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* By GERARD SHIELDS
* Advocate Washington bureau
* Published: Oct 22, 2009 - Page: 8A

WASHINGTON — About a dozen Louisiana doctors were in Washington on Wednesday to protest health-care bills winding through Congress.

Dr. Donald Palmisano, a New Orleans surgeon with the Coalition to Protect Patients Rights, an organization that opposes congressional efforts to revamp the health-care system, led the event on the U.S. Capitol lawn that included about 60 doctors from across the country, many wearing their white lab coats.

Palmisano said the group opposes all the legislation being proposed in the House and the Senate. The bills avoid giving patients control of their health care, he said.

The coalition’s stance includes allowing people to buy insurance across state lines, advocating for health savings accounts, opposing the public option of government-run insurance and giving patients vouchers and tax credits to purchase insurance.

The group also wants a revamping of medical malpractice suit filings that they say add billions to health-care costs annually.

“What we want is a system where the patient controls their own destiny,” Palmisano said.

Palmisano is the former president of both the American Medical Association and Louisiana Medical Society.

The Coalition to Protect Patients Rights’ positions are backed by Republicans in the U.S. Congress, including U.S. Rep. Bill Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge, and U.S. Rep. Charles Boustany, R-Lafayette, both of whom are doctors.

Palmisano said the Coalition to Protect Patients Rights, is a nonpartisan group not intentionally espousing the Republican position.

“These are principles we’ve been talking about for years,” Palmisano said after the event.

Senate leaders are negotiating with the White House to mesh two Senate bills. Three bills in the House have to be coordinated. Dr. Paul Miller, a kidney specialist from Lafayette, said the legislation fails to include options backed by physicians.

“It’s a poison apple,” Miller said of the proposals. “It looks attractive, but when you bite into it it makes you sick.”

Dr. Mike Ellis, former head of the Louisiana Medical Society, said allowing the government to get into the insurance business is a bad idea. The ear, nose and throat doctor pointed to problems in Medicaid and Medicare in Louisiana as indications that insurance through government will not work.

“What we’re seeing now is scarier than years ago,” Ellis said. “We’ve remained at the bottom of the health-care pile and now we’re talking about doing that for the whole country.”

Palmisano said the government’s goal to finish the health-care legislation by the end of the year is a bad one.

“Time is of the essence but we don’t want to rush a flawed system,” Palmisano said.

Tags:

Health Care Reform, Louisiana health care, Louisiana medical news, Louisiana physicians

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