Doctors' group blasts Senate healthcare bill in front of Freedom Tower

As U.S. senators prepared for a critical vote on the healthcare bill Saturday morning, dozens of dissenting physicians and nurses protested at the Freedom Tower in one of 24 rallies staged nationwide.

Holding signs and making speeches touting objections to the proposed reforms, the medical professionals warned that the bill coming before the Senate this week would drastically change the relationship doctors have with their patients.

The bill, which seeks to lower healthcare costs and increase access to medical services for the uninsured, came under fire by those at the rally, including Fort Lauderdale rheumatologist Dr. Yvonne Sherrer.

``Our legislators are committing legislative malpractice,'' Sherrer shouted into a microphone, claiming that the changes proposed by the bill would further restrict how doctors can treat patients.

``We want reform that will take away the current problems in our healthcare system and not take away what's good: the relationship between the doctor and the patient,'' she later said.

Although the bill passed in October by the House of Representatives differs from the one currently being reviewed by the senators, both propose squeezing more than $400 billion out of expected increases in Medicare costs.

The Senate bill also proposes the development of ``new patient care models'' -- a strong issue of contention for the largely conservative crowd at Saturday's event, where doctors criticized what they deemed a takeover by the federal government.

Dr. Patrick Abuzeni, one of two physicians who organized the nationwide rallies, fears the bill will not sufficiently address existing problems, such as ballooning healthcare costs. He said it would simply layer government bureaucracy over a healthcare system already ruined by insurance companies and hospital management staff.

Abuzeni, who blames the high costs born by patients on medical malpractice suits and excessive influence of insurance giants, said elected officials should vote down the bill and instead redirect control of the industry to physicians.

That loss of control, he said, led to a restructuring of the healthcare system that allowed insurance companies to rake in massive profits. One example he noted was last year's $3.2 million compensation plan for UnitedHealth Group's CEO, Stephen Hemsley.

``Those millions of dollars were meant for patient care . . . not Gulfstream jets,'' he said.