Democrats in Washington would do well to heed the advice of two Georgia physicians on how to reform health care in this country.

Dr. Brian Hill of Austell and Dr. David Lowther of Athens conducted a public forum last Friday in Austell. Their forum followed a public session conducted by the AARP with U.S. Rep. David Scott (D-Smyrna) who had angrily yelled at Hill for daring to ask a question about health care at town hall meeting on transportation in Douglasville early this month.

"We use data and evidence, not personal opinions to diagnose our patients," Hill said Friday, raising the logical question: "So why wouldn't you use the same method to come up with a solution to this health care issue?"

Lowther said that government has not demonstrated to him that it has the answers to problems in the health care system. He pointed to the experience of other states where government-run programs have not worked.

The prime example of this is the almost universal coverage program in Massachusetts, enacted in 2006, ironically enough under then-Gov. Mitt Romney - but don't blame him for all the excesses that he vetoed only to be overridden by the Democrat legislature.

This model for the Obama-Democrat health care plans is experiencing runaway costs for both the state and the residents.

The cost to the state has risen dramatically, up 42 percent since 2006.

Families have been hit hard in the pocketbook.

A recent report by the nonprofit Commonwealth Fund showed the stunning impact on people in Massachusetts. The average family premium for health care plans offered by employers hit $13,788 last year - up 40 percent over 2003. Nationwide the increase averaged 33 percent, still too high but well below the "model" in Massachusetts.

Get this: The Commonwealth Fund projected that the yearly family premium in Massachusetts will double to $26,730 by 2020 without major steps to cut costs.

Of course, that was inevitable, considering that all the various interest groups from insurers to businesses and doctors "agreed to first tackle health coverage expansion and leave the cost question for a later date," as the Boston Globe reported.

Now the Dems running the state are looking at fixes that, predictably, will make matters worse for the long-suffering, hard-working, tax-paying middle class.

Last month a state commission proposed eliminating the fees for individual visits or procedures and introducing a "global payment" for providers, "paying a set amount intended to cover a patient's medical care for an entire year," the Globe said.

Residents who fail to get health insurance suffer tax penalties - the loss of the $219 personal exemption on their state income tax in 2007 with the penalty increasing yearly.

Meanwhile, the higher demand for health care has resulted in much longer waits for to see a physician in Massachusetts.

That's the model for the Democrats' national health care. They should take the advice of our two Georgia doctors and look at the data and the evidence in Massachusetts.

dmckee9613@aol.com