So the Health Care Bill Is Signed, Now What?

I'm not cynical, I'm realistic. Today President Obama signed historical legislation that will ultimately change the face of health care in this country for years to come. I loved his passion in the presentation and defense of this bill, and I totally understand all the anecdotal stories he gives every time he mentions patients who have suffered from not having insurance coverage.

Now, I also love my country and I love being a doctor. And in my more than 30 years in the profession, I have never personally denied access to myself nor my staff - irrespective of whether or not a patient had health insurance - so to be called a cynic for questioning how this new health care bill is going to progress is really unfair.

Over the last 24 hours, I have received numerous e-mails from medical societies in different states with physicians are voicing their discontent with what is expected of them to take care of all the people that the President now has put under insurance coverage.

When the President spoke today, he mentioned several points, one of them had to do with tax credits for small business, I think he mentioned 4 million small businesses that will be able to buy insurance. Well, to my knowledge, there are more than 4 million small businesses in the U.S., so how much of a tax credit are we talking about? And yet, that credit might be offset by all the tax increases that small businesses have been facing in the last two years.

Second, do you really think that $250 for seniors that fall into the Medicare prescription drug donut hole will make a difference with the price of medicine today? I don't think so. You may argue that generic medicines are cheaper, yes - but newer drugs will continue to come to the market so that new cures can be implemented, and I'm sure those drugs will end up costing more than $250 before their patents are up and generics can be made.

Now, it's not all negative - I think it's great that Americans will be able to purchase insurance with preexisting conditions - but at what cost??

There are reasonable questions that we as Americans deserve answers to in the wake of such a monumental decision for our country. And if you think that this isn't going to shape the way medicine is practiced over the next 3 or 4 years, you've got another thing coming.