Vermont physician's work pays off on health care (fantastic article, great resource)

[cali]

Published: Sunday, 1 May 2011 | 1:41 PM ET


MONTPELIER, Vt. - Even now, Dr. Deb Richter is haunted by images of some of the patients she saw at inner-city clinics where she worked in Buffalo, N.Y., during the 1980s.

One young man without health insurance didn't get the early intervention he needed for diabetes. He went blind, got an infection and died at 21. His sister, who also had lived with juvenile diabetes, delivered a baby three months premature. The baby died. Two years later, the 25-year-old woman suffered a heart attack and died during coronary bypass surgery.

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She offered dramatic Statehouse testimony when she and a friend unfolded a list of the addresses of insurance companies and government insurance programs to which her five-doctor medical practice in Cambridge had to send bills.

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"The fact that we are as close as we are to passing a single-payer health care bill in Vermont is a tribute to a lot of grassroots work, but Deb Richter is the backbone of that work," Gov. Peter Shumlin said. "She's a doctor who practices every day, sees what's wrong with the system and wants to right it. ... She's tenacious. She's smart. She's tough."

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http://www.cnbc.com/id/42848885

[Stuart G]

1. K and R