Guest: Gene Farley, M.D.
retired physician, emeritus faculty, UW Medical School
former Chair, UW Department of Family Medicine
Dr. Gene Farley, along with his wife Dr. Linda Farley who passed away in 2009, has been a longtime leading proponent of health care reform and a strong activist of the idea that quality medicine is a universal human right. On this program, Dr. Farley shares his vast experience as a family physician in rural and urban areas, on a Navajo reservation, to people of all ages and health conditions, the employed and unemployed, insured and uninsured, and before and after Medicare and Medicaid were enacted. "A lot more older people came for health care once we got Medicare," said Dr. Farley.
Dr. Farley shares his views that all people benefit from health care; families and individuals need health care as part of their ability to grow, develop and survive, and it is unethical for investor profit to be made by denying health care to those who often need it the most and are most unable to pay for it. "Those who don't think that health care is a basic human right must answer this question," says Gene Farley. "What would you do if you found a dying person on your doorstep? Would you leave that person to die."
With over 50,000 people uninsured in this country and about 50% of bankruptcies due to health-related crises, Dr. Farley believes the rational solution is a universal health program. He feels The Affordable Care Act signed by President Obama last year is an excellent beginning.
For more information on health care reform and benefits and plans available to you, go to www.healthcare.gov.
