Dear Colleague,

We have all seen the practice of medicine change over the years. The extent of this change depends on how long you have been in practice. Nothing compares, however, to the changes, which are now planned. President Obama’s new budget allocates $634 billion dollars over the next ten years for health care “reform”. This is in addition to the billions of dollars dedicated to health care in the recently passed stimulus package. To believe that the practice of medicine will be affected only to a minute degree is to ignore all the evidence to the contrary.

In the past, we physicians have been very ineffective in maintaining control over the practice of medicine. Managed care faced little resistance, and resulted in the insurance companies making patient-care decisions that were previously made by the patients in consultation with their physicians. Rising malpractice costs rallied physicians, but in the end our efforts failed. It is time for us to act to prevent the disastrous, and irreversible, changes that are currently being proposed by President Obama.

It is time to educate our patients regarding the proposed changes to health care. It is our patients who will be most affected as health care goes from the private sector to the government. If we educate them, we can motivate our patients to get involved. Depending on your specific specialty, you may see between 20 to 50 patients per day. A recent Gallup poll stated that close to 85% of all Americans are very satisfied with their current health care. We simply have to help them understand what health care will be like under the “reformed” system.

Enclosed is a form letter we will be handing out to all of our patients as they sign in for their appointment. We suggest that you considering handing out this, or a similar letter to your patients.

If we fail to act, and allow the government to control the process without our input, the result will be a system in which patients will have less, not more, control over their care as the government assumes a greater role in the decision-making role which has, up until now, been assigned to the physician in consultation with the patient.

Our website is 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 e-mail.