Posted on 05/12/2009 5:10:11 AM PDT by reaganaut1
At the heart of President Barack Obama's health-care plan is an insurance program funded by taxpayers, administered by Washington, and open to everyone. Modeled on Medicare, this "public option" will soon become the single dominant health plan, which is its political purpose. It will restructure the practice of medicine in the process.
Republicans and Democrats agree that the government's Medicare scheme for compensating doctors is deeply flawed. Yet Mr. Obama's plan for a centrally managed government insurance program exacerbates Medicare's problems by redistributing even more income away from lower-paid primary care providers and misaligning doctors' financial incentives.
Like Medicare, the "public option" will control spending by using its purchasing clout and political leverage to dictate low prices to doctors. (Medicare pays doctors 20% to 30% less than private plans, on average.) While the public option is meant for the uninsured, employers will realize it's easier -- and cheaper -- to move employees into the government plan than continue workplace coverage.
The Lewin Group, a health-care policy research and consulting firm, estimates that enrollment in the public option will reach 131 million people if it's open to everyone and pays Medicare rates, as many expect. Fully two-thirds of the privately insured will move out of or lose coverage. As patients shift to a lower-paying government plan, doctors' incomes will decline by as much as 15% to 20% depending on their specialty.
Physician income declines will be accompanied by regulations that will make practicing medicine more costly, creating a double whammy of lower revenue and higher practice costs, especially for primary-care doctors who generally operate busy practices and work on thinner margins. For example, doctors will face expenses to deploy pricey electronic prescribing tools and computerized health records that are mandated under the Obama plan.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Any doctor in the US who wants socialist medicine is a fool.
Splendid!
All around this town I see signs in doctors offices:
“WE DO NOT ACCEPT MEDICARE PATIENTS”
You haven’t seen them yet? You will.
In France where there is a national “free” Health-care physicians number is quickly decreasing because they have to work a lot for a mediocre income...
And the cost of “free” public Health-care is very high and paid by high taxes...
Perhaps these doctors will be willing to listen to the cries of the conservative masses in that we, as patients, don’t want this kind of healthcare that puts us at risk of lesser quality treatments.
Maybe we can get the doctors against it, seeing as how these ridiculous pay cuts will make it harder to pay off all of their medical then surgical school loans. I mean, out of all fairness to the doctors, they did not sign on for this when they went through med school and then furthered with a surgical specialty.
What if we can get them to rally with us?
All around this town I see signs in doctors offices:
?WE DO NOT ACCEPT MEDICARE PATIENTS?
You haven?t seen them yet? You will."
Unfortunately, I suspect that Obama will find a way to make it illegal to practice medicine in the USA and not accept Obamacare.
Newsmax.com
Obama’s Healthcare Numbers Don’t Add Up
Monday, May 11, 2009 6:51 PM
WASHINGTON – The White House trumpeted the news: health care providers taking a $2 trillion scalpel to their costs and pushing the U.S. toward Barack Obama’s vision of health coverage for all. But don’t line up yet for those insurance cards.
First, a reality check for the nation’s 50 million uninsured.
excerpt
Is there any good reason noone is discussing the impact of Tort Law on medical costs?
Ambulance chasing lawyers drive up the cost of healthcare and it is a simple matter to restrict the amount of malpractice awards to minimize this impact.
Yeah, all that "centrally managed" stuff worked so well for the former communist states... Why the {expletive} would a western leader try to emulate it? He's either stupid or a socialist/fascist.
The problem is this socialist group called the AMA (American Medical Association) who has been pushing for socialist medicine for years. I think most doctors who join this socialist group do not have any specialty what so ever they have only 4 years of medical school and cannot get a decent job anywhere because they do not even qualify to be general practitioners.
And in this neck of the woods it's damn near impossible to find a Primary Care Physican who is accepting new TRICARE patients.
sw
The Obamaton's want to pay a flat fee of $60/hr. when a highly trained doctor like neo-natal care specialist which do not grow on trees are around $180/hr, or so I am told.
The young ones that voted for the Bamster are already asking, how do I pay my student loans...
Med schools will wither do to lack of funding, again from my medical professional.
What a merde sandwich..
Fortunately, the Obambi administration cannot force people to remain doctors. They will flee, wait and see.
Where will Canadians go for the medical care then? How about Americans?
My liberal friends don’t like when I point out that big businesses are the biggest winners in a single payer health program.
The problem is this socialist group called the AMA (American Medical Association) who has been pushing for socialist medicine for years. I think most doctors who join this socialist group do not have any specialty what so ever they have only 4 years of medical school and cannot get a decent job anywhere because they do not even qualify to be general practitioners
###########
Yes, you’re probably right here. So, look at how many specialty doctors/surgeons are out there. Perhaps we should try to convince them. I know that 2 of my specialty doctors that I see are not happy with this and said they are not going to stand for it.
Maybe these specialty docs/surgeons have an inside route they are going to take to come out fighting against this...wouldn’t that be great!
The Trial Lawyer's Association is one of the Dem Party's biggest contributors.
I didn’t know until today that Medicare patients are not permitted to pay “over and above” to doctors, if those doctors don’t accept Medicare as payment in full. I was shocked.
I was talking to my 87 year old neighbor tonight. She said she was fearful that this guy was going after the beginning of life, while going after the end of life (of which she is one)
With age comes great wisdom. And sometimes (like right now)..fear.
One thing I’m convinced of, is that Zero’s thoughts on health care are due to his mother’s death at a relatvely young age. He is angry that his mom died so young with so many medical bills. He is behaving as an angry and vengeful human being. But it’s important to remember that his mother would have NOT been covered by Medicare when she was dying....SHE WAS NOT A U.S. Citizen. By law, she was a foreigner!
She painted her own portrait. But he’s going to make US pay for it.
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