Health Care and the American Dream (flickr user Aisha B B)
A televised bipartisan summit on health care will take place in Washington D.C. on Thursday. Analysts, observers and the American people will watch to see if “bipartisan” is really the right way to describe this summit, as nationwide frustration grows over proposed insurance rate hikes and the details of the attempted reforms thus far.
We bring together two lawmakers from opposite sides of the aisle who are also physicians. Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Tex.) serves the 26th district of Texas, which covers the Fort Worth area. He practiced obstetrics and gynecology for over 20 years. Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.) is a trained psychiatrist and the longest-serving physician in Congress. We go beyond the usual partisan back-and-forth by asking these two lawmakers to give us their thoughts on health care reform not just as legislators, but as doctors.
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The show is a co-production of WNYC Radio and Public Radio International, in collaboration with The BBC World Service, New York Times Radio and WGBH Boston.
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Comments [2]
I was glad to be on this segment. I think the voice of REAL physicians is lost in this debate. These and other lawmakers may have been physicians but they are not in the thick of the problem. Therefore, they have lost sight of the issue. We NEED Federal tort law reform. The states are not uniform on this issue because of powerful local lawyers and lawmakers. For example, there is tort law restrictions in Texas. There is a 400 doctor backolg of doctors applying for a Texas state liscence. There's something wrong with that picture! Oklahoma does not have tort law reform. We have one of the highest ratio of doctors in training per capita in the country, but we have one of the lowest ratios of practicing doctors per capita.
Painful segment because the topic does not lend itself to such short bits of commentary. What is the solution? Look at what every other industrialized country has done, for starters. And beware of disinformation about it that's being spread by lobbyists for private industry.
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