Here is the article from the Orlando Sentinel, this is sure to hit the national media by later today (Drudge and DK have already picked it up)
MOUNT DORA — A doctor who considers the national health-care overhaul to be bad medicine for the country posted a sign on his office door telling patients who voted for President Barack Obama to seek care "elsewhere."
"I'm not turning anybody away — that would be unethical," Dr. Jack Cassell, 56, a Mount Dora urologist and a registered Republican opposed to the health plan, told the Orlando Sentinel on Thursday. "But if they read the sign and turn the other way, so be it."
The sign reads: "If you voted for Obama … seek urologic care elsewhere. Changes to your healthcare begin right now, not in four years."
Estella Chatman, 67, of Eustis, whose daughter snapped a photo of the typewritten sign, sent the picture to U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson, the Orlando Democrat who riled Republicans last year when he characterized the GOP's idea of health care as, "If you get sick, America … Die quickly."
Chatman said she heard about the sign from a friend referred to Cassell after his physician recently died. She said her friend did not want to speak to a reporter but was dismayed by Cassell's sign.
"He's going to find another doctor," she said.
Cassell may be walking a thin line between his right to free speech and his professional obligation, said William Allen, professor of bioethics, law and medical professionalism at the University of Florida's College of Medicine.
Allen said doctors cannot refuse patients on the basis of race, gender, religion, sexual orientation or disability, but political preference is not one of the legally protected categories specified in civil-rights law. By insisting he does not quiz his patients about their politics and has not turned away patients based on their vote, the doctor is "trying to hold onto the nub of his ethical obligation," Allen said.
"But this is pushing the limit," he said.
Cassell, who has practiced medicine in GOP-dominated Lake County since 1988, said he doesn't quiz his patients about their politics, but he also won't hide his disdain for the bill Obama signed and the lawmakers who passed it.
In his waiting room, Cassell also has provided his patients with photocopies of a health-care timeline produced by Republican leaders that outlines "major provisions" in the health-care package. The doctor put a sign above the stack of copies that reads: "This is what the morons in Washington have done to your health care. Take one, read it and vote out anyone who voted for it."
Cassell, whose lawyer wife, Leslie Campione, has declared herself a Republican candidate for Lake County commissioner, said three patients have complained, but most have been "overwhelmingly supportive" of his position.
"They know it's not good for them," he said.
Cassell, who previously served as chief of surgery at Florida Hospital Waterman in Tavares, said a patient's politics would not affect his care for them, although he said he would prefer not to treat people who support the president.
"I can at least make a point," he said.
The notice on Cassell's office door could cause some patients to question his judgment or fret about the care they might receive if they don't share his political views, Allen said. He said doctors are wise to avoid public expressions that can affect the physician-patient relationship.
Erin VanSickle, spokeswoman for the Florida Medical Association, would not comment specifically.
But she noted in an e-mail to the Sentinel that "physicians are extended the same rights to free speech as every other citizen in the United States."
The outspoken Grayson described Cassell's sign as "ridiculous."
"I'm disgusted," he said. "Maybe he thinks the Hippocratic Oath says, ‘Do no good.' If this is the face of the right wing in America, it's the face of cruelty. … Why don't they change the name of the Republican Party to the Sore Loser Party?"
Now as I have mentioned before you can tell a lot from the readers of said article by the comments left, here are some left on the Orland Sentinel website
Anybody who thinks doctors get rich off of medicare patients is an idiot. The Mayo Clinic REFUSES to see medicare patients after losing $840 million in ONE YEAR. Just good doctors refuse medicare patients and you will be enlightened.
All of my doctors feel the same way. 500,000 doctors told Obama that his policies would hurt the patients and doctors............actually the whole industry. I wouldn't want a doctor who thought that anything in this Bill had anything to do with health care much less reform. Any doctor who thinks it's good (a) didn't read the bill (b) is a blind sheepie following their Messiah (c) is a crappy doctor who can't make it without someone else's help. That to me is very scary. Thank goodness I don't have any doctors who voted for or support this bill.
When 46 percent of the doctors say they will quit accepting medicade/medicare and/or quit, there is a problem. This bill is based on lies. AMA only has a membership of 17% of the doctors. 45,000 do not die b/c they have no insurance. Everyone gets treatment unless they chose not to. The list goes on and on.
I SUPPORT THIS DOCTOR AND HIS RIGHT TO FREE SPEECH AND HIS OWN PRACTICE.
Why can't the liberals accept the fact that this health care legislation is not welcomed by the physicians? I find the arguments they make self serving and hypocritical. If the shoe were on the other foot they'd scream bloody murder!
The politicians who voted for this bill haven't got a clue what the long term consequences are going to be. However, while they have voted to approve this bill and impose it on Americans they have not included themselves under this health care plan. What does that tell you?
I applaud this doctor for exericising his freedom of speech. After all he has rights too.
Now some DailyKos comments, see if you notice a difference...
did you read the comments on the orlando sentinel site? more than half of the 500-odd posters support him. what a bunch of fucktards.
He'll probably get a whole new group of wingnut customers.
But, what the fuck? He can't be that good a doctor anyway.
Let him practice his quack medicine on fat teabaggers (I'm sure he'll still cash their medicare checks).
I'm convinced that these rethugs and doctors etc that don't want to serve or care for Obama supporters are fundamentally racists. Now before you say that everything cannot be about race, I assure you that if Obama was white, like Clinton, who was hated by the rethugs, this wouldn't be an issue. They cannot get past the "black guy in the White House" and this is a core value of their inner belief system. As an American, (and white) this sickens me. As a healthcare professional, I'd say this should be a violation of his oath and license to practice medicine.
HOW can this be allowed? Can't he be reported? If he put up a sign that said minorities or Jews go elsewhere, I am sure he would be in deep doo doo.
He is putting up a sign that says Democrats should go elsewhere...this can't be legal and it is CERTAINLY not ethical.
Doesn' the medical board have rules against this crap?
I know for a fact that if he said NO REPUBLICANS allowed, McCollum would sue his ass.
Liberal tolerance at its best, ha.
No comments:
Post a Comment