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Fl. Doctor Snubs Buckwheat Voters?

Mike

Well-known member
MOUNT DORA — A doctor who considers the national health-care overhaul to be bad medicine for the country posted a sign on his office door telling patients who voted for President Barack Obama to seek care "elsewhere."

"I'm not turning anybody away — that would be unethical," Dr. Jack Cassell, 56, a Mount Dora urologist and a registered Republican opposed to the health plan, told the Orlando Sentinel on Thursday. "But if they read the sign and turn the other way, so be it."

The sign reads: "If you voted for Obama … seek urologic care elsewhere. Changes to your healthcare begin right now, not in four years."

Estella Chatman, 67, of Eustis, whose daughter snapped a photo of the typewritten sign, sent the picture to U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson, the Orlando Democrat who riled Republicans last year when he characterized the GOP's idea of health care as, "If you get sick, America … Die quickly."

Chatman said she heard about the sign from a friend referred to Cassell after his physician recently died. She said her friend did not want to speak to a reporter but was dismayed by Cassell's sign.

"He's going to find another doctor," she said.

Cassell may be walking a thin line between his right to free speech and his professional obligation, said William Allen, professor of bioethics, law and medical professionalism at the University of Florida's College of Medicine.

Allen said doctors cannot refuse patients on the basis of race, gender, religion, sexual orientation or disability, but political preference is not one of the legally protected categories specified in civil-rights law. By insisting he does not quiz his patients about their politics and has not turned away patients based on their vote, the doctor is "trying to hold onto the nub of his ethical obligation," Allen said.

"But this is pushing the limit," he said.

Cassell, who has practiced medicine in GOP-dominated Lake County since 1988, said he doesn't quiz his patients about their politics, but he also won't hide his disdain for the bill Obama signed and the lawmakers who passed it.

In his waiting room, Cassell also has provided his patients with photocopies of a health-care timeline produced by Republican leaders that outlines "major provisions" in the health-care package. The doctor put a sign above the stack of copies that reads: "This is what the morons in Washington have done to your health care. Take one, read it and vote out anyone who voted for it."

Cassell, whose lawyer wife, Leslie Campione, has declared herself a Republican candidate for Lake County commissioner, said three patients have complained, but most have been "overwhelmingly supportive" of his position.

"They know it's not good for them," he said.

Cassell, who previously served as chief of surgery at Florida Hospital Waterman in Tavares, said a patient's politics would not affect his care for them, although he said he would prefer not to treat people who support the president.

"I can at least make a point," he said.

The notice on Cassell's office door could cause some patients to question his judgment or fret about the care they might receive if they don't share his political views, Allen said. He said doctors are wise to avoid public expressions that can affect the physician-patient relationship.

Erin VanSickle, spokeswoman for the Florida Medical Association, would not comment specifically.

But she noted in an e-mail to the Sentinel that "physicians are extended the same rights to free speech as every other citizen in the United States."

The outspoken Grayson described Cassell's sign as "ridiculous."

"I'm disgusted," he said. "Maybe he thinks the Hippocratic Oath says, ‘Do no good.' If this is the face of the right wing in America, it's the face of cruelty. … Why don't they change the name of the Republican Party to the Sore Loser Party?"

Stephen Hudak can be reached at [email protected] or 352-742-5930
 

Faster horses

Well-known member
My doctor isn't isn't any too happy about the current administration, and that was BEFORE the passage of this BS Health Care reform bill. Now he says he is going to have to cut out some jobs in his
clinic. I asked him how he would decide who stays and who goes and
he replied, "I'll go out to the parking lot and any vehicles with Obama stickers, those employees will go."

He also said before this HC bill passed that, "IF it passes I plan to
retire at 55."

I think he was serious.
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Faster horses said:
He also said before this HC bill passed that, "IF it passes I plan to
retire at 55."

I think he was serious.

Heck- my Orthopedic surgeon made so much in the less than 20 years he was in practice that he retired when he was 45-- been on world wide hunting safaris every since...
 

per

Well-known member
That may be true OT but here was a Doc that would have worked longer it not for the bill. If every Doc that would otherwise have kept working 5 more years retired early that could lead to a Doc shortage. Simple physics, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Oldtimer said:
Faster horses said:
He also said before this HC bill passed that, "IF it passes I plan to
retire at 55."

I think he was serious.

Heck- my Orthopedic surgeon made so much in the less than 20 years he was in practice that he retired when he was 45-- been on world wide hunting safaris every since...

First pelosi head. obama wants a crisis and secondly everyone is intitled to the American success story. Even pelosi heads like you!

You idiots on the left think no one but you are ntitled to the dream and success!
 

hopalong

Well-known member
Oldtimer said:
Faster horses said:
He also said before this HC bill passed that, "IF it passes I plan to
retire at 55."

I think he was serious.

Heck- my Orthopedic surgeon made so much in the less than 20 years he was in practice that he retired when he was 45-- been on world wide hunting safaris every since...

You always have the top STORY in the news, be it the truth or not!!
 

Sandhusker

Well-known member
Oldtimer said:
Faster horses said:
He also said before this HC bill passed that, "IF it passes I plan to
retire at 55."

I think he was serious.

Heck- my Orthopedic surgeon made so much in the less than 20 years he was in practice that he retired when he was 45-- been on world wide hunting safaris every since...

You're missing the point, buddy.
 

loomixguy

Well-known member
Nah, Sheriff Krupt just can't figger out how to blame Bush for this. His surgeon had to have practiced for a time while W was in office. Funny how he now has the dough to be on safari all the time...Bush surely took the surgeon's money away from him, didn't he? :wink:
 

hopalong

Well-known member
loomixguy said:
Nah, Sheriff Krupt just can't figger out how to blame Bush for this. His surgeon had to have practiced for a time while W was in office. Funny how he now has the dough to be on safari all the time...Bush surely took the surgeon's money away from him, didn't he? :wink:

lol lol
 
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