What do doctor's make of court ruling?

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) - No matter how the new health care law is paid for, a doctors' job is still to treat patients. How will Thursday's Supreme Court ruling affect their work?

Whether it's the Affordable Care Act, or some other comprehensive approach, doctors tend to agree about health care reform.

Dr. Stanley Schwartz said, "Individual's access to medical care, I think, should always be a right. I think, as a compassionate nation, we are obliged to take care of our own."

The act will bring millions of people into the system. And it will do more. Everyone knows about the mandate, but the act also prevents insurance companies from denying coverage due to pre-existing disease, capping lifetime benefits, and more.

Dr. Mark Lema said, "It mandates that insurance companies have to cover clinical trials for those people who may have clinical trials as the last resort for treatment."

Dr. Lema specializes in pain relief. He points out that certain medications are the only thing that relieve the suffering of cancer patients.

"These are very expensive drugs, so without health care, or access to health care, the treatment is unattainable for these patients," he said.

All this added care will be very expensive, and we must find a way to cut costs, such as avoiding unnecessary tests and procedures. And we also have to increase medical manpower and improve its utilization.

"The problem that we actually have in western New York is that we have an aging population of doctors. The mean age of surgeons is well into the 60s. That's not good for the future of health care."

We have to train more providers, keep them in western New York, and maybe reorganize the way we deliver health care.