Cowardly Grayson
;It's pathetic that the Orlando Weekly is defending Alan Grayson's cowardly decision to use a packed and tiny forum to defend Obamacare [Happytown™, Aug. 20]. This is no contest of myths and facts. There are no "facts" for Grayson to rely upon because the law is not yet in practice, nor are the regulations (which will number many thousands of pages) even written. We can only predict the consequence now and hopefully derail this new entitlement before it's too late.
;Of course, HR 3200 doesn't have formal "death panels." But it does create a board to mandate "best practices," it does promise to reduce Medicare spending by many billions of dollars, and it will provide financial incentives for doctors to promote "end of life" decisions that save the system money.
;Worse, Obama's plans would create a wedge of distrust between provider and patient. All government-financed systems do this by rewarding a doctor more for saving the "system" money than for contributing to patient welfare. And while medicine includes many worthy and caring people, not too many doctors will work for free nor do things that will make them personally go broke. While medical billing under today's system is confusing and often expensive, at least under the existing "fee for service" regime the doctor gets paid more when he tries to fix you.
;It will be a disaster if Obamacare destroys doctor-patient trust that we now take for granted by creating financial and legal mandates for doctors to deprive their patients of the best care. Alan Grayson's support of this law is rooted in his love of big government and his Democratic Party loyalty. As a lawyer, he surely knows that this bill will reward lawyers with years of expensive litigation to figure out what all 1,000-plus pages mean. And as a law designed to cut costs, we all know that this law will inevitably reduce the quality of care over time.
;Trial lawyers will get rich, doctors will be controlled, and patient care will suffer. It's just what we'd expect from the old plaintiff's lawyer, Alan Grayson.
;Christopher Roach, Orlando
;;Liar Obama
;It was with sadness that I read your article about Tamecka Pierce, the unemployed single mother with lupus who doesn't have the resources to pay for the medical treatment she needs to be healthy and stay alive ["Change can't wait," Aug. 6].
;Ms. Pierce's illness requires her to see, among other medical providers, a rheumatologist, but there are none in the state who will take Medicaid. This isn't surprising, as that government program doesn't pay health care professionals a rate that will allow them to cover insurance, overhead, student loans and other expenses. It's not fiscally prudent for doctors to accept Medicare patients. You get what you pay for, and if Medicaid isn't going to pay for treatment at a market rate, those who rely on it aren't getting that treatment.
;Health care reform is necessary for people like Ms. Pierce, who suffer catastrophic illnesses or injuries. I'm not confident, however, that the legislation kicking around the United States Congress will provide it. I haven't read it and am therefore not sure that it will cover, in full at a market rate, all of the treatments and medicines Ms. Pierce needs to maintain a decent quality of life.
;It worries me that people who also haven't read the bill, including nearly everyone in Congress and, by his own admission, President Obama, are nevertheless selling it as legislation that will provide all Americans with all the health care we need at rates we all can afford.
;I don't believe it will, not the least because the president, to whom the health care bill is so important, has, in his short time in office, demonstrated himself to be a liar who has broken campaign promises to the pet rescue community, gays, fiscally conservative Democrats, anti-war activists, Guantanamo prisoners and everyone who thought his administration would be peopled with honest men and women rather than scoundrels and cheats like Rahm Emanuel and Timothy Geithner.
;I truly hope Ms. Pierce finds a means of paying for the treatment she needs to survive. Given the history of Medicare, Congress' unfamiliarity with a bill so many of them are touting as a cure-all, and Barack Obama's politics-as-usual presidency, I don't think the government is going to do it.
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