This artwork by M. Ryder relates to fears of a coming physician shortage once the Affordable Care Act -- 'Obamacare' -- gets into full swing.

Letter of the Day: Blaming doctors

Blaming doctors

EDITOR: The Washington Post editorial on Medicare payments to physicians ("The true cost of care," Tuesday) raised many issues — fee for service, evidence-based decisions, docs being fraudulent, docs being responsible for the price of drugs, docs being unethical in choosing the wrong drug or the expensive drug. The editorial ignores the fact that drug companies set their prices, and President Barack Obama made an agreement with them to not start price controls on brand-name drugs, to not soften patent protection.

The editorial places a lot of blame, so it takes a lot of words to set it straight. But then I am an evil doc (my payments have been fixed by Medicare for 20 years). Whatever, I am now just an ex-country surgeon who fixes things around the house.

ROGER DELGADO

Sebastopol

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