Focused on the Wrong Issue!

Starr, Paul. “Fighting the Wrong Health Care BAttle.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 22 November 2009. Web. 22 November 2009 <http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/29/opinion/29starr.html

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Public opinion is a very large factor in the decisions and requirements of the health care proposal. This article is based upon the opinion of Paul Starr, a very conservative politician who is completely against the health care plan. He believes that the total focus of the health care policy should not be what the government will reap from the changes or how doctors will react to the change of policy, rather that the people of America's opinion and view of the bill is what really matters. Starr argues that the entire health care bill has been, "dominated by ideological politics"; what he is saying that truly matters is the opinion that if the pending health care bill were to be put into action, that conservatives claim it would, "amount to a government takeover." Starr thinks that that the entire plan is ludicrous, stating that according to the Congressional Budget Office that, "it would enroll less than 2 percent of the population and probably have higher premiums than private plans." He also speaks about how if the health care bill is passed, those with the public opinion of the bill making them lose money and force them into a physician's care that they would normally not approve of, that they will be charged incredibly high rates for insurance and make large businesses with large-employer plans very vulnerable and create a so called, "risk pool" for everybody. Starr also comments though on how state public opinion is very important. He believes that every state should be able to decide the severity of the plan's effect on their inner government. One thing that Starr finds undestestable though is how the government wants to wait until 2014 to being opening exchanges and extending coverage. Financial incentives would be given to states who enstated the bill as early as 2011 and Starr found this infuriating. This article coincides with my research question by addressing a very serious role in the decision of the health care bill which is: public option. According to many Americans already insured, they do not want a change in health care and from a Conservative point of view, if the government began to listen more to public option, Starr's opinions on how important the people's voice is would lead them to a much different approach to the bill. The government would understand that to those that are insured and opposed to the bill would be depleated of their normal health care and be forced to switch to an insurance company that they do not even get to choose, but will still have to pay for.

Physicians Fed Up

Harris, Vance. “Commentary: Why primary care doctors are fed up.” www.CNNhealth.com. Publisher of Newspaper, 25 August 2009 (of article). Web. 11 November 2009 (of your access) <http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/08/25/harris.primary.care.doctor/index.html>.

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The point of view in this article represents doctors who are in support of the health care bill and who are against the health care bill. Both of these view points present doctors who are fed up with trying their best to think about how they are going to adapt to the health care reform and feel like they are going to get the ultimate shaft even when they are trying their best to provide health care to patients who cannot even afford insurance. Though nobody wants to say it, students who are currently working hard in school to become doctors are dropping like flies out of medical school because of all the poor benefits they will reap in comparison to what they normally would without the bill in action. The particular doctor, Vance Harris who is the author of this article states that he has suggested so many alternate methods to patients coming in with something wrong instead of just jumping to the most expensive scan or medicine out of a fear for the worst. He says that this has saved his patients and his practice hundreds of thousands of dollars every year. As a doctor that is so concerned with the well being of his practice and his patients, Harris feels like this bill will give his efforts lost meaning considering that he is only making half of what he made twenty years ago and will make even less in the upcoming year if the bill passes. He and many other doctors alike are disappointed that as hard and honestly that they have worked with their patients, that many of them won’t even be able to remain a physician simply because they won’t be able to afford it. They won’t be able to afford it because they will have so many new patients thrown at them they don’t already have and will struggle with providing the best of care therefore putting doctors opposed to cheap patient care out of business. Because of this bill, it is already projected that, according to the American Academy of Family Physicians, by 2020 there will be a shortage of 39,000 physicians needed. “Nearly half of all doctors surveyed by the Physicians' Foundation have said that over the next three years they plan to reduce the number of patients they see or stop practicing entirely.” This article directly addresses my research question by displaying how care will be much more difficult for patients to afford and find; on top of that it makes it clear that they reform bill will make it much more difficult for doctor’s to try to cut medicinal costs for patients because they themselves will not be making enough money to survive. In this case not only will patient care be significantly reduced, but the ability for Americans to find health care that they can even afford will become extremely difficult.