Health Care Dwight Michael

At the same rally where I spoke (see the post below), I also heard a doctor, Dwight Michael, talk. Here is his speech:

Speech for healthcare4allpa rally on Tuesday 10 20 2009
"Is anybody there? Does anybody care? Does anybody see what i see?
My name is Dwight Michael. I am a family physician from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania and I have been working in the trenches of primary care for the last 24 + years.
I take care of patients from the womb to the tomb.
I was born and raised a conservative republican in Hanover, PA, and through my adult life, I have espoused most republican ideas.
I am a small business owner, struggling to pay escalating premiums for health insurance for the employees of our practice, for policies that cost more and more, and yet leave the individual with higher co-pays, deductibles, excluded services, and caps on total coverage.
I have travelled on a revealing journey over the last 18 months. This journey began when one of my patients suggested that I take a look at healthcare4allpa’s website because of my comment to her that I was increasingly demoralized by the growing meddling of the private health insurance industry in my relationship with my patients.
As I learned more, I realized that the Pennsylvania family and business health security act would allow me to practice by one set of rules, based on clinical excellence, proven standards of care, versus what currently, often ends up as the least costly option. The insurance industry’s rules, which change plan to plan, improve the bottom line of the profit-first, private, health insurance industry.
Hb 1660 would markedly reduce the present administrative costs of healthcare to the system and to the providers of healthcare in our state.
Hb 1660 would provide unbelievably thorough healthcare, without co-pays, deductibles, or premiums, for practically all of the patient’s needs, for every Pennsylvanian, at a cost to practically all of us that would be much less than what we currently pay.
Hb 1660 would allow me and fellow physicians to stop wasting our time just trying to jump over all of the obstacles placed in the way of good care by multiple insurance plans, just so the payer can improve its profit. With this bill, we could now focus our time on actually taking care of our patients.
(jobs)
Hb 1660 takes care of displaced workers. This bill provides 2 years of salary payments as well as costs for retraining for any displaced worker from the private health insurance industry. In Pennsylvania alone, not only do we rehire those displaced, this bill would stimulate an additional 45,000 new jobs.
I truly believe that the passage of hb 1660 /sb 400 would provide the dawning of a new era in Pennsylvania, an era in which we all benefit from affordable, accessible, high-quality healthcare for all Pennsylvanians and we quickly become the envy of our entire nation.
Is anybody there? Does anybody care? Does anybody see what I see?"

Dwight sang the "Is any body out there" part.