Dear Editor:

The June 15 editorial “Piling on” leaves the wrong impression that the “doctor fix” is just another newly proposed expense on the federal balance sheet.  This legislation is about paying for medical care given to our seniors and our military families, who will have a much harder time finding a doctor if the cuts go through. Physicians are fed up and furious with Congress for using politics to wedge us against the duty we feel to look out for our patients.

Stopping this cut will not be cheap, but it would be preposterous to leave the impression this is a pay raise for doctors. Nothing could be further from the truth.  Already, 62 percent of Illinois physicians have had to consider opting out of Medicare altogether because of these threatened cuts.  Medicare’s reimbursement rates have been held nearly flat for a decade while patient care expenses steadily rose.  Physicians cannot treat our patients if reimbursements don’t even cover our expenses.  How could any small business survive a 21 percent drop in revenue when costs keep going up? We do not deny the importance of decreasing the federal deficit, and we know it will come at a high cost, but sacrificing the life and health of our senior citizens and military families is too great a price by far.

Sincerely,

Steven M. Malkin, MD, FACP
President, Illinois State Medical Society