The HR Journey

At a recent IRL race at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course near Mansfield, Ohio,  I saw a man wearing a freshly-pressed t-shirt with Ronald Reagan’s picture on the front and the words, “What He Said” printed across the bottom.  I remember thinking how clever it was to convey so much…with so little space.

Now that the debate on national health-care has reached the boiling point,  I wish I could put Ken Bertka’s picture on a t-shirt with those same simple words.  Bertka, a family physician, member of the board of directors of the American Academy of Family Physicians, and the chief medical information officer of the northern division of Catholic Healthcare Partners, recently submitted a letter to the editor at The Blade newspaper in Toledo.  His words are simple and direct:   

Don’t Play Politics with Health
 
Americans have talked about, criticized, and worried about health-care reform for decades. Policy makers, economists, lawmakers, and patients have called for reform for too long. This year, there’s real opportunity to fix our broken system. We can’t allow politics – Democrat or Republican – to stand in the way of real reform. The debate is loaded with misinformation and inflammatory statements aimed at confusing people and inducing fear. True health-care reform is not about abortion, not about euthanasia, not about rationing, and not about a government takeover of health care. It’s not about reading the bill. It is about recognizing the need for change and understanding proposed solutions.