Opinion - Letters to the Editor

POSTED: Monday, Nov. 30, 2009

Shares thoughts on health care column

As a doctor, I enjoyed Dr. Wolf's Friday, Nov. 27, "Whatcom View" column on health care reform.

Of his seven suggestions, the seventh seems the most powerful in lowering health care costs. Dr. Wolf proposed "Only medical care that has been scientifically demonstrated to be effective by double blind studies should be covered by insurance." An article in the May 29, 2006. edition of BusinessWeek stated that only 20 to 25 percent of medicine has been proven effective.

It seems that implementation of Dr. Wolf's seventh recommendation could save 75 to 80 percent of our medical costs. If we add to that the fact that a double blind study means that both the patient and physician are blinded to whether the treatment was real or placebo, we realize that surgery is never double blinded. Thus, 100 percent of surgery would be excluded from insurance reimbursement.

The other six recommendations may also be good, but I doubt that all of them combined would have the effect of the seventh. Bravo, Dr. Wolf, I think you've found the answers.

Robert Affolter

Bellingham