It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, … it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair…

                                                                                Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

The current debate on healthcare debate is a defining point for us physician and our patients. The Lafayette Parish Medical Society sincerely and whole-heartedly agrees with President Obama’s determination to reform our healthcare system. America has one of the best health care systems in the world but there are great weaknesses that need to be reformed.

It is unrealistic to expect the final healthcare reform bill to satisfy everyone. But in this process of reforming, it is vital that we preserve the very few principles that make us one of the best healthcare systems in the world and improve upon our weakness.

Our society believes that it is vital that we preserve the patient-doctor relationship. Healthcare decision should be individualized between the patient and the physician. It is important for us physicians to be able to provide quality health care as determined by evidence-based medical research and not by a governmental agency using economic parameters.

We oppose provisions in the currently proposed senate healthcare bill that would:

·      Exponentially increase federal government interference, bureaucracy, and red tape for patients and physicians;

·      Create incentives for patients to pay a fine for not having insurance rather than pay an unrealistic amount for insurance coverage;

·     Creates a public option insurance plan that receives special advantages from government subsidies forcing private insurance company out and leaving us with a single payer system.

We do support reform of the following reform to our current healthcare system:

·      Health insurance reform to eliminate coverage denials for preexisting conditions, control premium increases, and creating more portability between states.

·      Real Medicare financing reform by replacing the fatally flawed sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula with a rational physician payment system that automatically keeps up with the cost of running a practice and backed by a fair, stable funding formula.

·      National tort reform to allow doctors to practice with a healing heart instead of practicing defensive medicine.

As physicians, we want nothing more than to be able to deliver the quality care for every person in America despite their economic status. However, the current healthcare system prevents us from delivering cost-effective, quality care to the uninsured. As we proceed to reform this system, it is important for us to fix what is broken without breaking what is not.  In the end, this healthcare reform debate will characterize us as “an age of wisdom or an age of foolishness; a spring of hope, or a winter of despair”.

WE HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO IMPROVE OR RUIN THE GREATEST HEALTHCARE SYSTEM IN THE WORLD.