ObamaCare: Flight of the MDs

ObamaCare: Flight of the MDs

Marc K. Siegel
New York Post
December 10, 2010

For all the times that President Obama promised "you'll get to keep your doctor" under his health-care reforms, he apparently failed to ask any practicing doctors.

A recent survey finds that countless MDs will respond to ObamaCare by limiting which patients they'll see.

The Physicians Foundation asked 2,400 doctors and American Medical Association members what they thought of the new law; a full 67 percent were against it.

More important, it asked how they'd cope with the new rules (which don't fully kick in until 2014). Sixty percent said they feel compelled to "close or significantly restrict their practices to certain categories of patients." And 59 percent said the "reform" would oblige them to spend less time with the patients they do have.

Of course, many doctors already limit how many patients they'll take on who depend on government insurance (whose fees rarely cover an MD's costs). But it'll get worse under ObamaCare: In the survey, some 87 percent said they would significantly restrict Medicare patients and 93 percent said they'd significantly restrict Medicaid patients.

How can the government claim its health programs are popular when folks who would actually deliver care are running away? I'm not worried about physicians (we'll find ways to survive), but about our patients.

All in all, the survey found that 74 percent of doctors will alter how they practice.

To stay in business under ObamaCare, doctors will have to adjust. Some will see fewer patients themselves and hire nurse practitioners to help carry the load; others will work part-time and supplement their income elsewhere. Many will join groups or become salaried employees of hospitals or clinics.

I practice medicine alone, something ObamaCare intentionally makes more difficult. Physicians like me are going to become harder and harder to find, at least, ones who'll take your insurance. Many MDs will join the growing group of "boutique" doctors who'll only see patients who pay cash up front.

That trend is no solution. Because it lacks even the oversight of insurers, this group includes many charlatans and hucksters who promote questionable treatments. Yes, it'll also have plenty of solid physicians as ObamaCare hits home -- but that's just creating a two-tier system of health care, with good care for those who can afford it and second-rate care by overstressed MDs for the rest of America.

The sad thing is we do need genuine health reform. The survey also found 69 percent of doctors saying they already lack the time or resources to see new patients.

The politicians who supported the health-reform law suggested that you have a talk with your doctor about how aggressively you'd like to be treated if you become deathly ill. Here's another question: Ask your doctor if he or she will still be around when that unfortunate time comes.

Go ahead... check my post history. Have I not been saying this for some time now?

Obamacare is going to devastate the health care system. We need true reforms of health insurance and health care. These would be the private sector reforms I have been advocating for some years now.

It's funny how doctors (such as this author of the article) have been saying this for months. They would know better than any politicians on how this HC law will affect the country. They deal with all the regulations we have at current.

TexasBlue wrote:It's funny how doctors (such as this author of the article) have been saying this for months. They would know better than any politicians on how this HC law will affect the country. They deal with all the regulations we have at current.

And those regulations are a BIG part of why our health care costs are so high! Medical and insurance regulations are so massive and so complex that they gave birth to an entire industry that does nothing but doing the mountain of paperwork compliance to these laws and regulations require for doctors and hospitals. Health care providers have long ago lost the ability to keep up with the burgeoning law and regulatory environment and have farmed it out to these companies that handle this nightmare for them. And people wonder why going to a doctor costs so much. Now, add in federal and state mandates on health insurance providers that force insurers to offer products that are not being demanded by the free market, throw in the fact that competition is being constrained by not allowing insurers to offer policies across state lines, and you find another reason health care and health insurance is so expensive. Top that off with laws that do nothing to discourage frivolous law suits against health care providers, and in some cases actually rewards such destructive behavior, and the resultant skyrocketing costs for malpractice insurance, not to mention forcing the practice of defensive medicine by health care providers causing them to order all sorts of expensive tests so they can cover their asses in case they are sued, and is it little wonder our health care system is in the shape it is?

And ALL of these problems could be easily fixed with private sector solutions. It's called get the government OUT of the health care business; dramatically scale back needless and onerous laws and regulations; get the government out of the business of telling insurers what products they may or may not offer; let insurers sell their products nationwide to increase competition; set caps on malpractice insurance claims and institute loser-pays; allow consumers to set up tax-free HSA accounts and set a high limit on yearly contributions to these accounts (at least $10K/yr), and watch the prices plummet and availability skyrocket.

Of course none of these solutions gives more power to the federal government, which is the ONLY reason they have not been implemented.

I have a friend who's an X-Ray technician. She told me that the fastest way to lower health care costs in this country is to outlaw health insurance. She said that you'd see a drop of about 60 to 70 percent in the cost of HC.

Btw, her hubby is a retired Colonel (Air Force) who was a surgeon at Walter Reed. They live in Virginia.

TexasBlue wrote:I have a friend who's an X-Ray technician. She told me that the fastest way to lower health care costs in this country is to outlaw heath insurance. She said that you'd see a drop of about 60 to 70 percent in the cost of HC.

Btw, her hubby is a retired Colonel (Air Force) who was a surgeon at Walter Reed. They live in Virginia.

And she would not be wrong on that. But it would not be realistic to completely eliminate all health insurance. There are some conditions requiring treatments that, even at 60-70 off the current cost, would still be far more an average citizen could afford.

But, if we just implemented HSA's as I recommended above, and allowed for high-deductible insurance only for catastrophic illnesses or accidents, we could greatly reduce consumer usage of insurance for every little sniffle and office visit. It is this usage that your friend is likely referring to. There is no question that health insurance is WAY overused and is, itself, partially responsible for increasing health care costs. But I think the right HSA program, in conjunction with limited insurance for the massive things, would help dramatically lower costs overall.

HSA's were suggested by Repubs during the debate earlier this year.... and, of course, ignored (shot down). Why any sane person would not want to entertain the possibility of HSA's is beyond me.

TexasBlue wrote:HSA's were suggested by Repubs during the debate earlier this year.... and, of course, ignored (shot down). Why any sane person would not want to entertain the possibility of HSA's is beyond me.

HSA's return the power of choice to consumers. The federal government is NOT a fan of surrendering power. A good HSA program would be the greatest thing we could do to reduce needless consumption of health care services as well as lowering health care costs.

Obviously, Obama and the Democrats were NOT interested in lowering costs or consumption, or they would have never passed that abomination we call Obamacare.