Doctor tells Obama supporters: Go elsewhere for health care
A Mount Dora doctor posted a sign telling Obama health care supporters
to go elsewhere.
[Sign at the office door of Dr. Jack Cassell, a Mount Dora
urologist.]
Sign at the office door of Dr. Jack Cassell, a Mount Dora urologist.
(Photo by Deirdre Lewis / April 1, 2010)
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* Related
*
[Sign at the office door of Dr. Jack Cassell, a Mount Dora
urologist.]
<http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/os-doctor-sign,0\
,3847557.photo>
Sign at the office door of Dr. Jack Cassell, a Mount Dora urologist.
<http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/os-doctor-sign,0\
,3847557.photo>
*
[Dr. Jack Cassell]
<http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/os-lk-dr-jack-ca\
ssell,0,7880856.photo>
Dr. Jack Cassell
<http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/os-lk-dr-jack-ca\
ssell,0,7880856.photo>
*
Poll: OK for doctor to protest health-care bill by shunning Obama
voters?
Lake County urologist Dr. Jack Cassell has put up a sign on his office
door reading, "If you voted for Obama seek urologic care elsewhere."
What do you think?
What is your reaction to Dr. Jack Cassell's actions?
* Good for him. Obamacare will be a disaster, and we should keep
fighting it.
* Get over it, Doc. Health-care reform was badly needed, and this
is just more sour grapes from the GOP.
* Prescription for trouble. No matter what you think of the
health-care overhaul, doctors should not impose their political views
on patients.
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health care reform’s benefits for children]
<http://www.orlandosentinel.com/features/os-kosmas-health-reform-2010040\
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Kosmas touts health care reform's benefits for children
<http://www.orlandosentinel.com/features/os-kosmas-health-reform-2010040\
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By Stephen Hudak, Orlando Sentinel
8:22 a.m. EDT, April 2, 2010
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os-mount-dora-doctor-tells-patients-go-aw20100401
MOUNT DORA A doctor who considers the national health-care
overhaul to be bad medicine for the country posted a sign on his office
door telling patients who voted for President Barack Obama
<http://www.orlandosentinel.com/topic/politics/government/barack-obama-P\
EPLT007408.topic> to seek care "elsewhere."
"I'm not turning anybody away that would be unethical," Dr. Jack
Cassell, 56, a Mount Dora urologist and a registered Republican opposed
to the health plan, told the Orlando Sentinel on Thursday. "But if they
read the sign and turn the other way, so be it."
The sign reads: "If you voted for Obama
seek urologic care
elsewhere. Changes to your healthcare begin right now, not in four
years."
Estella Chatman, 67, of Eustis, whose daughter snapped a photo of the
typewritten sign, sent the picture to U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson
<http://www.orlandosentinel.com/topic/politics/government/alan-m.-grayso\
n-PEPLT0000017585.topic> , the Orlando Democrat who riled Republicans
<http://www.orlandosentinel.com/topic/politics/parties-movements/republi\
can-party-ORGOV0000004.topic> last year when he characterized the
GOP's idea of health care as, "If you get sick, America
Die
quickly."
Chatman said she heard about the sign from a friend referred to Cassell
after his physician recently died. She said her friend did not want to
speak to a reporter but was dismayed by Cassell's sign.
"He's going to find another doctor," she said.
Cassell may be walking a thin line between his right to free speech and
his professional obligation, said William Allen
<http://www.orlandosentinel.com/topic/politics/government/william-allen-\
PEHST002299.topic> , professor of bioethics, law and medical
professionalism at the University of Florida
<http://www.orlandosentinel.com/topic/education/colleges-universities/un\
iversity-of-florida-OREDU0000153.topic> 's College of Medicine.
Allen said doctors cannot refuse patients on the basis of race, gender,
religion, sexual orientation or disability, but political preference is
not one of the legally protected categories specified in civil-rights
law. By insisting he does not quiz his patients about their politics and
has not turned away patients based on their vote, the doctor is "trying
to hold onto the nub of his ethical obligation," Allen said.
"But this is pushing the limit," he said.
Cassell, who has practiced medicine in GOP-dominated Lake County since
1988, said he doesn't quiz his patients about their politics, but he
also won't hide his disdain for the bill Obama signed and the lawmakers
who passed it.
In his waiting room, Cassell also has provided his patients with
photocopies of a health-care timeline produced by Republican leaders
that outlines "major provisions" in the health-care package. The doctor
put a sign above the stack of copies that reads: "This is what the
morons in Washington have done to your health care. Take one, read it
and vote out anyone who voted for it."
