Who Will Provide My Health Care?

[American_Jihad]

Who Will Provide My Health Care?

6/12/12 By Deane Waldman



Whom do you want to operate on your heart: a doctor or a bureaucrat? This scenario is neither a joke nor an exaggeration. Two trends happening right now make it likely that the person who will provide your health care will have a BA or MBA after his name rather than "MD" or "RN."

Trend 1: Losing doctors

Doctors are increasingly refusing to see government-insured -- viz., Medicare -- patients, or leaving medicine altogether. With our government attacking our doctors, why should they keep seeing government-insured patients? And the word "attack" is truth, not hype.

Imagine you are a doctor. You help a sick patient and bill for your services. The government pays whatever it wants -- a small fraction of your bill. Worse, it continually reduces these payments, now below your cost to stay in business. The ACA (Patient Protection and Affordable [hah!] Health Care Act, or ObamaCare) spends over $1 trillion on bureaucrats, taking it from doctors, and thereby reducing patient care.



While prior surveys have shown similar trends, a recent poll of U.S. doctors gives a new and louder clarion call: doctors are becoming an endangered species. When you view the survey results below, keep in mind what President Obama promised the American people when he pushed through the ACA. "If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor."

o ACA provisions and other regulatory controls make 83% of doctors consider quitting medicine.

o 61% say that government rules are making it impossible to follow the Hippocratic Oath.

o 65% of physicians think that the #1 reason for the deterioration in the quality of health care in the U.S. is "government involvement."

o A spectacular 85% think government regulations impair the doctor-patient relationship.

o "How will you respond to lower payments from Medicaid or Medicare?"

- Stop seeing new Medicaid patients: 49%

- Stop seeing new Medicare patients: 42%

- Stop seeing patients entirely or retire: 33%

Still think I was exaggerating about there being no doctors? Lest you think this is all about money or prestige, ask yourself: who makes decisions about my health care?

Trend 2: Increasing government control of health care

The doctor is held responsible for a patient's outcome. Is the doctor in control of that outcome? The answer is a resounding No!



Read more: Articles: Who Will Provide My Health Care?


Democrat Healthcare plan = Cluster-Fuck

 

[tererun]

Yes, I have always argued that people at an insurance company who have never examined me or even know medicine should not be involved in my medical decisions, but the insurance companies feel otherwise. You are arguing for the insurance companies to be the bureaucrats in charge of your medical care.

 

[Greenbeard]

Imagine you are a doctor. You help a sick patient and bill for your services. The government pays whatever it wants -- a small fraction of your bill. Worse, it continually reduces these payments, now below your cost to stay in business. The ACA (Patient Protection and Affordable [hah!] Health Care Act, or ObamaCare) spends over $1 trillion on bureaucrats, taking it from doctors, and thereby reducing patient care.

This article's a bit muddled. Are you talking about doctors or hospitals? Physician reimbursement under Medicare isn't touched by the ACA. That's still governed by a disaster of a law, Gingrich's 1997 Balanced Budget Act.

The doctor is held responsible for a patient's outcome. Is the doctor in control of that outcome? The answer is a resounding No!

You can cut right through the bullshit, here's your core issue. I'm sure many doctors are somewhat worried. Many of them--not all--dislike quality measures (particularly those that are available for public inspection), they dislike patient experience surveys, they don't like the idea of smoothing out unexplained variations in care, and they certainly don't like the idea of linking their pay to the quality of the care they deliver. I'm overgeneralizing--I have particularly great hope for younger doctors.

I'm sure many current docs love an opaque market where they get paid simply for doing things, independent of results (if you think a physician's treatment regimen has no effect on patient outcomes I'm not sure why you'd want to pay physicians at all). But the trend now is toward accountability and there will no doubt be a great deal of breath-holding and foot-stomping for a bit, as this article demonstrates. It'll be an adjustment for some folks. Being held accountable for the quality of your product or the quality of your work always is.

 

[Political Junky]

Cons just love paying more for their healthcare than anyone else in the world. Why do middle class cons support private insurance? We know why congress does ... money.

 

[onecut39]

Who Will Provide My Health Care?

6/12/12 By Deane Waldman



Whom do you want to operate on your heart: a doctor or a bureaucrat? This scenario is neither a joke nor an exaggeration. Two trends happening right now make it likely that the person who will provide your health care will have a BA or MBA after his name rather than "MD" or "RN."

Trend 1: Losing doctors

Doctors are increasingly refusing to see government-insured -- viz., Medicare -- patients, or leaving medicine altogether. With our government attacking our doctors, why should they keep seeing government-insured patients? And the word "attack" is truth, not hype.

Imagine you are a doctor. You help a sick patient and bill for your services. The government pays whatever it wants -- a small fraction of your bill. Worse, it continually reduces these payments, now below your cost to stay in business. The ACA (Patient Protection and Affordable [hah!] Health Care Act, or ObamaCare) spends over $1 trillion on bureaucrats, taking it from doctors, and thereby reducing patient care.



While prior surveys have shown similar trends, a recent poll of U.S. doctors gives a new and louder clarion call: doctors are becoming an endangered species. When you view the survey results below, keep in mind what President Obama promised the American people when he pushed through the ACA. "If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor."

o ACA provisions and other regulatory controls make 83% of doctors consider quitting medicine.

o 61% say that government rules are making it impossible to follow the Hippocratic Oath.

o 65% of physicians think that the #1 reason for the deterioration in the quality of health care in the U.S. is "government involvement."

o A spectacular 85% think government regulations impair the doctor-patient relationship.

o "How will you respond to lower payments from Medicaid or Medicare?"

- Stop seeing new Medicaid patients: 49%

- Stop seeing new Medicare patients: 42%

- Stop seeing patients entirely or retire: 33%

Still think I was exaggerating about there being no doctors? Lest you think this is all about money or prestige, ask yourself: who makes decisions about my health care?

Trend 2: Increasing government control of health care

The doctor is held responsible for a patient's outcome. Is the doctor in control of that outcome? The answer is a resounding No!



Read more: Articles: Who Will Provide My Health Care?


Democrat Healthcare plan = Cluster-Fuck

What survey? By whom?