Medical Care

Re your letters (June 14) on Canada vs. U.S. medical care: The American Medical Assn. has been telling us we wouldn’t receive quality medical care if we had socialized medicine. More important, they say, we couldn’t choose our own doctor.

Well, I recently called a physician listed in the Yellow Pages of the telephone book under cardiology and internal medicine in the hope of establishing a patient-doctor relationship closer to my home. He had been recommended by a friend.

The woman answering the call asked me one question: “Who is your insurance carrier?” When I replied “Medicare,” she said, “The doctor doesn’t take Medicare patients.”

So after suffering a life time of discriminations by virtue of being a woman, I must now add age to the list.

Betty McGill San Diego