My Thoughts on Health Care Reform

Dr. Louis Frayser Posted May 8, 2009

The issue of Healthcare Reform is now front and center in the national discourse. The idea of Universal Healthcare for all Americans is at the heart of the debate; I am in total support of this concept. I am submitting the following suggestions for your review and possible inclusion in the design of the Universal Healthcare Plan:

Mr. & Mrs. America,

I am writing to express my concern regarding health care reform. My concern is that without reform, meaningful reform, the economy and indeed the well-being of the American people will be seriously impaired for years to come.

I fully support health care reform but only if whatever legislation is finally proposed contains a public option component. I take this position for the following reasons:

1. The public option will introduce a strong competitive force into the market place.
2. Competition determines those goods and services that come into the market and the quality of the goods and services that come into the market place.
3. In terms of health insurance, the quality of the products offered will be defined, at least in part, as follows:
   - Are pre-existing conditions removed as conditions for coverage?
   - Are caps on benefits excluded?
   - Premiums reflect conditions in the economy.
   - Is coverage portable and honored anywhere in the United States?
4. Competition expands consumer choice and thereby governs the quality of the goods and services introduced into the market place, including insurance products.
5. Competition and expanded consumer choice that flows from it also determines those goods and services that survive in the market place, including health insurance products
6. The result of the public option will be to provide small businesses with choices that will allow them to come from under the burdensome costs of the insurance for employees that now exist in the market place. Reduced costs that flow from expanded choice will enable small businesses to cover their employees without ruining their businesses. They will be able to hire more workers because of competition and expanded choice and the cost reduction that flows from it.
7. Major insurance companies will not be ruined by a public option. Has Medicare brought private insurance companies to their knees? Has Medicaid? Just look at the record profits they have been piling up.
8. Let us never forget that competition is the mother’s milk of the market place and the foundation of a vibrant economy in a capitalistic society like ours. A public option is not a threat to our economic system; it reinforces it.

Fellow Americans, common sense is not a felony. Let us now seize the moment, a moment filled the opportunity to insure the health of all of our citizens; those with and those without, and also to expand and strengthen our economy, the life-blood of our nation. A strong health care plan with a public option is the key to taking hold of the golden opportunity now before us. It may not come again for a very, very, very long time.

I trust that I have hereby made a useful contribution to the debate.

Louis C. Frayser, M.D.

Abbreviated Medical Biography
1. M.D. degree, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland OH
2. 27 years, private practice, Internal Medicine, Los Angeles, CA
3. Medical Director, Saint Johns Well Child and Family Centers, a Community Clinic, LA, CA
4. Director, Chronic Disease Management, Saint John's Well Child and Family Centers, Community Clinic, LA, CA

Detailed personal resume available upon request.

My contact information:
Email address: lcfraysermd@comcast.net
Telephone# - 770-731-0004
Fax# - 770-731-0005
Cell# - 770-820-8000

© Louis C. Frayser 2009

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