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Unhealthy plan

Santa Rosa Press Democrat
June 9, 2007

EDITOR: Be careful what you wish for. Atul Gawande (“The Obama health plan”) brings that adage to mind when he says that he would choose almost any health care system over our current one. Those of us who, like him, daily share the anguish of our patients and are often frustrated by our failed health care delivery system, are ourselves desperate for change. But, unlike him, we are wary of yet another attempt to resuscitate this hopeless case.

More and more health-care providers believe we must abandon a market-based approach. Under mandated insurance, most people would be able to afford only a bare-bones policy, and few would be able to pay the thousands of dollars in deductibles required. These plans would replace the millions of uninsured with millions of underinsured, who would still avoid seeking needed care.

Universal health care funded by a single-payer system is practical, feasible and exists in many countries as a model upon which to build an American health care system. Obama, Clinton, et al, should show the political courage of Rep. John Conyers, D-Michigan, and California state senator Sheila Kuehl, D-Santa Monica, who are both working to move single-payer legislation forward.

DR. URSULA ROLFE and DR. JOHN R. SHEARER
California Physicians Alliance and Physicians for a National Health Program, Berkeley