The Federal Government is talking alot about "Health Care Reform". As a Physician who is committed to providing great care for my patients, I do have an opinion.

First we have to ask:

1) "What needs reformed?"

The objective and honest answer to this question will determine all the suggested fixes. We get to hear a lot from the politicians about "fixing" the system. But they are short on objective and accurate information. Individuals who are interested in a government based program will quote statistics that we have a lower life expectancy then all of Europe and Canada. However, they fail to mention that when you remove deaths due to violence (murders, largely). Our life expectancy is higher than most of the world. So, if you are in favor of a system that increases our life expectancy, you should not change Medical Delivery, but should work on the social and moral climate that contributes to a high murder rate in our society.

When you consider the delivery of health care, lets consider the effects of cancer care. The United States leads the world in survival from cancer. Review the following articles: "Nationalized Health Care and Breast Cancer Are a Deadly Mix" and " Cancer Survival Rates Improving Across Europe, But Still Lagging Behind United States" From these reviews, it seems we are at least doing cancer treatment better than the socialized systems in Europe.


I will continue to post on this as I have thoughts.