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Dr. David McKalip
No to care by committee OpEd
to
the St.
Petersburg Times President Barack Obama
is right that the status quo has
gotten us to a point where health insurance and medical costs are
unaffordable
for Americans. That status quo is one in which governments and large
insurance
companies hold all the money and power — and this would not change
under
any congressional proposal. In fact, Congress and the president would
require
every citizen to buy insurance or pay a penalty of 2.5 percent of their
income.
And Congress will reinforce the status quo with state-imposed
rationing.
FULL ARTICLE VIDEOS
David McKalip, M.D. "Insurance companies would profit endlessly from the free business of the mandate (7/23/09). As medical care demands increased and artificially high profit margins became unacceptably low (for them) they would join the bailout game. In other words, there would be absolutely no change to the status quo — just an expansion of more people into the currently bad system with the added feature of state-sanctioned rationing of medical care. Most Recent Linked Commentaries by Dr. McKalip 9/12/09 Say No to the Individual Health Insurance Mandate! 7/23/09 Stop Obamacare Now! 6/10/09 Do Patients Receive About Half of Recommended Health Care? 5/30/09 Medical Freedom or Medical Fascism? 5/12/09 The Trouble With "Single-Payer Healthcare" More commentaries St. Petersburg Times: 1. "Rationed Care is Bad Care" 4/11/09 Sample: “[Until now] Patients have enjoyed confidence in their doctors through the sacred patient-physician relationship designed to minimize their suffering and prolong their lives. In short, they have been able to trust their doctors. But if Congress has its way, patients may leave their doctor's office wondering if the doctor is working for them or serving a rationing plan.” “Government Care Would be Inept Care” 5/11/09” Sample: “When individuals control the money (not government and corporations), hospitals and doctors must justify the need and cost of a medical service to them. Individual ownership of health care dollars truly controls costs and restores trust in health care financing.“ 2. Jacksonville: Florida Times Union “Rationing of Medical Care May Be Coming to US” 4/14/09 Sample: “George B. takes final gasping breaths in his hospital bed. Basic medical treatment for his brain injury is denied to him. The din of the courtroom echoes here, reminding all of the legal battle that allowed his medical support to be withdrawn — against his family’s wishes. His wife cries, “Why won’t you save my husband’s life?” 3. Campaign For Liberty “Putting your in Charge of Your Own Health Care” 4/6/09Sample: “The current proposals for reform are cloaked as big changes, but as it turns out, they are actually more of the same. They can be summed up in this way: turn more control over to the government and insurance companies while politicians and special interests jockey for credit and work behind the scenes to benefit -- at the expense of individual Americans.” “Medical Freedom or Medical Fascism” 5/30/09 Sample:”…..the fact is that the power players in Washington are ready to set the rules and then hand the keys of health care spending over to large health insurance companies. This is the definition of fascism: the state decides what corporations will do and the corporations do their bidding while making a profit. As it turns out the very corporations making the profit also control the government. That is why I marched with members of the 912 project in Tampa today to spread the message that the government and large corporations should not control your health care dollar: you should. TESTIMONY BEFORE THE PENNSYLVANIA STATE HOUSE “The Trouble with Single Payer Health Care” (5/12/09) VIDEO OF TESTIMONY at: “http://media1.pahousegop.com/video/asx_generator.asp?videoname=56107537.wmv” At time 1:19:00 – 1:30:00 “….the root of most of our budgetary shortfalls in government and even in private industry are unrealistic promises for health care and retirement benefits ultimately funded by the taxpayer…. Those pushing single payer financing mistakenly label the system of private health insurance as a free market when it is in fact an overregulated cartel that relies on political connections to protect its profits. The sad truth is that the American health economy has not had a truly free market for decades since patients don't pay for routine annual health care. And now, when control of health care financing by third parties has lead to runaway medical inflation and rampant dissatisfaction among patients — an expansion of third party control of health care financing is proposed. But this third party would be the State and the State would be forced to finance health services amid shrinking budgets and increasing demands. All while avoiding rationing and interference in the patient-physician relationship. History shows us that this is impossible.” BIO: Dr. McKalip is a private practice brain and spine surgeon in St. Petersburg, Florida. He is the President-elect of the Pinellas County Medical Association, President of the Florida Neurosurgical Society, serves on the Board of the Florida Medical Association (FMA) and is on the Florida Delegation to the AMA’s key policy making body, the House of Delegates. He serves as the Chairman of the Council on Medical Economics for the FMA and lead the effort to write a health system reform plan for the FMA that focuses on individual financial empowerment of patients. Dr. McKalip founded Doctors for Patient Freedom and is working to ensure that individual savings, choice and competition create better and more affordable medical care for Americans. Dr. McKalip has written and spoken on the unintended consequences of expanded government and corporate control of health care financing and medical decision making including rationing, cookbook medicine, unsustainable economic models for government and unaffordable or unavailable private insurance products and financing options for patients. |
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