Yesterday’s rally against socialized health care included these remarks:
Dr. Blake Curd, a Sioux Falls surgeon and state legislator, congratulated the audience for enduring the afternoon of speeches, comparing the event to a 12-inning baseball game.
"I think it must mean this is an incredibly important topic to you all," he said.
Curd said the industry needs to find a way to improve recordkeeping without forcing physicians to sit and type at a keyboard while trying to talk with patients. He said doctors need to do a better job running their businesses.
But he warned that proposed reforms would turn the country into a nation of dependents. Congress would subsidize health care for families with up to $110,000 in household income, which would cover most of the population and thus guarantee members' re-election, he said.
Seven specialists spoke during the rally, and several of them said the medical industry is flawed as it now operates.
Richard Baker, founder of Timely Medical Alternatives in Canada, said Canada's single-payer public care system forces residents to wait in line for months before receiving elective services.
"I suggest your system with its faults is superior to single-payer health care," he said. "I cannot imagine you putting up with it."
Brase said government influence has grown but should go no further.
"Government already is halfway to a national health care system. The Obama administration just wants to take it the rest of the way," she said.
The audience was a mix of area residents with various interests. Ryan Friez, 28, who came with his 10-month-old son, said "it's scary to give a system so huge to the government."
Boetel, the Alcester resident, said he had several heart procedures at then-Sioux Valley and Avera Heart hospitals. In one case, a doctor forgave him the $100,000 he owed. Other treatments cost more than $200,000, which he covered by giving up property because he had no insurance. Federal reforms would prevent such a fiasco, but he said he wanted no part of it.
"I don't care. They'd just be taxing more," he said.
Stan DeHaan, 70, played a 6-foot-3 Abe Lincoln on stage during the program and afterward explained his own issues. He's a farmer from Orange City, Iowa, a father of five who, though now on Medicare, for many years paid more than $10,000 annually for medical insurance plus deductibles. Still, he doesn't want a bigger federal role because of taxes.
Ringen, the Lennox dentist, said he is leery of intervention in his dental practice.
"I surely don't want to participate in a system where we're so controlled and so regulated we can't do what patients need and what they're asking for," he said.
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