Amerling on Arizona

The December 1, 2008 Wall Street Journal printed the following LTE by Dr. Richard Amerling, commenting on the defeat of Arizona's ballot initiative which would have guaranteed that patients could pay for private health care (2nd letter on the page):

The apparent defeat of Proposition 101 in Arizona strongly suggests the ultimate goal of the single-payer wonks is to delegitimize, or frankly outlaw, private medical contracting. Based on experiences in Canada and the U.K., the only way a government-run health-care system can survive (finances notwithstanding) is with a private pay option to handle the excess demand such systems always create.

If private medicine is outlawed in the U.S., doctors will no longer work for patients, and a basic freedom will be lost. I hope my colleagues, many of whom naively endorse the single-payer concept, are paying attention.

Richard Amerling, M.D.
Director
Outpatient Dialysis
Beth Israel Medical Center
New York

I also hope that more doctors listen to Dr. Amerling.