Dr. David Scheiner wants to make a house call to one of the most famous houses in the world.
For 22 years, he was President Obama鈥檚 doctor. Now, he would like to counsel his former patient and says the President should be doing more to heal the system鈥檚 ills by holding out for a single-payer approach to health reform.
The Chicago internist says that what鈥檚 needed is a system modeled after Medicare. He maintains that true reform will not occur as long as health care is viewed as a medical-industrial complex.鈥�
Scheiner appeared at a Washington press conference with other supporters of his brand of reform and spoke with KHN鈥檚 Andrew Villegas afterwards.
Q: If President Obama asked you for advice on how he should change health reform, what would you tell him?
A: The first thing he has to do is inform the public what [the health overhaul] is all about. The public still doesn鈥檛 understand. Even people in the health professions don鈥檛 understand He has not really addressed the role of government in medicine. There鈥檚 this feeling about government being bad in medicine. That鈥檚 not really the case.
Q: Has he given in to political pressure?
A: He鈥檚 being too much of a pragmatist in this situation. I think he should go to the people above the heads of Congress and get a groundswell of the public 鈥� send his people out all over the country to support a real health reform and not this bogus plan. The question that has to be decided is [whether the] health industry [is] to promote jobs and growth as it is 聳 it鈥檚 one of the growth industries in this country 聳 or is it supposed to provide health care? It may not be exactly the same thing. Providing effective, quality health care at an efficient cost may not be the great industrial growth mechanism it presently is. It is a medical-industrial complex and it has to be changed. I don鈥檛 know if he鈥檚 changing it.
Q: How do you think the President鈥檚 experiences with the health care system 鈥� his own and those of his relatives 鈥� have shaped his views?
A: He has talked about the problem that his own mother had when she was dying of ovarian cancer and she had [trouble] getting the insurance company to cover her properly. I would have thought that kind of experience would have had an indelible mark on him. I wouldn鈥檛 have come back and asked the insurance companies to participate in the program.
Q: Are you hopeful that Obama will reach out to you to talk about it?
A: I鈥檓 praying that will happen. You know, he may not agree with me, but I鈥檇 like to get my ideas across. I feel passionately about this. I think this is a moral issue: 50 million uninsured people. He can take the high moral ground and say 鈥業 know this may not be popular right now, but I鈥檓 going to work on this [even] if it takes me three years.鈥� To say 鈥榃ell, we have to have a bill August 1,鈥� It鈥檚 ridiculous.