Modern doctors not in financial position to barter

Richard J. Mundy, Las Vegas

Sunday, May 9, 2010 | 2:01 a.m.

When I was growing up in Brooklyn, N.Y., in the 1930s our family doctor delivered my three siblings and myself, and if any of us got sick, he would make a house call charging $3.

Contrast that with my current general practitioner. He rents an office and pays all the expenses of running such a place. He has two assistants who answer the phones and “prep” patients for examination. He pays malpractice insurance, and after paying all of those expenses, he has to have enough money to pay himself.

I mention this as we hear a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, Sue Lowden, claim that you can barter for medical care with a modern-day doctor. My doctor today can’t pay his rent, the salaries of his assistants and his insurance with whatever he could get from bartering. He needs cold, hard cash to maintain his practice.

It makes you wonder how practical Ms. Lowden is, and whether she would be capable of making reasonable and prudent decisions if she were to be elected.