We hope you will take the opportunity to let your views be heard. If we, together, don’t act now, the proposed changes to our health care system will become permanent, and we will all be the worse for it.

Our website www.savequalityhealthcare.org.  You can access this site to obtain copies of this letter in addition to the response letter.  This site will facilitate the process of disseminating this information to family, friends, relatives and physicians.  It also contains the contact information for all of our U.S. Senators and Representatives and enables you to send your response by contact form.