Doctors react to recent health overhaul developments

Some doctors are already living in a post-health-reform world because of their own initiatives, including efforts to control costs and improve the quality of care, reports The (Riverside, Calif.) Press-Enterprise. "Models like [Dr. Alexander Terrazas' practice in Redlands], known as accountable care organizations, are among the options included in health care bills before the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. They emphasize the need for patients to get more primary, preventive care to keep them out of more expensive specialists' offices and hospitals" (Hines, 1/24).

For others, who had anticipated a sweeping overhaul that would include universal coverage, unexpected events struck a blow, The (Grand Junction, Colo.) Daily Sentinel. "Blame for the death of health care legislation in Congress can be placed at the feet of both political parties and at those of President Obama, said a Grand Junction physician who has urged that the system be changed."

One of his colleagues, also in Grand Junction, however, is grateful that the overhaul has stalled. "'I'm pleased there was a roadblock. If the bus was headed toward a cliff, I'd rather there be a blowout that sent it into the ditch,' said Dr. James Schroeder, a pediatric cardiologist" (Harmon, 1/25).  

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This article was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.