San Diego County Republican Party Secretary Michael Rosen’s op-ed on February 14th must be recognized for what it is—an ideological rant unsupported by facts.
It’s sad that the minority party can offer only the status quo of demonstrably failed philosophies when California desperately needs financial and health care reform,

The state Senate recently passed SB 810, the CA Universal Health Care Act by 22-14, or 61% to 39%, about the ratio of Democrats to Republicans in the state. Polls show that very large numbers of Democrats favor a Medicare-for-All type plan such as SB 810. In a CBS News/New York Times poll in February 2009 59% favored government-provided national health insurance. So, how can Rosen construe the Senate’s vote to be against constituents’ wishes?

Mr. Rosen quoted Assemblyman Martin Garrick, R-Carlsbad, that California residents have already rejected universal health care. They both know that the bill passed twice only to be vetoed by Republican governor Schwartzenegger.

Rosen and State Senator Mark Wyland, R-Carlsbad, allege that countries with single payer plans don’t provide the newest drugs and best surgeries and subject citizens to months long waiting times for less effective treatments.

Don’t these lawyers know anything about the practice of medicine in the United States?
How did they reach their conclusions?

I’d welcome the opportunity to sit down with Mr. Rosen and Senator Wyland and go through 20 years of documentation by the Center for Health Policy Research at Dartmouth Medical School, which shows that one-third of health care services used in the United States are unnecessary. Widespread geographic variations exist in the rates of treatments of various diseases. Yet, patients’ survival rates are the same or better in the low service areas despite more “care” in the high-use areas. Variation in coronary artery by-pass grafting was 3.8-fold, for back surgery 4.8-fold, for radical prostatectomy 13-fold, and for peripheral angioplasty 14-fold.

The Dartmouth studies are not unique. For coronary bypass procedures or stent placements, Medicare estimates less than half are necessary. The prestigious Institute of Medicine found that 50 % of ALL medical treatments prescribed are of NO BENEFIT. Useless treatments not only waste money, but also destroy patients’ hopes and are replete with complications.

The major reason for the useless variations was attributed to physicians’ decisions to treat. Is it possible that there is less profit motive under single-payer plans than with a private system?

Yes, the United States has the best health care in the world, unless you’re one of the 12-15% of Americans who can’t afford health insurance to see a doctor. Then, you risk being one of the 45,000 who die each year of a preventable disease.

… Or, unless you have been slammed with usurious increases in insurance premiums that by 2020 will be a third of the yearly income of an average family of four. California’s Anthem Blue Cross (WellPoint) just announced a 39% increase in premiums for individual policies despite a 2.7 billion dollar profit in the last quarter.

… Or, unless you’re one of the under-insured whose insurance policy excludes certain diseases, medications, or procedures. The California Nurses Association found that health insurance companies in this state deny 21% of claims. Then, you risk filing for bankruptcy after collection agencies dun you into poverty. Over 50% of personal bankruptcies are related to medical costs, something unheard of in other industrialized nations.

… Or, unless you’re employed by a business, which, unable to pay the high premiums, shifts most of the cost of health care to employees. You pay the ever-increasing premiums, co-pays and deductibles, and at the end of the month wonder if you’ll be able to afford college for your child.

… Or, unless you have a “pre-existing condition” or are dropped after developing a disease requiring costly treatments. Corporate strategy is easy to discern here; dropping costly patients increases profits.

American does have the best health care in the world in the form of Medicare, a government-run system that is such an excellent model of affordable health care that the health care industry lobbied Congress with one half trillion dollars to defeat the “public option”. Center for Responsive Politics’ Open Secrets.org revealed that in 2009 the total health care sector spent $ 543 billion for lobbying against reform. WellPoint’s lobbying costs, $22.7 billion, would have purchased insurance for more than ten million uninsured Americans.

Americans believing in the principles of our Constitution won’t marginalize those unfortunate patients in the above categories and will vote for a Medicare-for-All, SB 810. People who are tempted to side with Republicans on this issue should first reflect on their own health care coverage.

Zoltan Lucas, M.D., MPH
Physicians for a National Health Program
Past president, Progressive Democrats of America, North San Diego County