Nothing is Inevitable

Here's an interesting article about how to stop a health care takeover. I don't know how possible these ideas are, but it's worth a read. If you only have a minute and can't read the whole thing, be sure to read the last two paragraphs on the second page.

Meeting at Senator Casey's Harrisburg Office

Here are some pictures - Young Physicians and Their Families meeting at Senator Casey's Harrisburg office. Video clips from the meeting are coming soon.

Success!

After a lot of hard work, Linsy has managed to set up an appointment with Senator Casey! The time is tentatively set for 2:00 this Friday, and hopefully we will be able to confirm that later today. Senator Casey will be in DC, but since it's only going to be a 15-30 minute meeting, we felt it made more sense for us to go to Harrisburg, and we will have the meeting via video conference.

The only hitch is that to request an appointment, we had to give a set of names of who might be attending, and we had to limit the list. We thought we would be able to add more names when we actually got an appointment, but now it is unclear if we can or not. Linsy is working on finding out what we're able to do, and we'll let you know as soon as we have more information. For now, we want to know who is interested and available to attend on Friday. We were also wondering if anyone would be willing to babysit for those who are at the Capitol. Please let me know ASAP if you are interested in either or both.

Here is a list we compiled of our top concerns, put together based on what we heard back from you last week:

1. Quality of Care: Increased government involvement in healthcare takes away the doctors’ and patients’ ultimate discretion in making individual healthcare decisions. H.R. 3962 creates excessive government intervention through the creation of new bureaucracies (H.R. 3962 Sections 2401, 1162, 1401, 241, and 1802-3). Taking choices away from doctors and patients by giving authority to bureaucrats will lead to decreased quality of care. We believe that a new Center for Quality Improvement “to prioritize areas for best practices in the delivery of health care” will be cumbersome and costly and will not benefit patients. We believe that the quality of medical care available in this country is evidence that those most capable of recommending best practices are the medical experts in each respective field through continuing research and evidence based medicine.

2. Tort Reform: The House bill does not include comprehensive tort reform. Tort reform is inextricably linked to lower health care costs. Providing protection against frivolous and excessive law suits will allow physicians to focus on performing the necessary and warranted treatments as well as make the field of medicine a more desirable career choice by alleviating the current burdensome premiums.

3. Costs: As physicians we believe H.R. 3962 will create inefficiencies and will be very costly to America. Section 101 provides the HHS Secretary with authorities including “reducing benefits, increasing premiums, or establishing waiting lists.” The resultant rationing of care will be devastating for patients, causing many to never receive necessary treatment or suffer unnecessarily while on waiting lists.

4. Career Choices: This bill will impact career choices for seasoned physicians, physicians in training, and prospective physicians. Many existing physicians will be forced out of practice due to decreased physician reimbursement and the exponentially rising costs of compliance. Career choices of physicians in training will be directly impacted by this legislation, discouraging the costly training of advanced fellowships or deterring entrance to the specific fields most affected by the oppressive regulations. Many physicians will no longer pursue fields that are their ultimate interest or talent; ultimately a great disadvantage to patients. This legislation will also discourage prospective physicians from entering the medical field at a time when there is a shortage of healthcare providers.

Progress - Meetings with Holden, Casey, Specter

Hello Friends,

We have been contacted by all three offices! We are making great progress.

Thank you all for being a part of our meeting request forms to Senator Casey, Senator Specter and Representative Holden. I know health care reform is an issue close to all of our hearts. It is great that we are making our voices heard as “Young Physicians and Their Families”.

Representative Holden

Today I spoke with a staff member of Representative Holden’s D.C. office. He stated that he would like to work toward a January meeting with our group and requested further detail on our specific concerns regarding health care reform. I let him know our group could email him a list of our top key concerns by Monday (12/7).
• Please respond to this email with your key health care reform concerns (top 1 – 3 concerns) by Sunday Evening (12/6). (They can be short such as "The House Bill does not include comprehensive tort reform." Natalie and I will work together to mold all of our responses into a listing for Holden’s office.
• Background: Representative Holden voted against the health care reform bill in the House. He may vote again on a health care reform bill if it makes it through Conference Committee. January is an ideal time to meet with him because (if a bill passes in the Senate) January is likely the timeframe for the Conference process and another vote in both houses.

Senator Casey

I spoke with Senator Casey’s D.C. office health care advisor today. She proposed a meeting for Friday, December 11. She says we would have the option of video conferencing in from the Harrisburg office or meeting at the D.C. office. The meeting can be scheduled for a time that works best for our group and should last 15-30 minutes.
• Please respond to this email if you and/or your spouse can come to a meeting on Friday, December 11. Include 1) what time that day you are available and 2) whether you would prefer to video conference from Harrisburg or meet in Casey's D.C. office.
(We requested Saturday, but Casey’s office does not schedule meetings on Saturdays.) I know Friday is not ideal, but hopefully work schedules allow so we can get a good group together. (I know Darin has night float so he can make it.)

Senator Specter

• Specter’s Executive Director for the Capital Region sent me an email earlier this week stating she would like to discuss possible options for meeting, but we have not yet spoken on the phone. I will keep you updated if anything manifests.

Please feel free to forward this to any friends. We would love as much input and participation as possible!Please feel free to contact me or Natalie Richards if you have any questions.

Best,

Linsy

In Case You Weren't Convinced

Here's another article which talks about the real costs of the health care bills being talking about in the Senate and that already passed the House. It's a real reminder of why we can't let up right now!!

While Linsy's working on helping us be able to meet with our senators and representatives, it might be a good idea to start working on what specific items we would like to talk about with them. Start making your list and checking it twice, and we'll get another meeting planned sometime very soon.