Jim McDermott makes scholarly plea for primary care

[Kennah]

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politicsnorthwest/2013976484_mcdermott.html
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/ABPub/2011/01/19/2013975867.pdf
http://jama.ama-assn.org/content/271/10/782.full.pdf

WASHINGTON -- With House Republicans on the verge of repealing what they call the "job-killing Obamacare" Wednesday, the New England Journal of Medicine published a sober analysis by U.S. Rep. Jim McDermott calling a sustainable primary care system essential to the success of the new health-care law.

Yes, that Jim McDermott -- one of the few unrepentant liberals in Congress who for two decades has agitated for universal coverage.

In the essay, McDermott eschews rhetoric as he identifies what he believes are the best steps to take in order to absorb the 32 million uninsured Americans who will gain coverage by 2014.

He suggests, for instance, setting a separate Medicare payment formula for primary-care providers to buffer them from cuts triggered by overuse of expensive specialty doctors.
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