Tennessee doctor meets President Trump to discuss his views on problems with Obamacare

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An Indian-American physician from Tennessee, was among a group of individuals who met President Donald Trump March 13, to discuss issues arising from the implementation of the Affordable Care Act put in place by former President Barack Obama.

Dr. Manish ‘Manny’ Sethi, an orthopedic trauma surgeon at Vanderbilt Medical Center, was one of 11 people invited by the President March 13, to voice their concerns and share their stories and discuss how Obamacare is failing them, the White House said.

According to the White House, Sethi says he has noticed that people can’t afford rising premiums. “So what they are doing is, effectively, they’re paying the tax penalty because it’s cheaper and works out better than paying for the insurance. That’s been a big problem that we’re seeing across the state.”

Sethi was raised in Hillsboro, Tennessee, where his mother and father practiced medicine for over 20 years, according to his bio accompanying the release of his book, The American Dream in Tennessee: Stories of Faith, Struggle, and Survival . Dr. Manny, as he is popularly called, is also the president and founder of Healthy Tennessee, a non-profit organization focusing on preventative health education across the state. He is married to Maya, and they have two children

His Healthy Tennessee website says Sethi is lead author of the book Orthopedic Traumatology, and is co-author along with Senator Bill Frist, R-Tennessee, in An Introduction to Health Policy: A Primer for Physicians and Medical Students. 

A graduate of Brown University, Rhode Island, Sethi is a Fulbright Scholar who worked with children with muscular dystrophy in Tunisia. He attended Harvard Medical School and completed his orthopedic surgical training at Harvard University. He was a White House Fellow in 2009, and has served as National Chairman of the American Medical Association Resident and Fellow Section and has served on the Committee on Publications of the New England Journal of Medicine.

In an interview Sethi gave to Faces Of Freedom’s issue on healthcare (undated), Sethi said rising costs and increased regulations of ACA were reducing the incentive for doctors to take on new patients. “Patients that I grew up watching my father treat in Hillsboro would now have trouble obtaining medical care and would pay more for insurance,” he told the magazine. “The cure for our healthcare crisis lies in our ability to unleash innovation and entrepreneurialism within the private sector, letting the market drive new solutions that treat the root cause of the problem rather than treating the aftermath.”

Sethi also advises state lawmakers to start addressing “core” inefficiencies in healthcare by focusing on preventative care.

“The future of our healthcare system relies in our ability to enforce ingenuity, creativity and most importantly transparency. By squeezing out market-based principles in our healthcare policies, we are promising a false safety net to our community’s most vulnerable,” he said.

Republicans in Congress have rolled out the first phase of changes in Obamacare which promises to bring in a competitive playing field for insurance companies. It has brought opposition from some lawmakers within the GOP.