Letters: His weight loss continues
Thanks for the fantastic article you wrote on me [“Working Out Obesity Issues,” June 27]. I will continue my quest to find a doctor who will repair my torn [anterior cruciate ligament] and remove the 40-plus pounds of skin at no cost.
I am living in California now and still losing weight. Your weather is amazing!
Dana C. Baker
Anaheim
Pay family doctors well
I could have written Dr. Steve Dudley’s Health section article on concierge medicine [“Select Care’s High Price,” June 27]. I became a family doctor to provide medical care for people. During the 47 years I practiced, I never turned any patient away. If they couldn’t afford my fee, I would evaluate their medical status and if they required more than simple one-visit care, I would treat their immediate needs and refer them to a free clinic for further treatment.
I did not go to medical school to get rich, but I made a very comfortable living even though, at times, I treated a needy patient for little or nothing.
There is a serious shortage of primary physicians in our country. When I graduated from medical school 50 years ago, many of my classmates became general physicians, pediatricians or internists. Now most graduates want to be specialists. Specialists earn more and often work fewer hours.
Many patients believe that specialists know much more than the generalists. I tell my patients that specialists know more and more about less and less until they know “everything about nothing.” Then I admit the general physicians know less and less about more and more until they know “nothing about everything.”
Other countries have solved the problem by seeing to it that generalists are paid as much as, or more than, specialists. Maybe that time has come for the U.S.
Dr. Melvin H. Kirschner
Granada Hills
Healthcare reform, please
Re: Your June 27 article “It’s Enough to Make Them Say ‘Aaaah!,’” you write that patients experience “waiting weeks for an appointment and hours in the waiting and exam rooms; doctors rushing in and rushing through a series of pokes and prods and a checklist of questions, checking off some codes on our record and rushing out again.” All these other complaints are the very things we were told would happen with universal healthcare or even the Canadian version of it.
The only difference is we’re paying more for what amounts to basically the same type of treatment.
I’d rather have universal healthcare. And note, these complaints existed well before the so-called ObamaCare.
Michael Solomon
Canoga Park
Your article regarding the plights of primary-care doctors in today’s world focuses on the points very well. Unfortunately, the same dilemma is faced by most medical specialists as well. As medical costs keep on skyrocketing, our government and the insurance industry keep on squeezing doctors, never mind that the rising obesity rate and the aging population are the major driving forces on healthcare expenditure.
Perhaps one factor doctors can be blamed for would be our contribution to people living a longer life and thereby leading to higher healthcare spending.
Dr. John T Chiu
Newport Beach
Your article points out a very real problem but missed a very good solution. Nurse practitioners are masters- or doctorally prepared registered nurses with extended training in primary care. However, many physicians refuse to work with them.
Nurse practitioners are well-prepared to provide most primary care and can do much more than unlicensed assistants.
Karen Ringl, RN, MSN
La Habra Heights
