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Stuart M. Copperman, MD
Merrick, NY

JAMA. 1992;268(19):2648-2649.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor.

—The article by Paul Cotton¹ was biased and inflammatory and did little to promote understanding of either our current health care access problem or racial unrest. Cotton uses terms like "abysmal" to describe health care access, and "political constipation" that allows this crisis to persist. He implies that physicians, like the caring physician whose records were burned during Los Angeles' wanton disorder and destruction, merely "say (MediCal's) meager payments do not meet even their overhead costs" on a quoted "$12 to $16 per visit." You're darn right they do not meet their overhead costs! And no one can lose money on every patient and make it up in volume. That's elementary economics.

I must remind Cotton that it was not the dedicated physicians who burned "whole blocks of businesses" destroying "30 000 jobs and concomitant health insurance for many workers and their families." It is inflammatory . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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