Sounding Off:

In previous opinion pieces in the Pilot, I have noted that most physicians are not against health-care reform, but they do want sensible reform that does not throw out the baby with the bathwater.

Three days before Thursday’s media event, the president’s proposal was released.

These 11 pages do not start with a blank sheet of paper, as some recommended, but with the 2,000-page Senate bill.

The $100 billion added to the price tag is but one-tenth of the total $1 trillion. This is not real money residing in a lock box in Washington.

The House, Senate and president set different income thresholds and percentages of income that people will have to pay in premiums for their mandated health plan. This is a low-wage trap: If your earnings exceed a certain threshold, all of your extra income will be sucked into the health plan. That is like a 100% marginal tax rate.

Remember that this is not about expanding medical care: The reformers think that we already get 30% too much.

A sophisticated computer infrastructure can keep track of eligibility. The computer can tell whether your ethnic group, region or age group has already had its fair share of knee replacements, CT/MRI scans, coronary artery stents and so on.

Price controls reduce spending by creating scarcity of supply. The president’s proposal adds price controls for insurance premiums. Yes, you can keep your plan — if it still exists.

And you can keep your doctor — if he’s still in practice. A survey by Investor’s Business Daily suggested that under ObamaCare, 45% of doctors would quit. In a recent informal survey by the Assn. of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS), fewer than 30% of physicians said they would voluntarily participate in a public plan similar to Medicare.

Two-thirds of respondents to the AAPS survey said they were not advising their children to go to medical school.

Your doctor will have less time to spend with you. Dealing with the government-imposed computerized record might take up 25% or more of the doctor’s time. Then there’s time spent collecting information pertaining to eligibility such as your exact ethnic group and lifestyle.

A new favorite word is “strengthen,” which means increasing the power of government.

It’s all part of “change” from confidential sickness care by physicians to public “health care” by minimally trained “providers” trying to regiment society.

Once done it will be impossible to get undone.

MICHAEL ARNOLD GLUECK is a retired Newport Beach physician.