Recent letters by Dr. Eik and Dr. Watson, appearing within the last week (without rebuttal), seem to be the opinion of many members of the "New" Tea Party. I am surprised, however, that it is also the general consensus of Ellis County as well. In the interest of fairness, I hope to point out what is inherently wrong with this mindset.
Some facts about Texas may help shed some light. The population of Texas in 2009 was 24,873,773. Twenty-seven percent of those citizens, or 6.7 million people, were without health care insurance in 2009. Texans numbering 2.47 million receive Medicare; 4 million Texans (17%) receive Medicaid. Using the rationale supplied by the esteemed physicians, repealing these programs would leave 13.7 million Texans with no health care coverage...roughly half the state's population.
Many medical groups favor Medicare and Medicaid support and actually want to see such support increased. Among these groups are The American Medical Association (that "splinter" group you mentioned), as well as more "splinter" groups such as The American College of Physicians, the American Academy of Family Physicians, American Academy of Pediatrics, The American Cancer Society, National Council on Aging, National Rural Health Association, Paralyzed Veterans of America, American Diabetes Association, as well as many, many more "splinter" groups.
The American Association of Physicians and Surgeons has endorsed eliminating medical coverage by Medicare or Medicaid, as well as eliminating preventive health care to anyone who can not pay face value (
http://www.aapsonline.org/). This comes at a time when our nation is seeing more jobs shipped overseas, more companies unable to offer health care insurance, and more people on the brink of poverty. If anything, our nation should support an increase in subsidies to physicians, surgeons, dentists, and other health services. This will have the ultimate goal of reducing costs by taking care of problems pro-actively, instead of waiting until the problem is beyond help. It will encourage preventive medicine such as breast exams, prostate exams, colon exams, etc., to catch diseases at an early, curable stage.
Is elimination of Medicare and Medicaid truly what the residents of Ellis County want?