Nearly half of doctors say they’ll quit or take an early retirement if Obama-Care passes. Knowing this, what does President Obama mean when he promises that under his plan we can all keep our current doctors? Or will President Obama and his Czars be our new doctor?
Full story here, bits below.
TWO-thirds of doctors “oppose the proposed health-care plan,” reports an Investors Busi ness Daily/TIPP poll. Almost half would “consider leaving their practice or taking an early retirement” if “Congress passes its health-care plan.” Many of my colleagues feel like we’re already struggling — nor are we prepared to take care of tens of millions more patients.
An Association of American Medical Colleges survey predicts a doctor shortage of 150,000 (at current rates of population growth) by 2025 if universal health insurance is adopted. The doctors we do have would be overwhelmed with far more patients than we could realistically take care of. We’d have to work under huge time pressures, and the service we could deliver would decline.
Those who didn’t quit would have to learn to “game” the new system by seeing more patients, doing more procedures, providing less care per patient and becoming less accessible for health-choice discussions.
Is this what President Obama has in mind when he promises that everyone will get to keep his or her doctor?
More than half the nation’s doctors now don’t accept Medicaid, a 2005 Community Tracking Physician survey found. The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission reported this year that 28 percent of Medicare patients looking for a primary-care doctor had trouble finding one. This scarcity will only get worse if reimbursements are cut further and more doctors opt out.
No tort reform or any other real effort to address outrageous rates for malpractice insurance. (Many surgeons and obstetricians pay more than $100,000 per year.) No mechanism to screen out nuisance lawsuits before they can be brought; no penalties for frivilous suits, even though doctors end up winning the vast majority of cases that go to trial.
The American Trial Lawyers Association — big donors to the Democrats — have vetoed any such relief.
In short, doctors fear “health reform” because it’s not really about health care; it’s about catering to the prejudices of the politicians and the lawyers who’ve already made such a mess of our health-care system.
Marc K. Siegel, a practicing internist, teaches medicine at NYU and is a Fox News contributor.
That’s bizarre and really knocks a dent in my faith in the moral character of American doctors. They’re upset because they’ll get more patients? Because finally impoverished sick people will have access to care? And more than half don’t accept Medicare at the moment? Perhaps these doctors should quit, and then be hit with some huge financial upset, and become poor, and develop some compassion for other people. I’m really not political about this, I feel it is a moral issue. And yet I must try harder to understand the American psyche, which is so individualistic. I know Americans genuinely believe that it is best for every man to be out for himself, that it will make a better and more vigorous society. My own perspective is so alien from this, perhaps I should not comment at all.
The doctors I know consider this a moral issue as well, Sarah.
Morally, the quality of care they’ll be able to provide for their patients will plummet under Obama-Care.
A pediatrician I know currently sees about 50 children each day. That figures out to about 10 minutes with each parent/child, which includes hallway time looking at the chart and/or talking with the nurse, examine time, chat with parent, and hallway time making notes in the chart about follow-up. Under Obama-Care, he’ll be required to see TWICE as many patients. How would you feel if you only got 2-3 minutes of face-to-face time with you doctor? Would he be able to do a good job access your complicated health situation in that amount of time?
My current doctor spends nearly half an hour with me each time I visit, which is how she found my odd disorder and has treated it….saving my life.
Also, in the States NO ONE is denied health care. If someone shows up at a hospital, they WILL be treated. In addition, the impoverished can get free healthcare from Medicaid, which half of all doctors in the States accept.
Finally, I think your impression that the American psyche is “every man for himself” isn’t accurate. Granted, people like that exist everywhere in the world. Yes, even in the Third World! But the doctors I know personally have successful practices, see many people for free, and spend much time offering their services in other countries for free as well.
Also, here’s an Open Letter on Health Care Reform from the Catholic Medical Association that’s worth our time reading:
http://www.catholic.org/politics/story.php?id=34474
It is true that when you go the emergency room, you cannot be denied treatment. But it’s not that simple. What if you get admitted to the hospital? What if you need surgery? What if you need follow up care? Most middle class Americans do not qualify for Medicaid or a sliding scale fee that most hospitals provide. Therefore they are billed directly. That is difficult when you are trying to make ends meet. Why aren’t the Republicans talking about this? I work in healthcare so they cannot pull the wool over my eyes.
Also, the insured pays for the UNINSURED when it comes to emergency treatment.
Maybe this will make doctors realize their profession is to save lives, not end them, because one thing I know about “Obamacare” is it will try to force doctors to practice abortion, which is dead wrong!