Tri-Valley Medical Group physicians discuss issues impacting roll-out of health care reform

Jan 11 2011

Local physicians from Tri-Valley Medical Group recently spent a week in Washington D.C. to discuss the fundamental issues impacting the roll-out of health care reform - and came away with a new appreciation of its challenges.

“It really comes down to how should health care coverage be expanded to those without coverage? How should insurance reform be structured? And how should reform be financed?”

Jonathan Dinh, MD and Victor Nguyen, MD are enrolled in the Health Care Executive MBA program at the University of California, Irvine. The trip was a part of their program and all 38 students enrolled in the class traveled to Washington to hear from policy leaders, senior analysts and others intimately involved in implementing health care reform. Of the 38 enrolled students, only seven are physicians. The class had the opportunity to meet with various Capital Hill dignitaries, including Emily Porter, Policy Advisor to Speaker of House John Boehner; Stuart Hagen, Principal Analyst to the Congressional Budget Office; and Dr. Kevin Hayes, Policy Analyst at Medicare Payment Advisory Commission.

"Most doctors only know about health care reform through what they read in the media," notes Dr. Dinh, a Board-certified Internal Medicine specialist. "This trip was extremely informative and gave me new perspectives on health care reform. We gained a lot of insight through frank discussions with the people who will be on the front lines of health care reform." According to Dr. Dinh, those insights can be summarized in three key issues. "It really comes down to how should health care coverage be expanded to those without coverage? How should insurance reform be structured? And how should reform be financed?" he says.

Both Drs. Dinh and Nguyen feel it was productive for legislators to hear from doctors about their views on health care reform. "This trip really restored my faith in government," states Dr. Nguyen. "So often, we think of politicians as being in the clouds. But when you have a person standing in front of you, raising critical issues and working to find a solution, you realize our elected officials are working hard for us. Who doesn't want better care? Everyone I heard from agreed on that point. The real issue is how do we expand care and how do we finance it? I can honestly say that visiting with those people working on The Hill gave me a much better insight on what the constraints will be when our nation begins implementing health care reform."

Dr. Dinh notes, "The health care reform bill is still being fine tuned but will represent a historic period in our country. Not since the 1960s when Medicare and Medicaid was passed, has our country seen anything that will impact our delivery of health care like this. Doctors need to be more involved in reform and accept roles as future health care leaders."

SOURCE Tri-Valley Medical Group