While the U.S. health care system needs reform, it can be done without government involvement, a 5th district U.S. Congressional candidate and doctor told an audience Tuesday in the Oklahoma Memorial Union.
Dr. Johnny Roy, chief of urology at the Edmond Medical Center, spoke during a public health care forum put on by the Medical Ethics and Issues Discussion Panel.
Roy said the health care system is broken because of two reasons: 1) intermediaries come in between the patient and the doctor; and 2) too much is spent on defensive medicine.
“We have the best health care in the world,” Roy said. “The problem is with access and cost.”
Roy said health care has become so expensive in the U.S. because health insurance is used to pay for minor issues, such as treating a sore throat or foot fungus. Roy said insurance should be reserved for serious health issues, and people should pay for minor issues.
“For those that can pay something, they should pay for some part of their health care and leave the big items for the insurance,” Roy said. “For those that can’t pay, we are a compassionate nation. We can take care of those that can’t fend for themselves.”
Roy used a scenario of a patient with a headache going to the ER demanding an MRI as an example of unnecessary defensive medicine.
“The chances of having a brain tumor when you have a headache is extremely remote, but people come to the emergency room and say ‘I want the MRI or I’m going to sue,’” Roy said. “So we do all these things that are unnecessary because patients demand it.”
He said tort reform is needed to combat rising health costs, citing a December 2008 report by the Pacific Research Institute, which states more than $124 billion is spent every year on defensive medicine.
“We have three committees in the Congress writing bills, and there is not a whimper about tort reform,” Roy said.
Roy said a government-run health system would be ineffective because the government would dictate what procedures patients could receive, and that the government would begin to take over other industries.
He said countries such as England or Norway use methods of comparative effectiveness to decide who gets treatment and who does not.
“These guys are detached from that patient,” Roy said. “Only you and the physician can decide the treatment. You can’t just look at numbers and decide who gets treatment.”
Questions were taken during the forum, and many of the questions involved how the uninsured citizens in the U.S. would be paid for, and who would end up paying for the care of the uninsured if Roy believed the government should not.
Roy said one solution would be to allow people to buy insurance from companies outside of their home state so people could find insurance that they could afford.
“We don’t want the government to dictate what can be done in health care,” Roy said.
When asked if he thought health care was a privilege or a right, Roy said the U.S. Constitution would deem it a privilege.
“There is nothing in the Constitution about health care,” Roy said. “What we have is entitlement. It should never be a right. My right is from the Constitution.”
Niekia Franklin, co-president of the panel, said the group brought in Roy to give students a perspective from a politician with a medical background.
“Everyone is affected by health care in their daily lives,” said Franklin, zoology sophomore. “Having Roy gives students an opportunity to hear from someone who has experience with politics and medicine.”
Roy is a former OU Health Sciences Center professor and former president of the National Kidney Foundation of Oklahoma. He is president of the Oklahoma County Medical Society, and recently became chairman of the board at the Oklahoma Center for Advancement of Science and Technology.
The Oklahoma Daily is pleased to provide you the opportunity to share your thoughts about this article. We encourage lively debate on the issues of the day, but we ask you refrain from using profanity or other offensive speech, engaging in personal attacks or name-calling, posting advertising, or straying from the topic at hand. To comment, you must be a registered user of OUDaily.com. Thanks for taking the time to offer your thoughts.
You must be logged in to leave a comment. Log in | Register
Lars 2 years, 6 months ago
We don't need the government between our doctors and us! Instead we need insurance companies between our doctors and us!
lmccal 2 years, 6 months ago
“We have the best health care in the world,” Roy said. “The problem is with access and cost.”
So we have the best health care in the world for wealthy people. The rest of us should probably move to France, where government interference has produced better health outcomes in life expectancy, infant mortality, patient satisfaction, etc. at a cost that does not threaten national solvency.
Cambrian 2 years, 6 months ago
Dr. Roy seems to contradict himself. He states that numbers shouldn't get in between a patient and their doctor, and yet he supports a system in which that happens every day. Health insurance companies crunch the numbers on each individual and if the individual is too expensive to insure, they don't get insurance and therefore don't get care.
The problem with allowing people to buy insurance across state lines is that some states have very strict laws over what must be covered by a health insurance company. Allowing people to buy insurance across state lines will allow in-state companies to start denying people the coverage they need, because they will try to overturn restricting legislation. This will likely raise health care costs and force more people out of the insurance pool.
How exactly does Dr. Roy propose to help poor people afford doctor's visits who are obviously too poor to pay for it out of pocket as he suggests? He claims that we will find a way because we are a "compassionate nation." Okay Dr. Roy, since you're so compassionate, how about you pay for it out of your personal bank account? Once again, it's a lot of rhetoric with no solutions.
Healthcare is a right. Perhaps the Constitution doesn't explicitly talk about health insurance because there was no such thing at the time it was written. However, it does mention the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. So, the right to life seems to me to include the right to stay alive and that is just not possible for some people who don't have health insurance. So once again, Dr. Roy is wrong.
Perhaps Dr. Roy should stop thinking about lining his own pockets with gold and start thinking about what would happen if he lost his job and health insurance, or if his family lost their insurance and couldn't afford to pay for care. He should ask himself, who will be compassionate to him? A friend? A neighbor? If only Dr. Roy had something like a public option he could fall back on.