Letter to the Editor: Kaiser Permanente's Value

Letter to the Editor: In regard to your Saturday article "Crisis in Health Care," I am one of those doctors you mention who has left private practice to work at Kaiser Permanente. Unfortunately, your article gives the impression that Kaiser Permanente is simply living off the fat of the land, while at the same time indirectly causing the collapse of our health care system.

I was not driven out of my practice by Kaiser Permanente -- I fled private practice to work in a rational, well-managed system where I could be a doctor to my patients, instead of a half-baked accountant/office manager/insurance-company-combatant/doctor (usually in that order).

I see my colleagues at Kaiser Permanente giving their blood, sweat and tears, day in and day out, to care for their patients and care for this community. The county's medical system is not collapsing because of Kaiser Permanente's practice model -- it is collapsing because it is broken. Kaiser Permanente is not the problem.

Indeed, I think that in the long run, Kaiser Permanente's model of care will be the solution for our county and possibly our entire country.

Dr. Matt Joseph

August 20, 2008 Press Democrat