Are doctors motivated by high pay or healing patients?

The majority of American doctors are clearly motivated by high pay rather than healing patients. If this weren't the case, this country would at least be closer toward moving toward a system in which health care was affordable and accessible for all people instead of just those who can afford it.

While doctors themselves aren't completely to blame for the fact that we do not have universal health care in this country, they share the blame equally with politicians and the medical lobbying groups which have prevented us from moving toward a system which nearly every other civilized country has.

The arguments have been made for years that if American went to a system of universal health care that the quality of health care would suffer. Tell that to someone with an illness who cannot afford to have it treated at all or to an elderly person living on a fixed income who has to choose between eating and getting the medication they need to survive.

Did Canada lose all its qualified doctors when they switched to the universal health care system? No. Did everyone move away because the health care became so horrible? No. Did people who were unable to afford proper medical treatment in the past become able to get it? Yes. Is it cheaper to import the exact same medicines from Canada than it is to purchase them in the United States? Yes. This clearly indicates that the Canadian system of universal health care is working.

One of the biggest arguments offered against universal health care is a back log in the system and being forced onto waiting lists for medical procedures. I believe a poverty-stricken individual would rather be placed on a waiting list for a medical procedure than to know there was no way they would ever be able to receive it or that, even if they did, they would spend the rest of their life in debt for it. The waiting lists provide everyone an equal opportunity to receive life-saving medical procedures without pushing those with enough money to buy their way into the operating room to the front of the line while pushing those without the money out the door.

There are, of course, American doctors who are motivated more by healing patients and saving lives than they are by money. Those are the ones who are offering their services at free clinics and in similar ways. However, those free clinics are far and few between, especially in rural areas, and are usually painfully understaffed and struggle to stay afloat. This is where a system of universal health care would help out tremendously.

Some say that you would only attract substandard doctors if they didn't receive such high pay, which is basically unlimited income potential as it stands. That may be true, but if money weren't such a consideration, then you might attract more compassionate doctors motivated by what doctors are truly supposed to be all about, which is healing people.

Big Oil's Big Bucks

Yet again, the nation's largest oil company has posted record profits while we're all scratching our heads trying to figure out how in the world we're going to afford to keep gas in our tanks... It has me thinking, should the United States lift the ban on offshore oil drilling?

Here's what I think...

Yes, the United States should definitely lift the ban on offshore drilling for oil in light of current all-time high gas prices. Further, the US should do anything within it's power to alleviate this situation because of the overall negative impact the high gas prices are having on the economy.

Rising gas prices have raised transportation and delivery costs, resulting in higher prices on consumer goods. These skyrocketing prices have also trickled down to nearly every other aspect of consumer life, causing prices to become so unbearably high that the average person has to think long and hard before spending a penny. Having to decide whether to purchase a gallon of milk or a gallon of gas is placing undue hardship on the American people.

If lifting the ban on offshore drilling would help decrease the prices at the pump, it's a small price to pay to help our ailing economy and should be done immediately. This, of course, should be only one of the steps the US takes to drive down gas prices.

Another approach should be releasing some of the reserves as President Clinton did during his term when gas prices began to get out of control. This approach immediately corrected the problem, leaving me wondering why this hasn't been tried this time. Surely someone somewhere is doing some behind-the-scenes work on these issues, but we consumers certainly haven't seen any results or even any real efforts being made.

Another option would be for the government to step in and do something about the fact that the major oil companies are posting record profits at the same time they are charging more than ever for gasoline. Claims of price gouging need to be thoroughly and seriously investigated. Because of our dependence on gasoline, some form of government control might be in order. While we are a country built on capitalism and free enterprise, the fact that oil companies are making billions upon billions of dollars in profit while the average working class person is struggling to scrape together enough change to fill their gas tank.

Basically, anything that will work should be done. A multi-faceted approach to this problem should yield results, bringing down the high cost of gasoline and freeing up consumer cash for spending on other things. This would, in turn, spur on our currently slugging economy helping us rise out of the current recession everyone seems to want to deny we are in.