Response to NYTimes Article

Response to
New Twists in the Health Debate
NY Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/02/opinion/l02health.html

To the Editor:

Senator Max Baucus was right when he said there’s a lot to like about the public option. For one, it allows people’s health to be valued over profits.

As a practicing physician who has worked with both private and public insurers, I can assure you that there is a need for competition to ensure appropriate affordable coverage as well as innovation.

And I’m not alone: as a recent study from The New England Journal of Medicine noted, 63 percent of physicians support providing for our patients “the choice of enrolling in a new public health insurance plan (like Medicare) or in private plans.”

Doctors have nothing to gain from promoting the public-plan option, except that we know from firsthand experience what it can do to help secure affordable quality coverage for all Americans. And we are hoping that our elected officials will listen, including Senator Baucus.

Manel Silva
Brooklyn, Sept. 30, 2009