THE PUBLIC MIND: READER: DOCTOR PAYMENT REQUIRED WITH SERVICE CREATES A REAL BURDEN

Dear Sir:

My family and I have recently returned to this area after being away almost 13 years. On the whole we are very, very happy to be back but I have a comment to make about the medical care in the area.

I was under the impression that the reason a family paid for health insurance was to obtain medical care from a competent physician at a minimal deductible cost. Was I being naive? Apparently in Cape Girardeau and Jackson one must have cash in their pocket in order to become ill or injured!

This morning I began called doctors in the area for an appointment for my child. At all but one office I had to pay at time of treatment and file my own insurance claim. At the one office I still had to pay at time of treatment but they would at least file my claim for me. At this time it poses no financial hardship for me, but what about those who can not do so? Are they supposed to suffer in silence? Should they just wait and hope to get better? What are they supposed to do? At the first office I called I was told that they could not take my insurance because they just couldn't afford to wait the length of time it takes to get their money from the insurance company! I couldn't believe my ears!

I know that not all doctors are wealthy. I know it takes a great deal to run an office. I know all the reasons that might be given. But what makes it easier for me to wait on my reimbursement than them? I'm quite sure that a doctor who has had a private practice for any amount of time is better able to wait than, say, an elderly person on a fixed income.

All of us complain because we have to wait so long if we have a need to go to an emergency room at a hospital, and rightly so. Hospital emergency rooms are supposed to be for emergencies. We see people there with the sniffles or a little cut on the finger or some other seemingly trivial ailment. We become annoyed because we have to wait while they are being treated and wonder why in the world they have to tie up the system when they could so easily go to a doctor's office and deal with it there. They do so because the hospital will treat them and accept their insurance and they can go home and not worry that they had to spend the grocery money on a visit to the doctor. They are not ignorant and it isn't that they don't care that they are making others wait. Let's put the blame for this where it belongs! Never again will I criticize them or complain about having to wait for them. I understand now why.

I have lived in major cities and small towns all over the eastern half of this country and I have never visited a doctor who wouldn't wait for the insurance company to pay him. The doctors here need to realize that they are doing us all a grave disservice, whatever reasons they have for doing so. It is time they wake up and see that everyone deserves equal medical attention, quickly and as inexpensively as possible.

Mary M. Miller