Thursday, April 29, 2010

Watkins: Massachusetts Law Would Turn Doctors Into Serfs

Don Watkins of the Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights writes about a proposed new law in Massachusetts that would compel doctors to accept patients covered by the state's "Affordable Health Plans" or else lose their medical licenses.

In other words, doctors would have to treat these patients and accept what the state determines is an "acceptable" payment or else lose their ability to practice in Massachusetts.

This is specifically designed to prevent doctors from "opting out" of the state-run insurance system. As Watkins notes, the "Massachusetts law would turn doctors into serfs".

Given that ObamaCare is closely modelled after the Massachusetts plan, expect to see Congress propose something similar at the national level once ObamaCare's failure becomes more apparent to doctors and patients. Massachusetts is again the canary in the coal mine for the rest of America.