By Jerry Frankel, M.D.
The Dallas Morning News, March 31, 2014
Re: āFocus on Change at Parkland ā Expanding access is a key step to improving care,ā Wednesday Editorials.
Having spent a good part of my training at public hospitals and the last four years of my career as a faculty member of an excellent public hospital in Houston, I can say the medical personnel are amongst the most dedicated professionals I have ever met, dealing with the sickest patient population and insufficient resources, especially compared with the resources available to treat patients in private practice.
The best the community, the state and the nation could do for Parkland and all public hospitals is neither raise local taxes nor expand local community health centers, as helpful as those measures would be, but to finally decide that access to quality affordable health care is not only a human right but that creating Medicare for All would benefit the nation economically, allowing the business community to compete on a level playing field in a global economy with all other developed nations with quality universal care at a fraction of the cost of care here.
The benefits would be universal, for Parkland, Dallas, Texas, the nation, every single resident and every single fetus, where expectant mothers would have access to superb prenatal and maternal care.
Dr. Jerry Frankel resides in Plano.
http://letterstotheeditorblog.dallasnews.com/2014/03/on-parkland-hospital-quality-affordable-health-care-is-a-human-right.html/