Report: 83 percent of doctors have considered quitting over Obamacare

[Dave]

One way or another the Affordable Care Act is going to screw over a lot of decent people.. be it patients or doctors.. and maybe both. The health care system does need to be fixed but Obamacare wasn't the way to do it.

Eighty-three percent of American physicians have considered leaving their practices over President Barack Obama’s health care reform law, according to a survey released by the Doctor Patient Medical Association.

The DPMA, a non-partisan association of doctors and patients, surveyed a random selection of 699 doctors nationwide. The survey found that the majority have thought about bailing out of their careers over the legislation, which was upheld last month by the Supreme Court.

Even if doctors do not quit their jobs over the ruling, America will face a shortage of at least 90,000 doctors by 2020. The new health care law increases demand for physicians by expanding insurance coverage. This change will exacerbate the current shortage as more Americans live past 65.

By 2025 the shortage will balloon to over 130,000, Len Marquez, the director of government relations at the American Association of Medical Colleges, told The Daily Caller.

“One of our primary concerns is that you’ve got an aging physician workforce and you have these new beneficiaries — these newly insured people — coming through the system,” he said. “There will be strains and there will be physician shortages.”

The DPMA found that many doctors do not believe the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will lead to better access to medical care for the majority of Americans, co-founder of the DPMA Kathryn Serkes told TheDC.

“Doctors clearly understand what Washington does not — that a piece of paper that says you are ‘covered’ by insurance or ‘enrolled’ in Medicare or Medicaid does not translate to actual medical care when doctors can’t afford to see patients at the lowball payments, and patients have to jump through government and insurance company bureaucratic hoops,” she said. (SEE ALSO: Jeremiah Wright: ‘White racist alien DNA’ running through synapses of Obama’s brain )

The American Medical Association, which endorsed Obama’s health care overhaul, was not able to immediately offer comment on the survey. Spokesperson Heather Lasher Todd said it would take time to review the information in the survey.

Janelle Davis of the American Academy of Family Physicians said the AAFP could not provide thoughtful commentary without studying the survey’s findings and methodology.

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/07/09/report-83-percent-of-doctors-have...

[Willy]

My doctor is threatening to discontinue taking medicare patients [grandma isn't going to like that] because he actually takes a loss on some of the services he provides because as it stands now medicare will not fully pay for them and he assumes Obamacare will do the same or worse. If we don't elect a President, Senate and House that will squash Obama care I'm afraid were in for a long haul and it may never be repealed once it is fully implemented and has its tentacles firmly grasped around Americas throat, treasury and tax payers.

[XLFD]

So after eight plus years of difficult and expensive college work and years of interning for long hours at low rates of remuneration, we now expect the new doctors to work even longer hours and take orders from the national government like a common foot soldier.  And then get reimbursed like a common foot soldier as well, when you consider your expenses and insurances?

There's not a lot of young people that will see that as incentive to become a doctor in our times.  I know a young one that has chosen a different path because of Obamacare, or its eventual replacement. 

 

[Guidothesemipsuedocaptitalistpig]

     What troubles me.. is for the most part, the liberal leaning media is completely ignoring this part of the Obama Care story. Yet pounding more conservative candidates with completely over the top statements like They want to through grandma and grandpa under the bus , " Die quickly" or other horrendous and unsupported allegations.

      Even the Governments own fact finders have said the U.S. would need at least 30,000 new doctors to make " The affordable care act possible and yet as you pointed out previously ,not only does not reward those who choose the medical arts profession, but disincentivizes  the profession turning into more or less a utility run by the government.

     It is true doctors have for a decade or so " threatened to discontinue seeing Medicare/ Medicaid patients. Medicare in many cases does not pay 50% of the cost of covered services and is probably solely responsible for the rising cost of fees and therefor insurance for those of us who have good insurance . I don't buy for one minute as the liberals push, that it is solely those who are uninsured going to the hospitals that dramatically raise the rate for all of us.

XL I like your foot soldier analogy. If OB care would be fully realized the medical community would go from being highly skilled medical arts professionals skilled technicians less worried about a case by case personal medical treatment but " If I do this? do I get reimbursed for my time? " I don't want my doctor to become this.

     I have to believe that doctors are not being as vocal on this as they should be because one of their trade organizations seems to like photo ops with the head (Guido) so to speak. But you only need to ask your own doctor up front to see how this really breaks down.

[masonco]

Yes it is true that doctors, hospitals, nursing homes, foster care homes only get like pennies for every $10 of costs. People who work in medical fields are seeing their pay reduced to cover patient care expenses. Docs can not cut other overhead nor can they cut the very expensive malpractice insurance costs that seem to plague Michigan (the only state I know of in USA with such high malpractice insurance) I heard some docs pay as much as $15k a month for insurance if they deliver babies or do surgery. At least that is what my step niece in law had to pay 8 years ago when she tried to go into private practice as an OB/GYN. She went with a hospital based medical practice group.

Look to our dear Canadian friends for a sample of what we are in for. Now a friend has a child who broke her ankle 3 weeks ago. She can not get into the specialist for another 3 weeks. Healing time for bones is....

Already they are refusing to do surgery for elderly over 85 if they fracture a hip because of "risks" and age factors. DUH. I saw 30 year old people who are greater risks and more a drain on society.

Some meds are unavailable already or rationed for elderly. The primary meds suddenly available are morphine along with end of life "counseling". The greatest beneficiary from this bill are the abortion clinics and Hospice.