Doctors take a stand
There is so much rhetoric in the media about the medical malpractice situation in Pennsylvania that it is hard to keep up with it all. Many times I read something in the Herald-Standard that makes me just have to shake my head and hope that your readers can recognize the difference between fact and fiction. But your editorial on Sunday, Jan. 5, was so out of touch that I just have to respond. You must understand that being a doctor is not an easy thing. It takes years of preparation and carries a tremendous burden. I am not saying this to gain any pity about how hard my job is. On the contrary, I love my profession and would not trade it for any other.
But, I do have a responsibility to myself as well as my patients, and I do have the right to determine how I deal with the many demands that are heaped upon me. As long as I comply with standards of care and local statutes, I have the right to decide to what extent I practice my specialty, how many hours I am willing and able to be available, how many days a week I will work, and yes, I have the right to decide in which city and state I practice. I have the right to change any or all of those when I am faced with a burden (e.g. malpractice insurance) which I personally find unbearable. And nobody including you has the right to degrade me for making those decisions that affect the quality of my life. You do not have the right to decide for me what I do or do not find bearable.
Shame on doctors? You are way off base. Shame on a tort system that allows a few individuals to claim untold riches for themselves while they drive the entire health care industry to the brink of disaster. Shame on the politicians who continue to ignore the looming disaster and allow the system to go unchanged. Shame on the voters who put these politicians in office who have so little regard for public safety. Shame on the doctors? No sir. Hooray for these doctors who are strong enough to take a stand against a corrupt system in an effort to force a change which will preserve access to medical care for the future. And shame on you for not recognizing the difference.
I ask you to answer this question. When Pennsylvania medicine reaches the brink of disaster, do you want your own personal physician to take a stand to save the health care industry or do you want him to just turn tail and leave the state permanently and leave you without any access to health care forever? In fact, I invite all of my patients to write to me at my office address in Uniontown and tell me what you think I should do when faced with this decision. Do you think I should take a stand (even if it means that I am temporarily totally unavailable), or do you think I should just leave permanently? I will collect the responses and send them to the Herald-Standard.
Dr. Owen Nelson
Uniontown
Streamline tax collection
I commend the Herald-Standard for championing the cause of efficiency in property tax collection. Another unnecessary and bureaucratic inefficiency is the local earned income tax. Why cannot we pay our local earned income tax with our state income tax as is done in Maryland? In this day of the computer, the state could easily reimburse the county and school district.
As it is now, taxpayers in the Albert Gallatin District are burdened with filing with the Southwest Regional Tax Bureau, one-half percent and Berkheimer Associates, one-half percent. It would save taxpayers a lot of aggravation and the unnecessary expense of triple administration to do so.
Joe Cocalis
Point Marion