Obama's doctor of 22 years supports universal health care

[HopeOverFear]

Obama's Doctor Knocks ObamaCare

David Whelan, 06.18.09, 05:08 PM EDT

Dr. David Scheiner took care of Obama for 22 years. But they don't see eye-to-eye on how to fix the health care system.

David Scheiner, an internist based in the Chicago neighborhood of Hyde Park, has a diverse practice of lower-income adults from the nearby housing projects mixed with famous patients like U.S. Sen. Carol Mosely Braun, the late writer Studs Terkel and, most notably, President Barack Obama.

Scheiner, 71, was Obama's doctor from 1987 until he entered the White House; he vouched for the then-candidate's "excellent health" in a letter last year. He's still an enthusiastic Obama supporter, but he worries about whether the health care legislation currently making its way through Congress will actually do any good, particularly for doctors like himself who practice general medicine. "I'm not sure he really understands what we face in primary care," Scheiner says.


Scheiner takes a few other shots too. Looking at Obama's team of health advisors, Scheiner doesn't see anyone who's actually in the trenches. "I have a suspicion they pick people from the top echelon of medicine, people who write about it but haven't been struggling in it," he says.

Scheiner is critical of Obama's pick for Health and Human Services secretary--Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, who used to work as the chief lobbyist for her state's trial lawyers association.

"He doesn't see all the pain, it's so tragic out here," he says. "Obama's wonderful, but on this one I'm not sure if he's getting the right input."

What should the president be focused on? Scheiner thinks that a good health reform would be "Medicare for all," a single-payer system where the government would cover everyone and pay for it by cutting out waste in the system. "A neurosurgeon gets paid $20,000 for cutting into the neck of my patient. Have him get paid $1 million a year instead of $2 million or $3 million. He won't starve," Scheiner says.

[avaistheone1]

1. Obama's doctor supports single payer!! Obama's doctor supports single payer!!

Obama's doctor supports single payer!!!

[Oregone]

2. I agree with Obama's doctor: Single-Payer

"Obama's wonderful, but on this one I'm not sure if he's getting the right input."

[Thrill]

3. Obama probably supports it as well. Just doesn't think

there is a chance in hell it ever gets passed

[vaberella]

4. Most people do. You just don't have to support Single Payer to support Universal.

They are not equivalents. If they were...there wouldn't be so many different variations all over the world.

[Oregone]

5. With that said, mandated private US insurance shouldn't be considered "Universal"

Half of all bankruptcies in the US are from medical problems of people WITH private insurance.

Universal Health Care depending upon private insurers leaves a lot of people bankrupt, indebted and dead.

[vaberella]

7. Where ever has that be stated? You haven't been paying attention or

reading into things incorrectly as so many others have. I haven't seen anything like that mentioned in the House Bill---point me to it.

I haven't seen Universal Health Care dependent on insurers because basically that's a misnomer. The British have private insurance alongside public and so do the French...and that's my point and what Obama wants.

[Phx_Dem]

6. Good to know he's not one of the greedy pigs, like my former doctor, who

dumped my husband and I because he decided it would be more profitable to become a "Concierge Doctor." We could have remained his patients if we'd agreed to his extortion demand of a minumum $1,500/year retainer.

I'd operate on myself before I'd pay some greedy asshole a retainer just for the honor of being his patient. And, if I had Bill Gates' money, that would still be true.