The Capital Area Medical Society joins the health care debate with a new newspaper ad in The Advocate, detailing what it supports and opposes in any reform plan. The group, made up of doctors and holistic practitioners, says it supports malpractice reform and “guaranteed portability.” It opposes expanded bureaucracy and “government providing less incentives for the smartest young students, discouraging them from choosing medicine.” The group says its concerns are nonpartisan. Yet it is a component of the Baton Rouge-based Louisiana State Medical Society, which opposes the House bill on health care reform, backed by President Barack Obama.
“The costs of doing the bill in the framework that is out there now, we believe, is suicide,” says Dave Tarver, executive vice president of the state society. “This is not reform of our health care system. This is a complete overhaul.”
The bill’s $1 trillion-plus price tag is the society’s greatest concern, Tarver says. But there is no way to stop the process, he says, if legislators do not bow to angry public criticism because Democrats have the votes to pass the bill.
“When you’re outnumbered, you’re outnumbered,” he says. “If they really are getting a message from what is going on across the country, from a political standpoint then they need to respond. Then the process will slow down.”
The state society, which has 42 component groups spanning about 6,700 members, says in a written critique that the proposed public health option would create a single-payer system that rations care and that it ignores liability insurance reform and weakens professional standards of care.—Todd R. Brown
