Letter to President Obama July 25^th, 2009

MOHAMMAD HASSAN SAID, M.D., Ph.D., M.P.H.
524 E. Division Street
Ephrata, WA 98823
(509) 754-4689
(509) 754-3241 -- fax
drsaidusa@yahoo.com
www.drsaid.net
July 25, 2009

FROM: Dr. Said, a lifetime political activist, a self-made expert of the experts in matters related to health care and relationship with the Muslim world, a campaign volunteer who put his soul, heart and pocketbook into the primary and general election so that Sen. Obama would be elected as President of the United States.

SUBJECT: Regarding Health Care and Relationship with the Muslim World

Dear Mr. President:
This is the 13th letter that I have dictated to you since your election on November 4, 2008. With the exception of letter No. 12, which was e-mailed on June 30, 2009, just two days before your trip to Cairo to address the Muslim world, all of the other letters are audio letters. The audio letters are being posted in my website. The only one which was transcribed was my letter to you dated November 28, 2008, which was 72-pages long. The letter was full of errors and misspellings. I tried without success to find a good editor to put my long letter in proper order. The letters deal with current events at the national and international level. The letters were based in large part on my personal experience, especially the letters dealing with international issues. As I mentioned in one of the letters, I can advise you on nearly any topic other than sports and rock music. When I find the right person to edit all of my letters, which exceed 400 pages, I will put the letters into a book titled “Letters to President Obama.” The book will be dedicated to your campaign workers and in memory of your father, Barack Obama Sr., who was not treated fairly by the news media. For me, as a Muslim, he died as a Muslim and was buried as a Muslim. In the 1950s, it would have been extremely difficult for a poor student from Kenya to obtain a scholarship such as was obtained by your father. The fact that your father was awarded the scholarship demonstrates that he was an extraordinary student. Further, the fact that your father courted and thereafter won the affections of your mother, a white woman, was also remarkable for that time in history.

Perhaps a member of your skilled and experienced staff could assist me in transcribing and editing my letters. I would be very appreciative of the help.

Mr. President, it has been six months since you took office. The neoconservatives (such as Fox News and The Weekly Standard) are constantly trying to undermine your presidency, in the name of conservatism, patriotism and free enterprise. These under miners of your presidency do not want to admit that a person of color can successful lead the United States of America. However, I am confident that you will overcome the economic problems that face our country and other countries around the world. As a medical doctor, I will give some detail about how to make the health care system both available and affordable. As to the relationship with the Muslim world, the Muslim world has great anticipation for changes but also needs action to go with words.

MAKING THE HEALTH CARE SYSTEM AVAILABLE AND AFFORDABLE

As you know, health care is a very complex problem with competing interests among lawyers, doctors, hospitals, insurance companies, corporations and others. I strongly believe that, during your first term, you will be able to implement your program, to cover all American people, without significantly raising taxes. It is a matter of controlling costs and eliminating waste. My background, education and experience allow me to speak with some authority and to suggest the following:

• Universal health care for basic health care needs. (Basic health care needs will be determined by panels of health professionals.)
• Include dental care, eye care and mental health care as part of basic health care.
• Assign the role of providing sophisticated medical care to private insurance companies. (Everyone will be entitled to basic health care; those wanting “Cadillac” health care can buy various plans from private insurers.)
• Eliminate “defensive medicine.”
• Reform the medical malpractice system.
• Increase reimbursement for primary care physicians.
• Provide medical malpractice insurance from the federal government to primary care physicians who are willing to take into their practice 100 to 200 patients who are chronically ill, and to make house calls. (Chronic care patients are about five percent of the population but consume about 50 percent of health care expenses.)
• Import primary care physicians from other countries if there are not enough American primary care physicians who are willing to contract their services to the federal government. (As a trial, I suggest 3,000 primary care physicians (family practice, general practice, general internal medicine, pediatrics, geriatrics, gynecology, obstetrics, radiology, dermatology, etc.) with at least 10 percent from Spanish speaking countries like Mexico. Those primary care physicians would be contracted by the federal government for four year contracts, which could be extended for one or more four-year periods. The federal government would pay for their travel expenses and housing together with a modest salary. These primary care physicians will save us billions of dollars per year.)
• Expand Medicare to include from birth until age 25. (This will allow us to provide care to the most vulnerable members of society: the young and the very old.)
• Increase the emphasis on preventive medicine.
• Begin a concerted effort to fight alcoholism. (The White House should be an example and not serve alcohol. Colleges and universities should also discourage alcohol use. The alcohol content of beer should be reduced to 1 to 2 percent. More rigid controls should be made in connection with supplying distilled spirits to persons with demonstrated alcohol problems.)
• Consolidate the Veterans Administration medical system with Medicare.
• Reform Medicaid so that patients are more responsible for the cost of their care and do not abuse the system. (Small copayments when seeing a physician, going to the emergency department or obtaining prescription drugs will result in welfare patients being more careful as to how they access medical care. I have extensive experience in this area.)
• Adjust the co-payment for Medicare based upon the patient’s income level, which co-payment could range from nothing to more than $1,000.
• Put more emphasis on the use of generic drugs.
• Have the federal government obtain an equity position in drug companies to reduce the cost of the drugs. (If the federal government can have an equity interest in the banks and the auto companies in order to strengthen America, then there is no reason why the federal government cannot have an equity interest in drug companies. Such an equity interest will allow for the control of the cost of prescription drugs.)
• Put more emphasis on quality of life as opposed to quantity of life (i.e., the number of years of life). It is unwise to spend large amounts of resources simply to prolong a poor quality of life for a few months.
• Put more emphasis on obtaining a better functional status of chronically ill patients via exercise and change of lifestyle.
• Decriminalize marijuana and make the states dispense the marijuana by prescription.

The points set forth above are explained in more detail in other letters that I will provide to you.

Mr. President, in my 34 years “in the trenches,” I have found that the medical system is full of greed and everybody is screwing everybody else.

Mr. President, to implement improvements in health care, there should be a split of the Department of Health and Human Services. Secretary Kathleen Sebelius can continue with human resources. I will be pleased to take over the health department. My 34 years of practice has been in primary care, as a clinical assistant professor of internal medicine in Grand Forks, N.D., as a physician for the Veterans Administration Hospital at Fargo, N.D., and as a primary care provider in small towns in North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming and Washington state. I worked as a locum tenens in several states including work on Indian reservations. I worked in missionary medicine in poor countries in North Africa and the Middle East. I co-founded the Islamic Medical Association (IMA) in Spain, Europe and then the United States and Canada. I worked for more than 10 years treating chronic pain patients. In the past 15 months, I have run a marijuana clinic, examining about 2,000 patients who are qualified to be prescribed marijuana under Washington state rules.

I am board certified in internal medicine, geriatrics and family practice (fifth re-certification is pending – hopefully in the fall). I hold a Ph.D. in preventive and social medicine from the University of Madrid, Spain. I have a diploma in public health (equivalent to M.P.H.) from the University of Toronto, Ontario.

I first ran for public office in 1984 when I ran for state representative for the state of Washington. (After I returned from Iowa, where I was campaigning for the Rev. Jesse Jackson for president.) I ran as a Democrat in the primary. I was not successful even though I did everything right (i.e., brochures, fundraising, extensive campaigning). I concluded that it was extremely difficult for me to be successful due to my name, religious background, faith and conservative views on matters of marriage and family. I concluded that thereafter I would run for state-wide office such as United States Senator or Governor for the purpose of conveying a message.

RELATIONSHIP WITH THE MUSLIM WORLD

I have an extensive analysis on my website and in my audio files. I will set forth below some basic points that need to be followed to resolve conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Iran and Palestine.

Afghanistan
• Set a time table of five years for a complete withdrawal from Afghanistan.
• Set up a coalition government which includes the Taliban.
• Allow theTaliban to have prominent positions in the coalition government – such as external affairs, education and agriculture.
• If any Al-Qaeda member is captured, try the person in a Sharia court with judges from different Muslim countries who are well known and have credibility. (Al-Qaeda has become an idealology and could not be defeated by military means. Al-Qaeda is no threat to the United States if left alone.)

Pakistan
• Emphasize a coalition government, which includes the Taliban and other Islamic parties.
• Allow the regional governments, if they so choose, to implement Shariha. Through Shariha, they will collect Zakah of 2.5 percent, which will help eliminate poverty.

Iraq
• Withdraw as scheduled (2011) or try to withdraw earlier.
• Maintain no United States military bases after withdrawal.
• Downsize the American embassy in Iraq to the size of other American embassies in the region.
• Allow the Iraqi army to get help from soldiers from the Arab League which are not bordering Iraq. (Do not allow soldiers from Jordan, Syria, Saudi Arabia or Kuwait.) Also, do not allow soldiers from Egypt, Turkey and Iran.

Iran
• Understand that it is not in our national interest to meddle in the internal affairs of Iran.
• Allow Iran to produce nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.
• If there is a concern about Iran developing nuclear weapons, then there should be an emphasize on freezing nuclear weapons throughout the region – not just in Iran.

Palestine-Israel
• Try to contain the conflict so that it does not get out of control.
• Understand that your special envoy, George Mitchell, is ineffective and not helpful.
• Trying to resolve the conflict through the Arab League will not work.
• Putting undue pressure on the Palestinians will cause a negative reaction throughout the Muslim world and will be counter-productive to any resolution.
• Freezing of the settlements will not be satisfactory to the Palestinians so it is an ineffective policy.
• Wait until your second term to work on a one state solution, after a deep study and conviction. (See first point above: contain the conflict so that it does not get out of control.) Anything you do at the current time will be a lose-lose situation.

This letter is being e-mailed without any attachments. This letter will also be mailed to you by Federal Express with very extensive attachments. The attachments will further explain my point of view as evolved over the past 30 years.

Mr. President, I would be honored to be allowed to meet with you at the White House. I had an earlier opportunity to meet you when I was campaigning for you in Texas on Feb. 29, 2008. You arrived at Brownsville in the Gulf of Mexico to meet with religious leaders for breakfast. Your field organizer, Bryan Pacheco, told me that I would be allowed to meet with you. At that time, I was campaigning less than 30 miles away at Harlingen, Texas. (I met Caroline Kennedy there a few days earlier.) Out of concern for your campaign, considering my background and political activities, I was concerned that your opponents would use my name to try to malign you – as your opponents did with other persons who you are acquainted with. I decided to wait until after you became President to meet with you.

Sincerely –
s/ Mohammad Hassan Said, M.D.
MOHAMMAD HASSAN SAID, M.D.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------