Dear Editor:My doctor said no one seems to be concerned with their anticipated problems. In 2006, Massachusetts gave thousands of uninsured people health insurance and they now have a shortage of doctors, vastly overcrowded emergency rooms, and long waiting periods for an operation, some as long as a year. Medicare will cut payments to doctors by 20 percent despite ever-increasing malpractice insurance and a new tax expected on their services. They will have to continue volunteering services without pay to those without insurance, and many patients needing hip replacement and other serious operations will have to travel hundreds of miles to specialists. With reduced earnings and a vast increase in patients, many doctors are expected to file bankruptcy or retire shortly after President Obama's government insurance is implemented, and fewer students will be taking medical training that will result in serious shortages. Fixing anything that isn't broken can have dire consequences. - James Hawkins, Downey

********** Published: September 18, 2009 - Volume 8 - Issue 22