It turns out that the biggest problem with Obamacare wasn't whether it would be paid for with penalties or taxes...but rather who Obamacare will pay once it's driven all the doctors out of business!
Or so it would seem based on a recent, nonpartisan study that revealed 83% of all doctors surveyed have considered leaving their practices because of Obamacare.
But what is it about Obama's hypocritical promises that make so many doctors want to desert their Hippocratic oaths?
For starters, Obamacare moves millions of Americans into the Medicaid program...and doctors already lose money on every Medicaid patient they see. What would your reaction be if Obama suddenly ordered you to not only give your services away for free...but pay for the privilege?
But wait, there's more! Obamacare adds mountains of new paperwork which will increase doctors' costs and reduce the amount of time they have to see patients. Moreover, new layers of bureaucracy will restrict the treatments a doctor is allowed to recommend for your care: your cardiologist may want you to have a pacemaker...but instead, you'll get cheap painkillers and a greatly reduced lifespan.
Obamacare also makes sure that trial lawyers (among the top donors to the Democrats) can continue to feed like vultures on doctors by filing frivolous lawsuits, further raising the costs of medical insurance (and medical bills to patients).
So in the end, you'd pretty much have to be crazy or a damn fool to want to be a doctor under Obamacare. Which is why, quite soon, the "government medical agent" you're authorized to see probably won't be a doctor...but may still be crazy or a damn fool. All they'll have to do is enter your information in a computer, and out will pop whatever "Death Panel"-approved treatment you can or can't get.
And best of all, it won't appear to cost you anything...because the government will have already taken everything.
Fortunately, highly-trained Medical Assistants with computers
will take the place of actual doctors.
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37 comments:
Dr. Jarlsberg:
I've added those two (02) illustrations to the slide show in my post, "PUBLIC LAW 111-148: 'PATIENT PROTECTION AND AFFORDABLE CARE ACT'", on my web site, "OUR ETERNAL STRUGGLE".
I will edit that post, providing a link to the "HOPE 'N' CHANGE" web site, in order to give you proper credit.
Here is the URL for that post:
http://writesong.blogspot.com/2012/07/public-law-111-148-patient-protection.html
Thank you.
John Robert Mallernee
Armed Forces Retirement Home
Gulfport, Mississippi 39507
I'm still not sure Turdboy will agree to debate Mitt Romney, but if he does it's certain this chilling statistic won't be brought up by whatever Obama fluffer is "moderating" the debate. Mitt needs to hammer this himself. He's already got the issue of the largest tax increase in human history with Obamacare. This point would be a very interesting "oh, by the way...".
To the physician, Øbamatax is the return of slavery enshrined in law. Think about it: Øbamatax already tells the physician how much s/he can make on their trade. Next, as doctors start becoming auto mechanics (you, of course, heard the one of the gynecologist rebuilding a carburetor? Through the tailpipe?), the Gummint will necessarily have to tell some physicians to move to other locales or close their practices. Eventually, as more and more choose the latter and move into other trades, you'll see the Gummint pass laws to prevent doctors from quitting. The ultimate irony is if, buried somewhere in the bazillion pages of the law that he had to pass in order to see what was in it, but, because of typical human reading speed, you'd need the lifespan of a quahog to get through it, there is a committee formed called the "Medical Unification Board"...
Eventually, physicians will be "Government Issue" from the "Physician Corps". Government trained, and stationed in various population centers to dole out Gummint-approved medical care with military precision. And side arms will become the newest tool in the arsenal of hospice care.
But, you can like your insurance, if you can keep it...
Wish me a happy 50th today. I'm now officially refusing to join AARP, and have placed one foot firmly on the wrong side of the Øbamatax Death Panel Dividing Line.
Happy B-Day, Emm, and yes, love that joke! Not that they've built a car w/ a carburetor since the mid 80's...
Googling 'alternative to aarp' brings up at least 3...
Actually, 'Gov't Issue' docs / medics staffing 'health centers' for those who can't / choose not to pay for better is a concept that does not bother me at all - so long as it's not the ONLY choice we have...
We have an orthopedic surgeon around here who has a great reputation and no shortage of customers. He has now hung it up and is building custom motorcycles.
Hospitals are already letting nurses go in droves and replacing them with CNA's. What next; lay off the CNA's and bring in homeless people to administer pain drugs?
And here I am... just turned 60 and suspect people my age will be the first to really experience the wonderful new and highly efficient government run hospice care.
Emmantaler,
Hannity advertises some retired peoples organization that is supposedly conservative, but I forget what it is. AARP finally stopped sending me their crap after about 5 years of me ignoring them. Happy birthday, and may we all live long enough to see this ass-wipe booted out of office along with that racist Holder!
America will be soon competing with England on how many doctors we can import from third world countries since it will not be economically feasible for doctors educated in the US to practice.
@Colby: Generation America. Another is AMAC, and I've been a member with them for a couple of years now, just so that they could count my number against AARP.
I did have the pleasure of sending the AARP invitation back to them, with their "of course you're going to accept this" preprinted AARP membership card with the note "Not on your life, you socialist sell-outs!". Doing so made my vindictive side feel better, anyway...
Happy B-Day, Mr. Limburger. You're officially an Old Fart!
When Canada started socialized health care, they had to later enact a law restricting doctors from leaving the country.
What Obamascare is gonna do is drive all of the good doctors out first, so all we'll be left with are quacks and those who figure out how to game the system.
My wife is an RN and worked in a Regional Medical Center who's population was conservatively 90% Medicare and Medicaid. The state mimicked Obamacare and reduced the payments the state made for services provided under Medicaid. The payments to the hospital and to the doctors was so low that one of the three doctors retired, the second went to a 'boutique' (cash membership) practice, and the third was too incompetent to be employed anywhere else. The 6 RN's on staff (RN's are required to dispense narcotics) had their shift hours reduced to the point of not earning enough for a living wage - those that quit were replaced with CNA's. It got to the point where so many shortcuts were instituted that my wife was in fear of losing her license and resigned (she wasn't replaced). It got to the point there were 2 RN's covering a 24/7 psych ward, and finally the hospital had to shut down the service and pawn the patients off to a county hospital 60 miles away (rural roads, no public transportation). She is now working for a major insurance carrier in claims as a patient advocate (making sure the DRG's shown by the MD's are correct so that the patient can receive the benefits due). She sees that the region that she covers, especially in the rural southern part of the US is losing doctors left and right, to the point that it is difficult to find doctor's to refer patients to - such is the future!
Flyboy - OLD 'Canadian Health Care' joke. Good News! Abortions are now free in Canada! Bad News - there's a 9 month waiting list...
It was quite an eye opener on 9/11 when the borders slammed shut and we learned that 1/3 of Detroit area medical workers were commuting from Canada - and all were 'stuck' on the side of the border they were on. Couldn't get home, couldn't come in on 9/12, weird scene.
Point being, they put up w/ a cross border commute (including up to 1/2 hr to cross the border, depending on traffic) because the pay and benefits of working HERE TOTALLY beat what they could get THERE...
Now it's OUR fun turn...
After I retired, I worked for a number of years in the Health Insurance Industry, so I am aware of the abuses on both sides of the policy. Some of the reforms in the Obamacare mess are good, but they are overshadowed by the bad. The reference is continually made about cost savings of being able to buy health insurance across state lines - you currently can purchase auto insurance on-line, across state lines, BUT the policy is still issued in your state of residence, conforming to the various mandates required by your state insurance board. Some companies have 'subsidiary' companies in the state of issuance just to separate the mandates out so that 'your' policy does not have to meet mandatory coverage requirements of other states. Case in point was New York, where AG Spitzer required the insurance companies to meet ridiculous policy coverage requirements - most insurance companies opted out of doing business in the state (last time I looked, there were only 3 companies providing health insurance coverage in the entire state). This is where HHS is heading, to make the coverage requirements so excessive, under a payment schedule that is way below the cost of providing, that the companies will raise their premiums, driving people to the 'Health Exchanges' out of necessity. The 'Health Exchanges' are another problem, how are they going to conform to the state's guidelines? Obvious, either they will ignore the state's rights to set their own insurance board's guidelines, citing federal pre-eminence, or they are going to go to the NY example, and subsidize the policies with tax-payer dollars.
Stilt - great point. Lost in all the furor over obamacare is our old friend the law of supply and demand. Increasing the demand (patients) while holding the supply (health care professionals) steady -- or even decreasing it -- is a prescription for higher prices and longer waits. That's what happens when people without a basic understanding of economics pass laws.
Throw in additional red tape and a bunch of ambulance chasers, and we're in deep fecal matter.
On the anecdotal side, like many of the other commentators I've seen local doctors refuse new medicaid patients, and in some cases refuse ALL insurance patients and switch to a cash basis.
One final note: Texas has passed a couple of laws that made the state more physician-friendly. Back in the 1990s prompt-pay legislation was enacted to ensure that insurance companies paid doctors promptly. In 2003 tort reform was passed, limiting malpractice damages, which resulted in lower malpractice insurance premiums for doctors. One effect of these two laws is that the number of doctors in Texas has increased at a higher rate than the general population. More supply = lower prices and faster service.
Basic economics...
No doctors no problems. The good news is we will have plenty more unionized government administrators making us wish our life was shorter and helping attain those wishes. See? It all will work out just FINE.
A letter to the editor in yesterday's WSJ. "As an attorney whose practice largely involved advising physicians, I sadly now advise young folks who ask me about a medical career: If you're smart enough to become a doctor, you should be smart enough not to become a doctor."
@John Robert Mallernee- Thank you for the shares. This is such an important issue...and far too few voters are aware of what's really at stake.
@Angry Hoosier Dad- Not only MUST Mitt Romney hammer away on stats like this, but he should also point to states like Hawaii which already suffer a critical shortage of doctors because Medicaid (in large part) has driven them out of business.
@Emmentaler- Happy 50th Birthday! According to the Government Bureau of Potential Usefulness to the State, you may yet have some tread on your tires!
The scenario you describe is a certainty; the government will "control" (enslave?) doctors to the point that they'll quit being doctors and go into the septic-tank cleaning business just to enjoy the fresher air. And what we WILL see are government functionaries like the one in my illustration who have no medical training, but do have access to the computer terminal which will be routed to Washington.
Note that Obamacare mandates that all of our medical records be computerized and turned over to Washington, for the sake of "efficiency and cost effectiveness." In reality, it allows a computer to make a quick assessment of your medical needs, your worth to The State, and the treatment which most closely matches that worth...including no treatment other than painkillers.
@Pete(Detroit)- I wouldn't mind "health centers" available for those who are currently cluttering the emergency rooms - but it's not going to happen. The government won't allow a two-tiered system because it would be "unfair" for anyone to get better care just because they're able to pay for it. Which is why it's so important to make sure that nobody will be able to pay for it.
@Colby- The examples you cite are easy to find. Ask a doctor - ANY doctor - and you'll get a laundry list of such stories.
And Colby, because of your age (which is darn close to mine) I think we'll be experiencing the odd transitional period as American medicine essentially falls apart. And it isn't going to be pretty.
Regarding AARP, I detest that loathesome organization, although I still get (but don't pay for) their wretched glossy magazine each month. I throw it away, but I like the idea that they're wasting money on me. The rat bastard thieves.
@Anonymous- It's already common to see a new doctor and discover his/her name looks like it was assembled from random Scrabble tiles. But I don't think it will be long until we're recalling wistfully the days when we saw any human doctor at all.
@Emmentaler- I don't currently belong to one of the conservative senior groups, but maybe I'll sign up just to bolster their numbers.
@Flyboy- I'm not sure what the government can do to compel service from doctors, but I'm sure they'll try to do something (and it will fail).
But in the end, Obama not only doesn't care if he drives doctors out of business, it's what he wants most. Because then the peons - oops, I mean voters - will insist the government do something to fill the gap. In other words, the best way to get people to accept substandard treatment from minimum-wage morons with computer terminals is to make the voters demand it when there is nothing else to turn to.
And as I've always said, the end result has nothing to do with medicine, and everything to do with wealth redistribution and absolute government control.
@SeaDog- Thanks for the detailed story. This should scare the living hell out of everyone - but the MSM isn't reporting the story.
@Pete(Detroit)- I hadn't heard the Canadian Abortion joke before - thanks for my first smile of the day! (I can update later if it turns out to be my only smile of the day).
I think it's safe to say that there won't long be any pay disparity between Canada and the United States (or Mexico and the United States) when it comes to healthcare workers. And neither will there be any difference in quality.
@SeaDog- I'm sure there are nuggets of goodness in Obamacare; after all, there's plenty about the healthcare and insurance industries which NEED reform. But the bulk of the law isn't about doing anything good. And as you suggest, the end game is to drive private insurance out of business.
Case in point: I believe Obamacare is telling insurance companies that they have to spend 85% of their premiums on actual medical care, leaving 15% for their own operating costs, salaries, etc. Any money left over from that 85% needs to be returned to the customers. But...what happens in the event of a catastrophic event in which a LOT of people need a LOT of expensive care? Well, the insurance companies will just have to spend the money they've been banking and...oh? What's that? They weren't allowed to put any money away for a rainy day? Well then, they go bankrupt and the government forces more people into the exchanges. It's all so simple. So evil.
@CenTexTim- The law of supply and demand does not give a fart in the wind about government mandates, and we're seeing the results. There will soon be much longer waits to see a doctor (or doctor substitute), which will send people flooding back into the emergency rooms - exacerbating the very situation Obamacare claimed to be fixing.
And as you point out TORT REFORM (ie, muzzling predatory malpractice lawyers) has worked extremely well in Texas, and could be the biggest gift to medical consumers in history if enacted nationally. But the trial lawyers own the Democrats, so it won't happen until true conservatives get a supermajority in Washington.
@REM1875- The longer I watch what this government is doing to our country, the better Edward G. Robinson's final IMAX experience in "Soylent Green" looks...
@Earl- Soon "the best and brightest" will look to any career other than medicine. In the near future, I predict there will be the same prestige (and rigorous schooling) attached to a medical degree and a degree in "Phys Ed." In fact, the two may be indistiguishable.
This "healthcare' plan is just turning WalMart workers into 'script pushers with all the medical knowledge of what the Rx ads on t.v. impart. I would love to be a doctor in this day and age. I would go rogue and make actual house calls, paperwork be damned!
Red said "...I would go rogue and make actual house calls". The 'Medical Boutique' business plan is where you pay a 'member fee' (cash/credit/debit - no insurance - if you have insurance, you have to file your own paperwork) and you are guaranteed ON TIME office visits, priority handling of unscheduled visits, and home visits as necessary. God...what a concept!
Emm said "...of course you're going to accept this preprinted AARP membership card with the note "Not on your life, you socialist sell-outs!". Doing so made my vindictive side feel better, anyway..."
I started filling a ziploc bag full of sand with a note "Pound This", putting it in a spare envelope, taping the return postage paid envelope to it and mailing it back to them - after five years, they finally got the hint.
Christmas morning every time H&C updates. "cinnamints" cartoon hilarious and only eclipsed by it's incredibly accuracy. THAT scenario WILL happen.
SeaDog,
I love your use of those prepaid envelopes! I have been entirely missing the opportunity and thought I was being really clever just sending them back empty. And this made me think of many "sand substitutes" I could be sending, too.
@everybody,
Totally unrelated subject, but have to share...
It has been revealed that Debbie Blabbermouth-Stuntz ALSO had money in offshore accounts AND!... also refuses to release more than one year's tax returns. She must have taken a different kind of Hypocratic oath. What a piece of dog crap she is! I wouldn't piss on her if she caught fire.
No matter what Barack Hussein says, we all KNOW that there will be unequal care for the wealthy and connected Friends Of Obama. The Demo_Rats will never willingly let that info out, of course...
@Red- Ironically, Obamacare is trying to make actual doctors who WANT to treat patients into the equivalent of the back-alley "doctors" with coathangers who used to do abortions.
@SeaDog- I recently got a prepaid envelope from Obama's reelection campaign, and was impressed how much trash I was able to wedge inside before mailing it back at their expense.
@mlester101- Glad you enjoyed the cartoon du jour!
@Colby- Interesting about ol' Debbie, ain't it? And Nancy Pelosi just made about $5 million investing in Asia. And I'd be delighted piss on either of them unless they were on fire.
@JustaJeepGuy- That information is ALREADY out and no one seems to care. Obama has issued WAIVERS to every political crony group. But when Kathleen Sibelius was questioned about those waivers, she claimed to know nothing about them. And the MSM just lets this torrent of BS go unchallenged.
Romney MUST hammer Obama on all his sins...the presidential debate would be the perfect time; it will be the first time many many people even hear of what the current adminstration has in store and the ramifications of his policies! But he needs to start NOW so it becomes second nature to refute everything obama says with facts, figures and make sure we don't repeat tragic mistakes of the past!
Ever see the hospital scene from Idiocracy? It's our future.
Over half of doctors employed by Britain's NHS are foreign-born. Why is this? It's not like Britain is a educational backwater and lacks the infrastructure to produce them. It's because few native Brits see becoming a doctor as a worthwhile endevour anymore.
Stilton, you are a gem.
Angry, I agree with you; I'll be surprised if our child president actually debates Romney.
@Sarah Rolph, notice that he's dispatched Biden to address the NAACP, as friendly an audience as you'd think he'd be able to find.
A side note: The NAACP is vehemently opposed to "Voter ID" laws, arguing that they exclusionary and are really a "poll tax".
What do you think you have to show in order to get into the NAACP convention?
@PRY- Romney has access to plenty of rhetorical nails if he's willing to wield the hammer. Per the top story on DrudgeReport at the moment, Romney's campaign is now running a powerful ad calling Obama a liar. That's a good start.
@John the Econ- I'd like to see Idiocracy's hospital scene edited into a campaign commercial because I'm sure it's exactly what's coming. I particularly liked the idiot admittance staffer looking at "picture keys" with simplified body parts to enter information about the victim. And of course, the classic line regarding the diagnostic probes after they fail to produce results: "Oh wait. This one goes in your mouth, and this one goes in your butt."
@Sarah Rolph- I'm not often called a gem. I think I like it! Regarding debates, I can't wait to see them. Obama is a slick orator, but facts are troublesome things. Of course, you can bet that the media will be doing everything possible to stage any debates in a way favorable to the president.
@John the Econ- Obama sent Joe Biden to the NAACP saying his own schedule wouldn't allow it. But now Obama's daily schedule has been published and - oops! - he doesn't have anything going on except his regular morning briefing. I guess he felt that there was no need to waste his time talking to a group he already believes he owns.
And Holder's speech to the NAACP claiming that voter ID is the new "poll tax" was unbelievable - even for that racist lowlife.
From what I heard, when Mitt addressed the NAACP yesterday, he only got booed when he panned Obamacare. He got much applause for saying that if someone expects someone's votes, he should at least show up and ask for them. Or something like that, but of course the press couldn't possibly show Mitt getting applause from Barack Hussein's presumed voters. That would reflect badly on Duh Won, wouldn't it?
@JustaJeepGuy- Romney got plenty of applause for various talking points, but the way the MSM is replaying the one time he got booed (for saying Obamacare had to be replaced with something which wouldn't kill jobs and raise costs), you'd think he was tarred and feathered.
Meanwhile, Obama sent a taped message to the NAACP saying "I stand on your shoulders." Not quite, Barry - you just have your boot on their throats.
Since the Great Society, Democrats have assumed they owned "Black America", and to a large degree they did. But since the end of the Reagan era with the emergence of the black middle class, that reality has been eroding. And each year, the NAACP has been becoming less and less relevant. Better educated and affluent middle class blacks are getting just as screwed by the Obama depression as the white middle class is.
The reality is that relatively few people need what these identity groups are selling anymore. They need a vibrant economy, which definitely is not what they offer.
A SOCIALIST TRUTH...
■The role of government is to protect all its citizens from everything—except government.
Of course we already have the public schools in place, giving out breakfast, lunch, and dinner, (and free diapers in daycare) when all the kids end up orphans.
Of course keeping taxpayers around might become a problem....
@John the Econ- I hope that a Romney Presidency can revitalize the economy and force all identity groups to notice that they're doing better. It's way past time for the Democrats to lose their stranglehold on black voters.
@PRY- Can we get an amen?
@Suzy- I read a release from the Obama administration today claiming that every $5 people spend in food stamps turns into $10 of economic activity in the community. According to that logic, no taxpayers are needed - just keep giving people Obamamoney to spend, and let it magically multiply. Skim a little off the top and give it away to grow again. Perpetual financial growth.
By the way, the same release said that food stamp money is so beneficial for local economies that people should apply for food stamps even if they don't think they need the benefits. Statements like that just leave me slack-jawed.
I don't understand why everything on this site is so racist.
@Anonymous- There is no racism on this site, therefore any perceived racism is in your heart. And when it comes to things you "don't understand," I'm sure the Internet isn't big enough to list them all.
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