Doctors on Strike






		Doctors on Strike - will we be left without care? In order to examine the effects of the whitehouse's current proposal for an overhaul of the health care system in the United States, pundits and experts alike have been pointing to the systems in other countries, who already have a public option, or a single payer system in place. The current discussion often cites the Canadian system, or that in the U.K., where the national health system (NHS) is paying the bills for all Britons and is controlling costs by effectively rationing care. Media in this country have been looking to these countries and the current state of their public health system primarily because it is easy to find information - after all, they speak English in those places and a quick Internet search retrieves many articles, stories, and pieces of information that are easily digested by media players in the United States. However, other European countries have also been struggling to keep their public health systems afloat and solvent, but because of the myriad of languages spoken on the other side of the Atlantic, they are severely under reported in the United States. This writer happens to be brought up in Germany and can bring a new angle to the discussion. German doctors are striking and closing their offices - effectively stopping the delivery of healthcare in all but the most urgent cases. As the German daily "Bild" reports on May 18, 2009 , one of the largest associations of doctors called upon their members to close their offices in protest against the governments proposals to limit pay, adjust the fee schedules for standard procedures. In a nutshell, doctors fear that they cannot keep their offices open and functional under the proposed reform in the fee schedule. 30,000 doctors were expected to participate, according to "Bild". This is not the first time doctors in Germany are resorting to means typically associated with unionized factory workers to alert the public to the impending collapse of the system. Back in March, according to German cable-TV news outlet n-TV, 4,300 doctors closed their offices German federal secretary Ulla Schmidt is being quoted as threatening participating doctors with revocation of their license to practice medicine. The president of the professional association of doctors, Siegfried Goette, counters by saying that there is simply not enough money in the public system to treat patients effectively. n-TV quotes Goette's example: Treating a fractured arm for a patient with osteoporosis costs roughly 100 Euros (approx USD $140), but doctors receive only 34% of that from the public health insurance to do the job. These examples beg the question where the health care system in the US is headed. The Obama administration and the currently debated legislation in the house of representatives (H.R. 3200) proposes curbing pay to doctors by basing the fees on the currently used Medicare schedule and even impose further cuts. Can we afford to price doctors out of the market?
Doctors on Strike

Doctors on Strike - will we be left without care?