Doctors complaining about low earnings

I always notice how doctors are only too willing to complain about low Medicare reimbursements and high malpractice insurance premiums ["It doesn't pay to practice medicine," Letters, Dec. 10]. They always tell us the cost, but don't put it into contrast by telling us the income they take in.

You tell about how low Medicare reimbursements are, while not also telling the reimbursement schedule from the private insurance companies. If you want understanding, full disclosure is necessary.

Richard Stabile

Bayside

If the good doctor complaining about low reimbursements and high malpractice insurance costs is looking for a president to blame, then he must go further back. Our current woes started with the Health Insurance Act of 1973, when President Richard Nixon created the for-profit health-care insurance industry. Since then, accountants and nonmedical people have been driving up their profits and our costs by any method allowed by law, and then some.

Ubiquitous malpractice suits added another level of costs, and the insurance industry jumped in to "help" doctors with ever-increasing premiums.

President Barack Obama's original reform plan, under whatever name his critics wish to use, is at least a step in the right direction.

Bruce M. Resch

East Meadow