Yes, He Said It Right

I'm been asked maybe 10,000 times, what is your position on Obama's health care plans? Well, I'm not a doctor, insurance or politician, but I can tell you that it makes no sense to let government have its greedy hands on anything. My main sticky point is this: The money that Obama wants to make available is mind-blogging, insane. Tweak the current programs, but for God's sake, don't spend any more money in the magnitude he's talking about, a trillion, trillion and a half or even three or four, five or six trillion. What's a couple of trillion dollars to a liberal? Well, one doctor has said it pretty well in USA Today: he starts out with this declaration -- My medical oath requires no government oversight. Put simply, he says, "We (doctors) already have our moral directive. And, at the risk of contridicting our President, we have one incentive, too: the patient. I am guided by egalitarian principles. I was taught in medical school and residency to treat all patients the same, regardless of income level, VIP status, their gender or the color of their skin. My obese patients receive the same level of as my thin patients, my old patients the same as my young patients. I distinguish only in terms of conditions or medical risk, not in terms of demography entitlements. I was trained to never give up hope in curing a patient until hope it truly gone. It requires no government entitlements. My principles run contrary to the idea of meeting with a 65-year-old to discuss specific ways I may withdraw care. Perhaps it's not a death panel, but a measure in one House bill pushes in care in ways that cause me discomfort...." He continues: "I don't receive moral guidance on how to practice medicine from presidential decree." In closing, the doctor said: "It might be good politics to vilify the insurance industry, or drug makers or even doctors. But my-way-or-the-highway didn't work so well with the last President. And based on the reaction across America today, it isn't working in this health care debate either." Hooray. I want to hug this doctor and I hope the White House is listening, but I doubt it. Liberals don't listen too well. The doctor putting everything straight is Dr. Marc Siegel, an internist and associate professor of medicine at NYU and a member of USA Today's Board of Contributors.