AS THE only two doctors on the Mt. Diablo Health Care District Board, we are active in providing help to the "underserved" population in our district, and we would like to weigh in on the current health care reform debate.

We have plenty of good doctors, hospitals, ambulances, medications, and clinics to meet the needs of all our citizens without allowing the federal government to eviscerate the entire medical edifice for the sake of a minority of so-called "uninsured" people, all of whom have ready access to local emergency rooms and to the county hospital system 24/7.

Yes, there is the problem of cost. But what did people do before there was insurance? They paid their bills over time, not to an insurance or taxing agency (which would control what care they would get), but to the doctors or hospitals who provided them a service.

They may have had to take out a loan on their house, or make small regular payments over time, but they did not expect the government to force the rest of the citizenry to pay for all of their medical needs, which is what the currently considered "reform" laws would do.

Local property taxes already pay for much of the care at the county hospitals. So patients can already get whatever care they need.

But what about the doctor? He or she will be subjected to multiple rules, regulations, restrictions, and demands for information, forms "required" for bureaucrats to "determine the

Even now a doctor is fined or punished for putting down the "wrong code for a diagnosis." Why should a doctor spend his life learning about medicine if he or she will be harassed endlessly on procedural grounds?

Do you think that might affect the doctors' attitudes toward the patient in trying to solve a difficult problem?

Back to the costs. The prices that doctors and hospitals must charge are driven by the costs of rent, supplies, materials, overhead and further education to stay current in their fields. They are not arbitrary. And if the payments doctors receive fall too close to what it costs them to stay in business, they will either quit and do something else, or, even worse, lose their ability to give a damn about their patients.

Patients looking for something for nothing with this new "health reform," should not be surprised that everyone will pay more, not only in money, but in other forms of "currency," such as certain treatments not allowed, weeks or months delays in getting tests or treatments, or even to see a doctor. All these are already experienced by all the other countries that have tried "universal health reform." We need not repeat their traumatic experiences.

The reality is that these disasters do not have to happen. Realistic changes that work without destroying what does work are: Allowing for the tax deductibility of all medical payments; allowing insurance to be issued across state lines; realistic tort reform so that patients who are injured in any medical accident are fairly treated by the legal system, but those who initiate frivolous lawsuits are subjected to paying for all the legal costs if they lose the lawsuit (the same as it is now for the doctor, the doctor pays all legal costs if the doctor loses the suit).

Freedom, fair dealing and honesty have always been the path to follow in the past, and it would be well to follow that path in the present debate.

John R. Toth, D.O., is chairman of the Mt. Diablo Health Care District Board and John P. Toth, M.D., is a director of that board.