As Dr. Keith Williamson provides optical care to his patient, Oliver Dial, he knows that the way he conducts his practice and the way Dial and his insurance will cover that practice won’t be affected by health care reform anytime soon. Bob Crisp
President Barack Obama says his plan is designed to restructure how health insurance becomes available. It is meant to provide more stability to those who have insurance and provide low-cost options to those without insurance.
The reform plan has been a staple of Obama’s administration. He outlined the major points of this plan in an address to Congress on Sept. 9, and the Senate opened debate on the plan shortly after.
It drew immediate objections and arguments, and the House and Senate have continued crafting bills as new issues rising from the debate continue.
The debate has proved to be a confusing subject for many, including doctors. The slow progress in finalizing a bill has led some doctors to believe that reform is still a long way away.
Until then, they say, it’s business as usual.
Local doctors predict changes will be slow
Talladega’s Dr. Keith Williamson, for example, is an ophthalmologist at Alabama Eye Clinic, and he said he feels a final resolution cannot be immediate.
“Once the bill passes, it’ll still take years for any real change,” he said.
Although the progress of the debate has been slow, it has progressed.
Williamson said he was disappointed in the debate earlier in the year.
“It seems like they were obscuring the real debate, which is how to get insurance out to more people,” he said. “Lately they’ve moved beyond that and are focusing a bit more on making insurance available.”
He felt this was the case because the whole reform issue began as another political talking point. However, the debate has surged forward and is now making it harder for politicians to treat it idly and not take action.
Dr. James Weems Jr., a pediatrician with Talladega Pediatrics, said there is now so much urgency from a political standpoint, that, at this point, politicians won’t be able to stop and wait until further elections to move forward toward action. They have made the issue too prevalent for that to work.
“The Democrats need it to justify their majority, the president needs it to justify his positions, so many of the other leaders need it for their positions in their home states,” he said.
Dr. Williamson said that lately the House and the Senate seem to be moving more in the right direction as far as taking on the main issue of insuring those who can’t afford it.
Although he acknowledges there has been progress, the debate has not tackled every issue that’s important to health care professionals.
“I’m disappointed I’m not seeing issues being addressed, such as streamlining dealings with overhead costs. A lot can be done about these costs,” he said. “Thus far, nothing I’ve seen will make health costs really different.”
At its current rate, Williamson said, reform won’t change how many doctors practice medicine.
Weems noted there are too many associations with the reform bill to tell if it will affect how doctors are able to perform their duties.
When “the Senate passes the bill, we’ll have a better idea of what to expect, but right now it would be premature to say how it could affect us,” he said.
“It’s hard to tell what will happen because it keeps changing every week,” added Williamson.
The arguments back and forth in Washington have delayed progress. Another problem from these arguments is that new issues keep arising, making the outcome more uncertain and the entire debate hard to follow.
“Who knows what form it’s going to be in after the debates are over,” Weems said.
He predicted the final plan still will not make everyone happy because different changes will affect different aspects of health care for doctors, hospitals, hospices, insurance and patients.
Doctors dismiss socialization, nationalization claim
As far as reform meaning government control over health care, Williamson said it doesn’t mean nationalizing or socializing the health care system. He also said public health care could co-exist peacefully with private insurers.
Weems, agreed, saying a lot of people may not realize just how much the government is already involved with health care.
He recently attended a medical conference in Las Vegas where he learned that government agencies, ranging from Medicare to Veterans Administration services, currently aid in approximately 56 to 58 percent of medical funding in the country now.
One thing both doctors agree on is that change is necessary to get more people to be able to afford health care. However, it is an issue without a simple solution.
Change is a good thing, Williamson said, if it ensures that everyone will be insured. He added the health care issue was long overdue in Washington and it’s good that it’s at least being debated.
“We need to do something with the health care system. Right now it’s just not sustainable,” Weems said. “We need change, but what kind of change exactly can’t be certain.”
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