From The Madison Capital Times, 9/22/03: http://www.madison.com/captimes/opinion/column/zweifel/57257.php Cash-strapped docs just more proof By Dave Zweifel Here's further proof that this country's health system is beyond repair. The Chicago Tribune reported last week that some doctors in the city are asking patients to pay fees and surcharges to compensate for flat payments they are getting from managed-care companies plus their rising administrative and malpractice costs. According to the newspaper, patients are being asked for up to $300 a year, above and beyond what insurance or Medicare pays. It's either that or go broke, one doctor told the Tribune. The only other way I could cover my medical costs is to see more patients in a shorter time, and that would be shabby medical care and I won't practice medicine like that, the doctor said. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois said it is aware of about a half-dozen doctors in the Chicago area now charging the fees. Some ask for a flat annual fee as part of being a patient. Others charge a $10 to $25 fee per visit or to fill out papers, for example, to certify a kid's health to go to camp or clearing a work physical. The insurance companies don't like it, claiming the doctors are under contract with them to abide by set payments for various medical procedures. But the doctors say they have no other choice. Regardless of whose side you're on, it's nothing more than yet another sad commentary on the health care mess we have. Prices are skyrocketing. More and more people don't have insurance because their employers can't afford the premiums. Others must forgo raises so they can keep insurance. And all sorts of bizarre experiments are popping up throughout the country to somehow get a handle on the costs. Yet there is a solution to it all if only Washington, including our administration, would wake up. Rather than tinker around the edges with complicated schemes that never wind up working, the time is long overdue to enact national health insurance - pooling all the money that is currently spent on bloated private administrative bureaucracies, bottom-line obsessed insurance companies and miles of red tape - to provide health insurance and care for every American man, woman and child. The current system that is already tilted in favor of those lucky enough to afford it is a national shame. It can't be allowed to continue. _____________________________________________________ Isolate the health care greedy. National health insurance NOW. Harry