At the risk of making a racist statement, I'm going to suggest that President Obama was less than truthful a few days ago when he boldly announced that an "overwhelming 73 percent of doctors support a public option health care plan."

Not quite. The study Obama cited actually said that 63 percent of doctors surveyed favored a mix of public and private INSURANCE programs. Only 10 percent wanted a "public option only" plan.

Obama also announced that the American Medical Association backs his plan to socialize health care. The editorial staff at the Los Angeles Times jumped all over that nugget. The day after Obama's speech, the Times headline blared:

"Doctors Go For Obama's Reform."

Again, not quite. Obama and the LA Times failed to mention that only 18 percent of American doctors belong to the AMA. The rest think there's a chance that government-controlled health care is a prescription for disaster.

A survey by Investor's Business Daily found that 65 percent of doctors opposed some form of "public option." That same poll said 45 percent of doctors would consider leaving the profession or taking early retirement if Obamacare becomes law.

Better yet, 71 percent of doctors surveyed said "No" when asked if they believed "the government can cover 47 million more people and that it will cost less money and the quality of care will be better."

Yet Obama tells us the medical profession can't wait for government to start running the health care business.

Who to believe? Why not ask your doctor. I plan to ask mine.

I've had loads of great doctors in my lifetime. I was such a bad patient, a few quit before I ran out of diseases, but they were all wonderful to me.

My dentists have been equally kind, generous and caring. In fact, my current dentist should qualify for sainthood for what he's done for me. I won't mention his name here for fear of running off potential patients, but he's as good as they come.

Chances are, your doctor and dentist are as good as mine. And I'll bet anything they have treated patients either free or at greatly reduced cost when financial circumstances were tight.

But for Obamacare to succeed, they will be asked to treat an uninsured population of 30 to 47 million (depending on the poll) and do it all with the same care and attention they now give their current patients.

If the president told his workers at General Motors to make a million more cars each year and to do it with no decrease in quality or increase in cost, union bosses would laugh Obama straight back to Chicago.

But that's exactly what Obamacare calls for. If that sounds good to you, sign up today. In Canada or Britain.

Our doctors, dentists and health care workers are doing a job they love and are doing it well. They're happy, and that's the way I want them to stay.

The fact that they earn more than minimum wage (at least for now) makes some people envious, jealous and downright mad. But they worked and studied for years to earn the big bucks. They deserve every dime they make.

If you want to get mad at people who make a load just for waking up, why not pick on a group who earn a fortune and don't do a thing in exchange except ask for money so they can keep doing it.

They are called members of Congress. And the sooner they are all voted out of office the better off we will all be.

If some group is going to suffer in the health care debate, let's make sure the pain starts in Washington, D.C.

Slug Line: 20090920 mcrae column (Send your e-mail comments to: alex@ newnan.com)