Doctor talks about health care reform concerns at Cape Girardeau Republican club meeting

Dr. John Mackel of Continental Wound Care Center in Cape Girardeau presented his concerns about health care reform and electronic medical records to the county Republican Women's Club on Friday.

Health care is the key issue going into the 2012 presidential election, said club president Holly Lintner.

"It's one of the main issues we should all be focused on and educate ourselves about so we can all make the right decisions about who will represent us," Lintner said.

Mackel's presentation on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act signed into law by President Barack Obama in March 2010 was billed as a discussion of "ObamaCare."

Before coming to Cape Girardeau, Mackel lived in Canada and Northern Ireland, which both have single-payer government-run health care systems.

"I have lived in it, and it doesn't work," he said.

Mackel is opposed to systems where the government rations health care based on availability, he said.

"You read in the papers that the U.S. has a higher cost of health care than other countries. That's because it's much cheaper just not to provide health care," he said.

In countries with universal health care, Mackel said patients are put on long waiting lists having to wait six months to a year for a procedure that could be done in the U.S. in a matter of days.

"You've got coverage, but the coverage is no good if you can't get in. You can have the best hospitals, the best operating rooms, the best CT scanners there ever was, but if they're not available to you, you might as well live in Somalia," Mackel said.

He also spoke about his concerns with the electronic medical records provision of the Affordable Care Act.

Although his office has had electronic medical records for six years and he believes they are more efficient, Mackel said the linked records system being required is an invasion of privacy by government officials that will be susceptible to hackers. That is particularly important to women whose obstetrics and gynecology records are of a sensitive, personal nature, he said.

"There are a lot of things you don't want bureaucrats in Washington, D.C., to read. Maybe you don't want them to know if your granddaughter is on birth control or has had an STD," Mackel said.

He's also worried that patients won't be honest with him about their conditions because fear someone outside his doctor's office might read them and that as a result they'll be misdiagnosed.

mmiller@semissourian.com

388-3646

Pertinent address:

236 S. Broadview St., Cape Girardeau, MO