By Hal Scherz, M.D.
Like most other doctors, I went into medicine with enthusiasm and optimism. Doctors go down this difficult road believing that they can help people and make the world a better place. If along the way, we prosper emotionally, professionally or financially, then all the better. More than 30 years later, my desire to help people has not waned, nor has my hope to make things better diminished. To accomplish this, I have taken a side road, becoming a political activist, to advocate for my patients in ways unforeseen to me even a year ago. But my enthusiasm and optimism has been replaced by concern and disgust. I am concerned about my patients (including myself because I too am a patient) and what we stand to lose and look forward to under a government run healthcare system. I am disgusted by the blatant lies that the White House and Congress constantly are telling the American public and the depths to which they have stooped to accomplish their scheme. I am also disgusted by the dishonesty of the US media, serving as sycophants for the administration rather than watchdogs.
In the prime of my career, I should be perfecting my skills as an innovator in the operating room, or devoting more time to training the Urological residents and fellows under my supervision. Instead, I am attached to my computer and Blackberry, trying to get every bit of current information to stay one step ahead of those trying to steal healthcare from all of us. When I take a child to the operating room, there is not a shred of doubt in my mind that what I am going to do will help that child. DO NO HARM - words found in the Hippocratic Oath, which every doctor has pledged to abide by. I have the same conviction about my efforts to keep the government from taking over healthcare. Unfortunately, many doctors do not see the danger in this for a multitude of reasons, and that is a big problem.
Some of the most fundamental things that we take for granted will be lost to us forever: freedom to choose our doctor, freedom to select an insurance plan, the ability to get prompt and high level healthcare. Doctors will become government employees or even worse; they simply will not care, because many of the incentives for them to work as hard as they do will be eliminated. Going further, doctors will be incentivized to give inferior levels of care because they will be penalized if they utilize too many resources and have money taken away from them by the federal government. Patients will suffer even more because doctors will leave the profession, replaced by nurse practitioners and physician assistants, or possibly doctors from Third World countries having questionable education and training. Patients will wait longer for appointments and will wait longer for operations or treatments, provided that they can get them at all. That is because patients who are covered by government healthcare (which will eventually be everyone) will need to have their treatments approved by a National Health Board (already selected with 15 members, none of which are practicing doctors). They will use clinical algorithms and cost charts to determine if a procedure will be approved. This will make us all long for the days of HMOs and managed care. This Board would be overseen by the Secretary of Health & Human Services who would be granted sweeping, new powers, making this person the second most powerful person in America. There will be any number of new czars also with dictatorial power which would be part of the new healthcare bureaucracy of 111 new agencies that this legislation would create.
We are already witnessing with Harry Reid and Nevada the role that politics will play in the future with regard to all aspects of healthcare. He has secured “center of excellence” status for a cancer center that had not treated a single patient yet, so that when it was built, they would receive higher reimbursement. This only cost the center $118M in lobbying money. He has gotten Nevada exempted from picking up Medicaid costs for 5 years after enactment of the bill, so that all other states pay for Nevadans. It is easy to see that in the future, knowing powerful people in Washington will help you to get through the system seamlessly, while everyone else has to wait in line, just like at the DMV. The irony is that this system which is good enough for all of us is not suitable for members of Congress who have rejected over and over, attempts to bind them to this plan.
I am not just a doctor, but also a patient. I am a cancer survivor. Almost 3 years ago, I was diagnosed with prostate cancer. Because I am a urologist, I had regular screening and once the cancer was found, I knew immediately who my doctor would be, what kind of treatment I would have and where that would be. Imagine if I of all people, with the knowledge and experience of a professional lifetime, were unable to put this plan into motion because the government was overseeing my care instead of my doctor and me. This is the reason why I spend on average 5 hours every day fighting to protect these rights, because let’s face it- eventually we will all be a patient and we must not let the government come between the doctor and the patient.
Dr. Hal Scherz is the founding President of Docs4PatientCare.Org,http://www.docs4patientcare.org/ an organization of concerned physicians committed to the establishment of a health care system that preserves the sanctity of the doctor-patient relationship, promotes quality of care, supports affordable access to all Americans, and protects patients' freedom of choice. Docs4PatientCare.Org is sponsoring the Across America Rally on November 21.
Dr. Scherz completed his undergraduate degree Magna Cum Laude at State University of New York at Buffalo. He then earned a Master of Science degree in Immunology from Roswell Park Memorial Institute in Buffalo, New York. He went on to earn his medical degree from the University of Texas at San Antonio. Dr. Scherz was a surgical resident at the University of California San Diego before completing his urology residency there. Following his residency, Dr, Scherz completed a fellowship in Pediatric Urology at the Children’s Hospital of San Diego & UCSD.
Dr, Scherz is a past president of the American Association of Pediatric Urology. He is a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics – Urology Section, Society for Pediatric Urology, Society for Fetal Urology, American Association of Pediatric Urology, American Urological Association, Genitourinary Reconstructive Society, UROPAC, American Association of Clinical Urologists, American College of Surgeons, Medical Association of Georgia, and the Greater Atlanta Pediatric Society. He has been program chair for the Society for Pediatric Urology annual meeting, and for the AAPU annual meeting. He has authored over 75 peer reviewed articles and written 8 book chapters. Dr. Scherz is a reviewer for the Journal of Urology and Urology. He has been a principal or co-investigator in numerous FDA clinical trials. He has served on a number of specialty committees on a national level. Dr. Scherz was recognized by Atlanta Magazine as one of the Top Doctors in Atlanta in their most current doctor issue in July 2007.
Dr. Scherz is an Associate Clinical Professor of Urology at Emory University. He is an original member of the board of directors for the Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Ambulatory Surgery Center. He has served several terms on the board of directors for The Children’s Healthcare Network. Dr. Scherz has been active at CHOA @ Scottish Rite, serving on numerous committees. He is the managing partner of Georgia Pediatric Urology, and a previous president of Georgia Urology PA.
