Thanks Obamacare: 83% of Doctors Surveyed Say They May Quit

Townhall ^ | 06/15/2012 | Kate Hicks

[SeekAndFind]

The Doctor Patient Medical Association has released a new survey of about 700 doctors, and the results are bleak. Scary bleak. Among other dismal figures, Doctors' Attitudes on the Future of Medicine: What’s Wrong, Who’s to Blame, and What Will Fix It found that 83% of respondents are contemplating leaving the industry if Obamacare is fully implemented, owing to its disastrous projected consequences. Indeed, they openly blame the healthcare law for their industry's woes:

KEY FINDINGS

• 90% say the medical system is on the WRONG TRACK
• 83% say they are thinking about QUITTING
• 61% say the system challenges their ETHICS
• 85% say the patient-physician relationship is in a TAILSPIN
• 65% say GOVERNMENT INVOLVEMENT is most to blame for current problems
• 72% say individual insurance mandate will NOT result in improved access care
• 49% say they will STOP accepting Medicaid patients
• 74% say they will STOP ACCEPTING Medicare patients, or leave Medicare completely
• 52% say they would rather treat some Medicaid/Medicare patient for FREE
• 57% give the AMA a FAILING GRADE representing them
• 1 out of 3 doctors is HESITANT to voice their opinion
• 2 out of 3 say they are JUST SQUEAKING BY OR IN THE RED financially
• 95% say private practice is losing out to CORPORATE MEDICINE
• 80% say DOCTORS/MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS are most likely to help solve things
• 70% say REDUCING GOVERNMENT would be single best fix.

If this isn't an airtight argument for the repeal of Obamacare, nothing is. When the people providing the actual healthcare are thinking of getting out of the game, the system is clearly broken. Here's hoping the Supreme Court strikes down Obamacare this month.

[Gritty]

Hey, no problem.

There are plenty of doctors from 3rd World sh!t holes who would be glad to come here and work here for cheap. Think of the money we'll save as we all benefit from our free universal health care!

Me? I just hope I get assigned one who speaks English and isn't a Jihadi...

[anoldafvet]

Excuse me, but you don’t know what you are talking about. My son is a trauma surgeon and his fiancee is an O.B. To get where he is today he got a B.S in Electrical Engineering from Purdue (4 years), a medical degree from Indiana University (4 years), a surgical residency (5 years), and a criticalcare fellowship (1 year). If you add it up, that’s 14 years. He and his fiancee have close to $300,000 in student loans between them.

[kcvl]

The average medical malpractice insurance premium is now over $150,000 for obstetricians and neurosurgeons. That doesn't include office rent and overhead such as nurses, receptionist, insurance billing, etc. They don't’ take home anywhere near what you think they do. It is certainly not $200,000 - $400,000 dollars.

[verga]

DH and I will quit. Neither of us want to finish our career working for the government

Serious question, that was raised up thread: What will you do for a living then?

Would you go into teaching or something else in the medical field, or just retire outright?

I am not being nosy or cantankerous, just curious.

[Mom MD]

I’m 50. I have no pension plan. I have a reasonable amount in my 401k but likely less than professionals in other fields. I cannot put more in 4 a while as hubby and I are putting the kids through college

I work as a hospitalist. I have no sick time vacation time or paid time off. When I work I get paid, when I don’t I get nothing. Medicare cuts reimbursement more every year. If you look at income compared to work, doc pay has been going down yearly and will cont to do so. We are not living the life of leisure most people think. The last 2 days I have worked 30 hours. My gross pay if computed hourly over that time is 60/hour. After tax it’s 30/hr. Not bad for 7 years of post grad education and 25 years experience..../s

[MrEdd]

Funny. A church in our area just sent three of them to work in a mission clinic in Asia.

I guess if money is your goal, you could argue that asia isn’t anywhere.

[massgopguy]

“Out with the old doctors. In with the new.” - Stalin :The Doctors Plot

[Mom MD]

Thanks! People forget the hard work and years of training part. You are not in an easy field either

[who knows what evil?]

Ma’am; you don’t owe these socialists wannabees any explanation.

[Mom MD]

See # 24. Also DH has a degree in chemical engineering so he could look for something in that arena. Most likely he would continue the work he is currently doing on medical software, just make it full time instead of a hobby. I would most likely open a quilt shop and teach quilting We would use our medical skills on medical missions.

[Mom MD]

You are right. It’s just that all the assumptions out there about what I do and what I make get me overheated sometimes! :)

[goseminoles]

Its not an easy field. I went back to school at 40. I have an AA and bachelor degrees in pol-sci and criminal justice. I love the medical field but im inept in chemistry and biology. I have three classes left and will return to my hometown of Clearwater, Fl. Im thinking home health. I think we are trending towards that..

[Mom MD]

You are right. It’s just that all the assumptions out there about what I do and what I make get me overheated sometimes! :)

[verga]

Thank you I saw that after I posted my question, I should have looked further down thread.

My hat is off to you. I am a type 1.5 diabetic and my Dr. has been working with me to keep things under control. I t has not been easy for either of us.

As a high school teacher I do understand thankless jobs. Right now I am on a break from supervising a group of Summer school kids.

[redangus]

My wife had an appointment with her internist yesterday and came home with much of the same comments from her doctor.

[Mom MD]

Good luck to you. We need principled people in health care

[goseminoles]

And we need good doctors. ;0)

[who knows what evil?]

They are going to learn the ‘hard way’; much sooner than they think. DISCLAIMER: I do not work for the medical profession in any way, shape or form.

[The Working Man]

This really strikes home for me. A friend of my wife had a very bad experience at a Hospital in Florida. This friend doesn’t have health insurance, in itself that’s not so unusual for those who work at small businesses and are not on welfare.

Anyway she was experiencing abdominal pains and went into the emergency room and they found a mass that was in her uterus and spreading through the cervix and into the vagina. The hospital staff wanted to get her admitted and do a D&C on her. It was turned down by a “higher up” and the request for emergency medicaid was halted.

One of the Doctors was so upset about it that he told her to come to his private practice and he would treat her for free. He did the D&C, or he attempted to do it. The mass was huge. And he cleaned what he could and sent it off to pathology.

The upshot is that she believes that she was turned away with a prescription for pain-killers with the hope that she would just shut up and die in the next couple of weeks. That’s her opinion anyway and the Lab report hasn’t come back yet. But with a family history of Uterine cancer she is very afraid of the outcome.

And if the Doctor hadn’t had his own personal ethics that probably is just what would have happened and she would have just been another statistic.

[MomofMarine]

Apparently, abortionists will have plenty of work and that will be a growing field for new doctors to enter. Eventually, they won’t need all the other specialists because there will be no people to treat!