LETTERS: MEDICAL COMPETITION NEEDED HERE

To the editor:

It is very clear to see the problems the insurance-medical partnership encountered. Both Wade Adams of MedAmerica HeathNet and Gerald L. Nicholson place blame, bad-mouth and criticize without any concern for the consequences of the initial decision to take the easy way out of the MedAmerica partnership. They showed no concern for the thousands of patients covered by this plan.

In business, you don't just abandon your customers or patients. The time to talk is before actions are made.

The medical profession has lost its true identity to provide medical services to all people. Doctors in Cape Girardeau are only concerned with dollars. With the possibility that their income would change with health-care reform, the doctors finally scurried to a solution. This was the first time in the history of this city than an insurance company was able to work out a partnership arrangement.

Health-care reform was the significant change for Cape. HMOs like MedAmerica HealthNet have been popular in every part of the country for years. Cape is one of the last areas in Missouri to have changed with the inception of MedAmerica HealthNet. Every large city in Missouri has had HMOs since the early 1980s. It is the medical monopoly in this area that needs to change to truly serve this community.

GRACE COLO

Cape Girardeau