HMO Complaints

I’m getting real tired of hearing physicians whine about managed care. Dr. Marcy Zwelling Aamot’s gripe (Voices, Sept. 11) was the last straw. It is our duty as consumers to shop for the cheapest insurance available. After all, for the participating physicians to provide anything less than the standard of care would be malpractice. In an ideal world, basic market forces would prevent reimbursement rates from dropping too low, because buyers would hesitate to join plans that have no doctors.

Instead, 90% of California physicians failed the complaint test and have sold their souls for HMO contracts. If there is any compromise in patient care, it’s the medical community to blame because it has agreed to accept the transfer of financial risk from the big HMOs. Nobody made them sign HMO contracts.

To the arrogant physicians who still don’t get it: Your services aren’t worth what you’ve been getting paid. Go back to school and get an engineering degree.

MARK ANTONELLI

Oxnard