How ObamaCare Will Affect Your Doctor
By Paul Hsieh, MD @ 12:05 AM   
The May 12, 2009 Wall Street Journal warns that the current push towards government-run health care will squeeze patients and physicians alike, with massive unintended consequences. Here are a few excerpts:How ObamaCare Will Affect Your Doctor
...Physician income declines will be accompanied by regulations that will make practicing medicine more costly, creating a double whammy of lower revenue and higher practice costs, especially for primary-care doctors who generally operate busy practices and work on thinner margins. For example, doctors will face expenses to deploy pricey electronic prescribing tools and computerized health records that are mandated under the Obama plan. For most doctors these capital costs won't be fully covered by the subsidies provided by the plan.
...Right or wrong, more doctors will close their practices to new patients, especially patients carrying lower paying insurance such as Medicaid. Some doctors will opt out of the system entirely, going "cash only." If too many doctors take this route the government could step in -- as in Canada, for example -- to effectively outlaw private-only medical practice. Read the whole thing.
The end result will be a total government takeover of medicine.
If you want the US health care system to look like the Department of Motor Vehicles, you won't have to wait long.Labels: OpEd
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