It would be shameful if we do nothing to fix the health care system in the USA, so says Dr. Joseph W. Stubbs who is president of the American College of Physicians and an internist in Albany.  You can read his editorial which was published in the Atlanta-Journal Constitution yesterday.  He argues from his position as President of this prestigious organization and from his context as a practicing physician.  

He says this about the current health care legislation in Congress:

To be perfectly clear, the proposed health care legislation is not about rationing care, socialized medicine or death panels. To the contrary, instead of leading to “rationing,” Congress would fund research to provide my patients and me with objective clinical information, based on the best science available, to choose the most effective treatment among the many available ones. And, instead of promoting “death panels,” the bill empowers patients to decide how they want to be treated at the end of life. Patients would make these decisions in consultation with their doctors — not government employees.

He supports the effort in Congress because health care reform will:

• provide coverage for all Americans,
• provide scholarships for those interested in pursuing careers in primary care, 
• create a more efficient system of administering health care by controlling costs while promoting best possible health outcomes.

Finally, he writes:

Within our grasp is the achievement of health reform legislation that makes coverage affordable by building upon and improving our current employer-based system, providing incentives for young doctors to go into primary care, reforming and improving Medicare physician payments, and reducing the costs associated with our broken medical liability system. Let’s not let the opportunity slip away.

Has the rancor and shouting ended, and the real discussion just beginning?  How does an article such as Dr. Stubbs’ inform us about health care, and health care reform?  What do you think?