Dems question GOP doctors' opposition to health reform

[babylonsister]

Finally this has been brought up! I've always wondered how rethug doctors can be so cavalier about average American's suffering when they have a health care background, too.

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/61165-dems-question-gop-doctors-opposition-to-health-reform

Dems question GOP doctors' opposition to health reform
By Michael O'Brien - 10/01/09 01:59 PM ET


Republican health professionals' opposition to current health reform proposals in Congress is incomprehensible, some Democratic lawmakers said Thursday.

Rep. Lois Capps (D-Calif.), who worked as a nurse before coming to Congress, said she had difficulty understanding how GOP lawmakers with a healthcare background could oppose reform.

"I really don't understand how people who are employed or working or were members of Congress who were once working in healthcare delivery don't see how the system is broken," Capps said during a conference call organized by the Democratic National Committee (DNC). "The cost of not doing anything is really not something we can sustain."

Another former nurse-turned-congresswoman also chimed in.

"What I say is why are they here?" Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas) said of Republican health workers' opposition to the health reforms on the table. "There must be some reason that they're here."

A number of former physicians and health professionals are serving in prominent Republican positions in the House and Senate, and have used their backgrounds to help make GOP arguments during the national reform debate in recent months. Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.), the chairman of the Republican Study Committee, is a former physician, for instance. And two GOP physicians in the Senate, Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) and John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) have produced a weekly "Senate Doctors Show" during the health debate.

Johnson pinned those Republican physicians' opposition to the plans in Congress on a supply-sided economic philosophy, and accused them of being too beholden to insurance interests.

She also suggested that the media should investigate the history of those Republican health professionals' medical malpractice backgrounds.

"I would really like to see someone study how many of them have had malpractice suits against them before they came to Congress," she said.

[madaboutharry]

1. This is the reason they are opposed to health reform:

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$........

That is all.

[babylonsister]

2. Yes, but doctors make money. Makes me curious as to why

they left their chosen profession. Did they run into some problems, perhaps?

[valerief]

5. After Congress, they'll make megabucks as lobbyists for the healthcare-denial industry. nt

[cbayer]

3. Having known one of these doctors quite well, prior to his election to Congress, I will say this:

His political ambitions far outweigh his dedication to medicine or patients. Republicans got him elected, he hopes to rise as high as he can and he is staying with the one that brought him.

IMHO, it has nothing to do with economic philosophy, though it most probably does tie into insurance contributors. I also think it has nothing to do with medical malpractice backgrounds Many of the most liberal and progressive physicians I know and have known part ways with the Democratic party on tort reform as it applies to medical malpractice.

Just my humble opinion and observations on this.

[babylonsister]

4. Thanks for your insight; I don't know any of them, so that was

helpful. Seems they can readily transfer their ambition to other areas.