My dad's a doctor. He thinks a strong public option is vital.

[Ardent15]

He hates the insurance companies, and he thinks the very idea of people profiting off of suffering and death is immoral.

That's just my personal anecdote contribution to this debate.

[Shagbark Hickory]

1. Too bad your dad ain't greasing palms in the house and senate like the insurance lobby.

[Ardent15]

2. Well, he's not a member of the AMA anymore. He has no lobbying power.

And he doesn't make nearly as much money as these lobbyists.

People think doctors make a lot of money...they haven't seen the salaries of insurance executives and lobbyists.

[Gman]

3. And my family doctor, a great Democrat, is against it

but he had just come back from a doctor convention and was listening to the other doctors talk. He told me "if it was anything like what they have in Canada, we're all in trouble." I told him to quit listening to the right wing talking points and quit letting them scare him. He really did seem unsure of what a public option should look like.

[no_hypocrisy]

4. My father's a retired cardiology/internist.

He retired prematurely when insurers started to tell him how to practice medicine. He didn't want to debate prescribing a certain medication to a patient or denying another one a procedure.

[gateley]

6. My dad was a surgeon would have been IRATE if the insurance companies told him

what he could and could not do for his patients. He would SO be in support of public option -- and of single payer, for that matter.

RIP, dad, you were one of the great ones. :hug:

[Suich]

5. Your Dad is a very smart man, Ardent15!

:hi: