Two-thirds of U.S. doctors oppose proposed health care plan

[barryr]

Why doctors hate BamCare

By MARC K. SIEGEL

Last Updated: 4:11 AM, September 23, 2009

Posted: 2:05 AM, September 23, 2009

TWO-thirds of doctors "oppose the proposed health-care plan," reports an Investors Busi ness Daily/TIPP poll. Almost half would "consider leaving their practice or taking an early retirement" if "Congress passes its health-care plan." Many of my colleagues feel like we're already struggling -- nor are we prepared to take care of tens of millions more patients.

An Association of American Medical Colleges survey predicts a doctor shortage of 150,000 (at current rates of population growth) by 2025 if universal health insurance is adopted. The doctors we do have would be overwhelmed with far more patients than we could realistically take care of. We'd have to work under huge time pressures, and the service we could deliver would decline.

Those who didn't quit would have to learn to "game" the new system by seeing more patients, doing more procedures, providing less care per patient and becoming less accessible for health-choice discussions.

Is this what President Obama has in mind when he promises that everyone will get to keep his or her doctor?

All the current health-care bills are unfair to doctors. Even Sen. Max Baucus' "moderate" bill (like the other bills) includes cuts to Medicare and Medicaid that would directly affect hospitals and doctors: How far does Congress think it can cut our reimbursements before compromising care, if not driving us out of business?

More than half the nation's doctors now don't accept Medicaid, a 2005 Community Tracking Physician survey found. The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission reported this year that 28 percent of Medicare patients looking for a primary-care doctor had trouble finding one. This scarcity will only get worse if reimbursements are cut further and more doctors opt out.

For those who stay in, it will be harder to practice the more services are cut. Baucus even proposes doing away with Medicare payments for motorized wheelchairs. How am I going to help my paralyzed patients then?
Nor are Baucus' "co-ops" much improvement over the "public option" of the House bills. Consider the existing paradigm of a health co-op: Group Health, the Seattle outfit with half-a-million patients. It's known as "Group Death" by many patients and doctors, for its low-quality care and long waits.
Nor do any of the bills provide anything to address the issues that infuriate doctors about the current system: No tort reform or any other real effort to address outrageous rates for malpractice insurance. (Many surgeons and obstetricians pay more than $100,000 per year.) No mechanism to screen out nuisance lawsuits before they can be brought; no penalties for frivilous suits, even though doctors end up winning the vast majority of cases that go to trial.

The American Trial Lawyers Association -- big donors to the Democrats -- have vetoed any such relief.

In short, doctors fear "health reform" because it's not really about health care; it's about catering to the prejudices of the politicians and the lawyers who've already made such a mess of our health-care system.

Marc K. Siegel, a practicing internist, teaches medicine at NYU and is a Fox News contributor.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/why_doctors_hate_bamcare_hET2mqjuIULUeGAisyo07I

[Bronx33]

I wonder who the first person will be to try and discredit the news source :spit:

[barryr]

Anybody who gets their "news" from huffington, dailykos, or some other liberal outlet that just reports on news they like. Since they won't like this one, then discredit the source is the common tactic. But thankfully the media they recite is so objective.

[atomicbloke]

Anybody who gets their "news" from huffington, dailykos, or some other liberal outlet that just reports on news they like. Since they won't like this one, then discredit the source is the common tactic. But thankfully the media they recite is so objective.

Well thankfully, unlike these "liberal" media outlets, the Investor Business Daily is a very un-biased media outlet.

[peacepipe]

Well considering Robert Murdochs track record The differance between the NYpost & the national inquire is almost non existant. It's sport section is the only reason it is still in bussiness.

[Smiling Assassin27]

So doctors don't want it, but pharmaceutical companies are clamoring for it. Wonder why? Obama made a deal to line the pockets of Big Pharma but only promised doctors to double their workload and give 'em a paycut. But Obama seems to be reneging on that deal, so stay tuned. The question becomes, will those ads make any difference in the minds of we who oppose this plan? I've been told by Democrats that doctors, health care coverage providers, and pharmaceutical companies are responsible for the mess we're in and that they cannot be trusted at all. So I see a commercial paid for by Big Pharma telling me that I can trust this program--do I:

A. Bow down to my TV, ecstatic over the wonderful news that I can now trust government with a policy change of this magnitude?

B. Call my broker and have him buy share after share in Pfizer, Lilly, et al?

C. Look at the following video, realize the White House is run by whores, thieves, and liars, and then call my Congressional representatives and tell them that voting for these current bills will be political suicide...THEN buy Big Pharma stock...

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/DJa_kTXad1Q&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/DJa_kTXad1Q&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

[Rigs11]

wow shocking news. i never knew that the doctors were the ones going bankrupt due to lack of healthcare.fascinating.Ha!

[Smiling Assassin27]

wow shocking news. i never knew that the doctors were the ones going bankrupt due to lack of healthcare.fascinating.Ha!

Well, they certainly deserve it, considering they perform amputations purely to make more money, and rip tonsils out of little kids just so they can buy that Range Rover they've always wanted. Hell, one doctor broke into my house, spayed my pit bull and left a bill on my refrigerator. Bastards.

[Beantown Bronco]

My doctor was a little overwhelmed at first when Massachusetts first passed their version of mandatory health care, but it's worked itself out. These types of problems in this specific article are greatly exaggerated.

Are there potential problems with the plan? Sure. But these aren't them IMO and unlike most here, I'm seeing how it works first hand.

[Rigs11]

Well, they certainly deserve it, considering they perform amputations purely to make more money, and rip tonsils out of little kids just so they can buy that Range Rover they've always wanted. Hell, one doctor broke into my house, spayed my pit bull and left a bill on my refrigerator. Bastards.

ahh the rightard mentality... always looking out for the ones who need it the least.

[barryr]

Ah, the lefty idiot mentality, screw it up for everybody to satisfy the small minority.

[rastaman]

I wonder who the first person will be to try and discredit the news source :spit:

Ummmmmmm....anybody know how many doctors make up 2/3!:rofl:

[rastaman]

Well, they certainly deserve it, considering they perform amputations purely to make more money, and rip tonsils out of little kids just so they can buy that Range Rover they've always wanted. Hell, one doctor broke into my house, spayed my pit bull and left a bill on my refrigerator. Bastards.

You're you dog wasn't stolen and bbq'd and eaten for the sake of charity.:thumbsup:

[cutthemdown]

I went to my doctor today. He has a great practice. MRI/Xray/Blood Lab on site.

He runs around so fast helping people and works so hard he deserves to make what he makes right now. No less. If any deal is made that somehow makes him not make the money he makes I don't see how it would be worth it.

I agree hospitals should not get to charge 100 bucks for a bedsheet and some of the stupid things I have heard. 10 bucks for an aspirin etc etc.

But I do believe that healthcare workers, and doctors, are not overpaid. If anything union people making 50 bucks an hour and sitting on there ass half the time is a bigger problem.

Don't even come at me with it ain't how it is. 2 of the guys in my band are union guys. They tell me all sorts of stories about laziness and waste.

Doctors, surgeons, these should be are highest paid people in the whole country. Nothing takes more school then being a doctor.

Next Lawyers also deserve a lot because of the work they put in.

Some sluff who graduated HS doesn't deserve 40-50 bucks an hour just because he is in a union.

There is a reason the govt doesn't allow certain industries to strike. It's because we need them too much. Don't go screwing doctors by thinking they need to make less money.

I could go along with a huge tax for any cosmetic surgery that isn't for reconstruction. You know a vanity tax.

[cutthemdown]

I'm not saying we don't have bad doctors, but lets use oversight and regulation to end there days as practicing physicians.

Also I would totally go along with regulations that help find doctors that do procedures that patients don't need.

Maybe something were like if a panel reviews a procedure and they deem that it was unneccesary, they don't get paid from insurance company and also get a fine.

Put some respected physicians on it.

Things to root out waste and corruption I am all for.

But something that takes from doctors and nurses, and leaves the corruption, I am not for.

[rastaman]

Ah, the lefty idiot mentality, screw it up for everybody to satisfy the small minority.

Ah, the Conservatard-extremiest right-winger mentality of "I've Got Mine--Screw Everyone Else" proves theirs nothing United about their ideology and narrow uninclusive selfish outlook towards their fellow Americans. Yet these folks believe they live in the "United States of America"....boy the irony.

There is nothing united about conservatives and their ideologly w/in th context of "We The People".....unless of course you're a conservative.

If you ain't conservative....."SCREW YOU"! Hilarious!

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

ahh the rightard mentality... always looking out for the ones who need it the least.

Yep.

Always loyal little lapdogs of the plutocrats.

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

There is nothing united about conservatives and their ideologly w/in th context of "We The People".....unless of course you're a conservative.


More like "we the corporations."

That's who and what the rightards are fighting for.

They will give their lives to stop anyone from setting limits on corporate greed and plunder.

http://www.bartcop.com/scholiast.jpg

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

Just say no to the pubic option!

http://images.huffingtonpost.com/gadgets/slideshows/2780/slide_2780_38639_large.jpg

[cutthemdown]

uh yeah we all like to dream baby!!!!!!!!

[cutthemdown]

uh huh LABF you missed this one also. Cmon on man these are good ones also right?

[cutthemdown]

it's official people who make protest signs are idiots. All people who make protest signs. Ok let's move on.

[cutthemdown]

having said that I stink at spelling and grammar. I used to be decent in college but really relied on just checking stuff and having girls proof read it. I mean that's what English majors with cute glasses are for in college.

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

it's official people who make protest signs are idiots.

Um, not quite.

Your side still outstrips the other side by several miles, as indicated by the number of examples.

[cutthemdown]

Um, not quite.

Your side still outstrips the other side by several miles, as indicated by the number of examples.

You think your sample size off one stupid internet site is scientific.

The points people make that they try and win an argument around here are laughable.

You haven't proven anything. The only thing proven is that Americans misspell a lot of protest signs.

I've seen it a ton in sports as well. I was at a Laker game and some dude wrote on his white t-shirt Go Lakars. I thought that was the funniest **** ever but i didn't ask him what party he votes for in elections.

I get your humor, I love your guitar playing, but the way you think you prove everything beyond a shadow of a doubt is pretty lame.

I love political cartoons just like you do, but I love them for being witty and original, I could care less who they make fun of.

[Bronx33]

You think your sample size off one stupid internet site is scientific.

The points people make that they try and win an argument around here are laughable.

You haven't proven anything. The only thing proven is that Americans misspell a lot of protest signs. I've seen it a ton in sports as well. I was at a Laker game and some dude wrote on his white t-shirt Go Lakars. I thought that was the funniest **** ever but i didn't ask him what party he votes for in elections.

I get your humor, I love your guitar playing, but the way you think you prove everything beyond a shadow of a doubt is pretty lame.

I love political cartoons just like you do, but I love them for being witty and original, I could care less who they make fun of.



Yes i spit my soda all over the place thank you very much!

[baja]

Hey if the doctors don't like it than I'm all for it!

[Majik]

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