Opinion
Get politicians to go on the record about Medicare for their own care
LETTER — Posted Dec. 18, 2006
Regarding "End Medicare hypocrisy by making it mandatory for those now in charge" (Letters, Nov. 6): Letter writer Benjamin T. Hu, MD, of Coupeville, Wash., has really hit on something important here. I support the concept completely.
In Dr. Hu's letter, he suggests that we "force" politicians to live under the Medicare program's benefits and regulations. How do we move this idea into something proactive? I would like to see a simple program through the AMA or a subsidiary to contact each and every one of our politicians, local, state and federal, to ask them a simple yes-or-no question as to whether they would accept Medicare in its current state and enroll in that program, live by the rules, regulations and limitations. Simply to get them thinking along these lines would be worth the effort, but to create a public awareness may evoke the so-called "third rail" effect that politicians just plain want to avoid.
It's time we stop letting them avoid their own unpleasantries while they heap it on us (both doctor and patient).
Daniel J. D'Arco, MD, Pottsville, Pa.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2006/12/18/edlt1218.htm.
