Friday, November 9, 2012

Smith: Will My Doctor Still Care if I Point a Gun at Him?

Dr. G. Keith Smith asks a very relevant question: "Will My Doctor Still Care if I Point a Gun at Him?"

Here's an extended excerpt:
About two weeks after I quit [taking Medicare], an angry cardiac surgeon, inconvenienced by my departure from the group of available cardiac anesthesiologists and with his finger in my face, told me that he was going to see to it that I was forced to do these anesthetics, so as not to disrupt his schedule.  I guess he thought he had a "right" to my services.

It didn't help things that I laughed.  I said,  "Dr. X, I’ll be happy to visit with the family before their loved one's elective surgery and inform them that I want no part of this and that I don't really want to be here, but someone is making me do this.  Maybe you all would like to wait on an anesthesiologist who wants to be part of this, because I certainly don't."

This cardiac surgeon suddenly understood.  Now imagine this on a large scale.  Angry mobs of folks waiving their Obamacare "insurance" cards in the street demanding their free health care outside a closed and vacant doctor’s office.  This supposed "right" to health care, cannot undo human nature and the delicate and myriad market forces at work to ensure that all parties in a transaction are willing participants. 

If government points its guns at the doctors to make them participate, I maintain that the "healthcare" that is delivered under these conditions will be a different variety than the mobs expected.  In fact, it won't be healthcare at all.  I don't know what it will be, but it won't be healthcare...
(Read the full text of "Will My Doctor Still Care if I Point a Gun at Him?")

Fortunately, some patients and doctors can still "opt out" of the current system through various "direct pay" or "concierge" practices which respect free-market principles and allow physicians to practice according to their best judgment for their patients' best interests without government interference. 

I don't know how long these options will remain legal.  But prudent patients may wish to look into these possibilities before it's too late.

As Dr. Smith notes: "Staying as far away as you possibly can from a 'coerced' doctor’s office may be the most self-preserving move you can make in the near future."