Article

2009-09-16 -Signs, Portents, and the Weather-

45% Of Doctors Would Consider Quitting If Congress Passes Health Care Overhaul

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Posted by 3dc 2009-09-16 00:00|| || Front Page|| [1 views ] Top

#1 Yoy may not say you were not warned.

Posted by newc">newc 2009-09-16 00:38|| 2009-09-16 00:38|| Front Page Top

#2 Guess they might not want to work for the feds at clerks wages.

Posted by tipover 2009-09-16 00:39|| 2009-09-16 00:39|| Front Page Top

#3 They can always decline to serve government healthcare patients. Right? After all, it's a plan designed to compete with the free market, not a government funded means to take it over.

Posted by gorb 2009-09-16 03:53|| 2009-09-16 03:53|| Front Page Top

#4 Don't they realize that by quiting they'll become Enemies of the People?

Posted by g(r)omgoru 2009-09-16 05:16|| 2009-09-16 05:16|| Front Page Top

#5 The First Lady had this to say:

Barack Obama will require you to work. He is going to demand that you shed your cynicism. That you put down your divisions. That you come out of your isolation, that you move out of your comfort zones. That you push yourselves to be better. And that you engage. Barack will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual, uninvolved, uninformed.

(Ok, ok, it wasn't about this, specifically...)

Posted by Cornsilk Blondie 2009-09-16 06:20|| 2009-09-16 06:20|| Front Page Top

#6 That low?

Posted by no mo uro 2009-09-16 06:22|| 2009-09-16 06:22|| Front Page Top

#7 Obama might "stuffed their mouths with gold"* in order to create the expensive disaster that is a national health "service".

*google it.

Posted by Bright Pebbles 2009-09-16 07:34|| 2009-09-16 07:34|| Front Page Top

#8 The American diaspora begins. It's the Oakland -Detroit factor on a national scare. Most will not quit their profession, but rather move offshore. Good doctors and skilled professionals are needed everywhere.

Posted by Besoeker 2009-09-16 07:54|| 2009-09-16 07:54|| Front Page Top

#9 With a little smarts Cuba may become that medical paradise we kept hearing about.

Posted by AlanC">AlanC 2009-09-16 08:55|| 2009-09-16 08:55|| Front Page Top

#10 Thousands of Brits fly to India (Medical Tourism) each year for treatment.

Posted by GolfBravoUSMC 2009-09-16 09:41|| 2009-09-16 09:41|| Front Page Top

#11 Britain has been flying in foreign Doctors to cover shortages.

Posted by GolfBravoUSMC 2009-09-16 09:46|| 2009-09-16 09:46|| Front Page Top

#12 NHS reliance on foreign doctors 'immoral'

Around 12,500 doctors and 16,000 nurses from Africa are registered to work in Britain.

Posted by GolfBravoUSMC 2009-09-16 09:56|| 2009-09-16 09:56|| Front Page Top

#13 GolfBravoUSMC,

You'll like.
National Death Service Blog

Posted by Bright Pebbles 2009-09-16 10:11|| 2009-09-16 10:11|| Front Page Top

#14 A few thoughts if I may:

1) 45% of my colleagues won't quit. They might want to but they'll stick it out. They have tuition, mortgages and car payments to make, and the market for ex-physicians who want six figure salaries is not elastic.

2) Those physicians instead will become increasingly cynical (yes, there's still some room for us!). They'll work less hard. Weekend and evening coverage will be more spotty. Waiting times for appointments will lengthen. Service will be less personal.

3) The government, in response, will turn to non-American doctors and to physician extenders such as physician assistants and nurse practitioners. PAs and NPs are good people within the boundaries of what they do, but those boundaries will have to be extended.

Because of both 2 and 3, quality will go down, but costs will not.

Posted by Steve White 2009-09-16 11:46|| 2009-09-16 11:46|| Front Page Top

#15 Steve:

I've worked in Healthcare for forty years and you are spot on. We can look back to the nurse shortage in the eighties and project the same type of problem with Doctors in the future.

A troubling stat in the article is the trend in the ratio of physicians to population. For every 1% the population grows the physician count grows only 0.8%. Add to this the baby boomers and their increased use of medical services. Pile on top of that the newly insured National Health patients.

I suspect we will see shortages of doctors, closed practices and possibly an even greater dependancy on Emergancy Rooms.

Of course the illegals will still be treated through some form of Medicaid. Or worse, the "ID" check to qualify for National Health will be something as weak as Motor Voter. Someone will make the case that requiring an ID will discourage people from getting treatment like they are discouraged from voting.

Posted by GolfBravoUSMC 2009-09-16 13:11|| 2009-09-16 13:11|| Front Page Top

#16 H1-b visas for doctors...can't wait. Can we get some from Pakistan?

Posted by Ebbang Uluque6305 2009-09-16 15:49|| 2009-09-16 15:49|| Front Page Top

#17 But, seriously, what about the people who won't go to medical school because they can't see the rewards on the other side of all that sacrifice?

Posted by Ebbang Uluque6305 2009-09-16 15:57|| 2009-09-16 15:57|| Front Page Top

#18 Yep, we'll be importing importing doctors to cover the short fall.

I seem to recall some American medical students in a place called "Grenada". I remember too, the MSM dragging them through the much as somehow "not up to American medical standards". Now watch for the MSM to start in on the meme of how foreign trained doctors are jsut as good if not better than physicians trained in the US.

Posted by Rex Mundi 2009-09-16 16:27|| 2009-09-16 16:27|| Front Page Top

#19 I wonder what percentage of practicing physicians would say health care overhaul must start with tort reform.

Posted by Anguper Hupomosing9418 2009-09-16 17:55|| 2009-09-16 17:55|| Front Page Top

#20 What came first, the chicken or the egg. Why do we need tort reform....because the profession doesn't clean its own house as effectively as it is perceived it should. You can cap rewards in suits, but does that do anything to remove those who shouldn't be practicing? Presently, it seems to be one of the motivating factors to 'encourage' such practitioners to move along from the immediate area. If people perceived that the profession did indeed clean its own house effectively enough, the awards probably would never reach the levels they have.

Posted by Procopius2k 2009-09-16 18:12|| 2009-09-16 18:12|| Front Page Top

23:59 Sherry
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