Friday, September 25, 2009
Readers polarized about town hall meetings on health reform
About half of ACP Internist and ACP Hospitalist readers saw the summer's town hall meeting on health care reform as a failure, according to results of a survey. The reasons why were as polarized as the open-ended responses readers gave.
Some perceived the meetings as a success because they saw the meetings reflect their own points of view on health care, pro or con. Others saw the meetings as failures because of their tenor, or the outcomes of specific events.
The angry rhetoric caused respondents to express concerns not only for health care reform, but for democracy. One said, "They were a success in that people came out to speak; they were a failure in that the democratic process of debate was cast aside for emotional rhetoric."
Some called for more physician and hospital leadership on the issue, and from ACP itself. "Physicians must become leaders in this debate so that Americans get meaningful, full reform that benefits the majority of our citizens."
Some respondents provided eyewitness reports on their own town hall meetings, or in one case, a lack of meeting. Rep. John Tierney (D-Mass.) instead had a telephone conference.
Another reader related opinions from Alaska, where "There were standing ovations opposing 'socialized medicine' and increased taxation. The senator's response to a young uninsured mother's plea to 'What should I do?' for her child with asthma was disappointing. It boiled down to: 'Contact my office, I may be able to get samples from the drug company, and in this country the emergency room will never turn you away.'"
Another reader complemented Rep. Charles A. Gonzalez (D-Texas) on his town hall in San Antonio at the end of August. "The opposition (some brought in on charter buses) was loud and intermittently disruptive. Rep. Gonzalez did an excellent job of explaining HR 3200 and answering questions. If there were any initially neutral persons in attendance, I think they might have had their questions answered."
But the disruptions misinformation prompted many readers to view the meetings as a failure, from either hecklers or from the congress people themselves. Others cited the lack of focus on solutions, as well. "Misinformation, incorrect perceptions and strangely focused ideology ruled the day rather than any real conversation."
Others saw success despite the messy process.
"While many [meetings] were devastated by hecklers and got the bulk of the media coverage, some were successful and educated people and got the issue out there. ... It is rejuvenating to see Americans participating in democracy by discussing issues relevant to the future of our nation."
Another summed up, "They gave the public a chance to express concerns and fears. Whether this helped the legislators is yet to be seen."
Labels: health care reform
posted by Ryan DuBosar at
8:00 AM
Contact ACP Hospitalist
Send comments to ACP Hospitalist staff at acphospitalist@acponline.org.
Previous Posts
- Medical News of the Obvious
- Medical News of the Obvious
- Patients finding shopping around for medical costs...
- Medical News of the Obvious
- Hospital tweets updates to surgical patient's wait...
- Patients just as likely to sue after apologies
- Pinpointing the transition from human to doctor
- Medical news of the obvious
- Medical news of the obvious
- Rx: Chill out and eat chocolate.
Blog log
Members of the American College of Physicians contribute posts from their own sites to ACP Internist and ACP Hospitalist. Contributors include:
Albert Fuchs, MD
Albert Fuchs, MD, FACP,
graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles School of
Medicine, where he also did his internal medicine training.
Certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine, Dr. Fuchs
spent three years as a full-time faculty member at UCLA School of
Medicine before opening his private practice in Beverly Hills in
2000.
David Katz, MD
David L. Katz, MD, MPH, FACP, is an internationally renowned
authority on nutrition, weight management, and the prevention of
chronic disease, and an internationally recognized leader in
integrative medicine and patient-centered care.
DrDialogue
Juliet K. Mavromatis, MD, FACP, provides a conversation about
health topics for patients and health professionals.
Dr. Mintz' Blog
Matthew Mintz, MD, FACP, has practiced internal medicine for more
than a decade and is an Associate Professor of Medicine at an
academic medical center on the East Coast. His time is split
between teaching medical students and residents, and caring for
patients.
Everything Health
Toni Brayer, MD, FACP, blogs about the rapid changes in science,
medicine, health and healing in the 21st century.
FutureDocs
Vineet Arora, MD, FACP, is Associate Program Director for the
Internal Medicine Residency and Assistant Dean of Scholarship &
Discovery at the Pritzker School of Medicine for the University of
Chicago. Her education and research focus is on resident duty
hours, patient handoffs, medical professionalism, and quality of
hospital care. She is also an academic hospitalist.
Glass
Hospital
John H. Schumann, MD, FACP, provides transparency on the workings
of medical practice and the complexities of hospital care,
illuminates the emotional and cognitive aspects of caregiving and
decision-making from the perspective of an active primary care
physician, and offers behind-the-scenes portraits of hospital
sanctums and the people who inhabit them.
Gut Check
Ryan Madanick, MD, ACP Member, is a gastroenterologist at the
University of North Carolina School of Medicine, and the Program
Director for the GI & Hepatology Fellowship Program. He
specializes in diseases of the esophagus, with a strong interest in
the diagnosis and treatment of patients who have
difficult-to-manage esophageal problems such as refractory GERD,
heartburn, and chest pain.
I'm dok
ACP Member Mike Aref, MD, PhD, ACP Member, is an academic
hospitalist with an interest in basic and clinical science and
education, with interests in noninvasive monitoring and diagnostic
testing using novel bedside imaging modalities, diagnostic
reasoning, medical informatics, new medical education modalities,
pre-code/code management, palliative care, patient-physician
communication, quality improvement, and quantitative biomedical
imaging.
Just Oncology
Richard Just, MD, ACP Member, has 36 years in clinical practice of hematology and medical oncology. His blog is a joint publication with Gregg Masters, MPH.
KevinMD
Kevin Pho, MD, ACP Member, offers one of the Web's definitive sites
for influential health commentary.
MD
Whistleblower
Michael Kirsch, MD, FACP, addresses the joys and challenges of
medical practice, including controversies in the doctor-patient
relationship, medical ethics and measuring medical quality. When
he's not writing, he's performing colonoscopies.
Medical
Lessons
Elaine Schattner, MD, ACP Member, shares her ideas on education,
ethics in medicine, health care news and culture. Her views on
medicine are informed by her past experiences in caring for
patients, as a researcher in cancer immunology, and as a patient
who's had breast cancer.
Prescriptions
David M. Sack, MD, FACP, practices general gastroenterology at a
small community hospital in Connecticut. His blog is a series of
musings on medicine, medical care, the health care system and
medical ethics, in no particular order.
Reflections
of a Grady Doctor
Kimberly Manning, MD, FACP, reflects on the personal side of being
a doctor in a community hospital in Atlanta.
Technology in (Medical) Education
Neil Mehta, MBBS, MS, FACP, is interested in use of technology in
education, social media and networking, practice management and
evidence-based medicine tools, personal information and knowledge
management.
White Coat Underground
Peter A. Lipson, MD, ACP Member, is a practicing internist and
teaching physician in Southeast Michigan. The blog, which has been
around in various forms since 2007, offers musings on the
intersection of science, medicine, and culture.
ACP Internist and ACP Hospitalist also contribute to and draw upon content from Get Better Health, a network created by Val Jones, MD, to support and promote health care professional bloggers, provide insightful and trustworthy health commentary, and help to inform health policy makers about the clinician's point of view on health care reform, science, research and patient care.
Other blogs of note:
American
Journal of Medicine
Also known as the Green Journal, the American Journal of Medicine
publishes original clinical articles of interest to physicians in
internal medicine and its subspecialities, both in academia and
community-based practice.
Clinical Correlations
A collaborative medical blog started by Neil Shapiro, MD, ACP
Member, associate program director at New York University Medical
Center's internal medicine residency program. Faculty, residents
and students contribute case studies, mystery quizzes, news,
commentary and more.
db's Medical
Rants
Robert M. Centor, MD, FACP, contributes short essays contemplating
medicine and the health care system.
Interact
MD
Michael Benjamin, MD, ACP member, doesn't accept industry money so
he can create an independent, clinician-reviewed space on the
Internet for physicians to report and comment on the medical news
of the day.
PLoS
Blog
The Public Library of Science's open access materials include a
blog.
White Coat Rants
One of the most popular anonymous blogs written by an emergency
room physician.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home