Health Matters

Because I am a physician, many ask me about my thoughts regarding health issues. If I don't have much time, I tell them we don't spend near enough the proper amount of money that we need to be investing in healthcare. We allocate about 1% when it should be a minimum of 3% of the total budget. As a result, we don't have enough rural clinics and urgent care facilities which is the principal reason why most of the poor troop to hospital emergency rooms for disorders that could have been attended to in a clinic. The salaries we pay our doctors, nurses, medical technologists are inadequate and we barely offer the most basic medications to the teeming poor.

Comes down once again to money. Raise taxes, cut spending, restructure debt payment arrangements. We don't have too many options left. We need to abandon the mindset of treating "restructuring" as if it were some form of a sacred cow.