Payers will benefit; providers, patients won't

Regarding "Lawmakers vow to monitor insurers":

As an owner of a small durable medical equipment company, I was blessed to receive the new fee schedule from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama over the weekend. Once again, it appears the only winners in the healthcare reform will be the payers, not the providers or the patients.

Patients will be paying higher premiums for reduced or even eliminated services. Providers will be expected to take fees that are reduced to levels that will ultimately drive them out of the healthcare industry. I find it amazing that the only concern of the politicians—Republicans and Democrats—is whether or not the premiums rise. Reimbursement issues will be the demise and failure of the healthcare industry as we have known it. The insurance companies will protect their bottom lines—at any expense.

Thomas G. Spurlock

Socialism. Heaven help us all. We are letting this twitette Jan Schakowsky and the likes of that serious, studied hero of humorville Al Franken decide our fate as physicians and patients. We should be collectively ashamed of ourselves.

John Mager, M.D.