Striking physicians
Pennsylvania’s doctors already have the ears of the governor and lawmakers who have promised to work toward alleviating the medical malpractice insurance crisis. So it is difficult to understand what would be achieved by staging a work stoppage. Some doctors are planning the end of April to close their offices, cancel elective surgeries and turn off their pagers to call attention to the precarious financial position the medical malpractice insurance industry has placed them.
We remain sympathetic to the doctors’ message. Few can stay in business for long when premiums skyrocket 50 percent or more. Fayette County has already lost the services of orthopedic surgeons and obstetricians because of it. Losing medical services is a blow to the community.
Even a walkout that lasts a week will dampen the sympathy that patients have toward their doctors’ plight. Cutting off access to medical treatment over a monetary issue, no matter how crippling, appears crass.
Pennsylvania’s doctors must apply the adage to first do no harm in promoting their cause. Doctors in West Virginia, Florida, New Jersey and Mississippi have staged similar walkouts with little results. Pennsylvania doctors had threatened in January to hold a similar demonstration but relented when Gov. Ed Rendell promised to assemble a team of doctors, lawyers and insurance execs to develop a solution.
Although results haven’t been as quick as doctors would have liked, the political process has not yet failed. The doctors should rethink what could be gained from withholding services from patients and instead focus their efforts on prompting the governor and lawmakers to enact a cure.