Pennsylvania Medical Society:
Working to responsibly cover more uninsured, while making sure your doctor is always there
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The following is a statement from Peter S. Lund, MD, president of the Pennsylvania Medical Society, regarding Pennsylvania’s uninsured residents, high costs of liability insurance, and the unfunded liability of Pennsylvania’s MCARE Fund. Dr. Lund is a practicing urologist from Erie, Pa.
(January 22, 2008) When individuals have access to health insurance, they are more likely to receive care in a timely manner instead of delaying or skipping appropriate treatment. The cost initially may not be cheap, and properly designing insurance programs to be financially secure is a must. But hopefully in the long run, it pays dividends for everyone as preventive care replaces the more costly emergency care. The Pennsylvania Medical Society wants to see more Pennsylvanians covered by health insurance. Our organization believes that it’s important to develop a financially secure plan without jeopardizing other existing programs. We believe today’s announcement that the governor is moving more Pennsylvanians into the adult basic health insurance plan is a wise incremental step. In addition, a corresponding wise step is for the state to act quickly to fund an MCARE Fund abatement and to begin phasing out the fund and its large unfunded liability in a manner that doesn’t risk putting doctors out of business. Only a few years ago, Pennsylvania faced a health care crisis thanks to the rising costs of medical liability insurance that physicians are required to carry in order to assist patients. As some headway was made to address lawsuit abuse in recent years, the cost of liability insurance remains high and data from the Pennsylvania Department of Health suggests there are fewer doctors involved in patient care. Compounding the situation, the unfunded liability of our state’s MCARE Fund is nearly $2 billion and must be addressed in order to make Pennsylvania attractive to future generations of doctors. Today, we face a three-pronged health care crisis confronting the patient-doctor relationship. The number of uninsured Pennsylvanians is too high, as are the cost of medical liability insurance and the unfunded liability of the state’s MCARE fund. All three must be addressed for today’s patients and doctors as well as tomorrow’s patients and doctors. Pennsylvania Medical Society 
Montgomery County (PA) Medical Society |
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