A doctor, Stella Paul, writes in American Thinker A Surgeon Cuts to the Heart of the ObamaCare Nightmare, 6/30/12.

Please read the whole article.

Excerpt:

“Capitalism has completely transformed my sub-specialty.  When I was in training, a common procedure that I do now took 40 minutes, and people needed a month of recovery.  Now it takes 10 minutes, and people can go back to work almost immediately.

“And all these improvements were driven by the financial incentive.  Capitalism has had a tremendously positive effect on patient care and outcome in my specialty.

“But when I go to meetings now, I see that there’s very little innovation going on.  Everything’s being impacted by ObamaCare, which, among other things, raises taxes on medical devices.

“You know, doctors are people, and we’re being hammered on all sides here.
It’s the paperwork; it’s insurance; it’s transitioning to electronic medical records, so the government can get their mitts into your practice.  It’s lawsuits; it’s rising overhead and decreasing compensation; it’s stress upon stress upon stress.

“And a lot of doctors are going to say, ‘Forget it.  I don’t want to do this anymore.’ Guys that are 5 or 10 years older than me are just going to give up and walk away.

“Why should I be a slave to the government? You know, it used to be that doctors would do charity work at a charity hospital.  Nobody wants to do it anymore, because we’re too overwhelmed.

HKO

This reflects what I have heard from numerous private physicians.  They are responding by working fewer hours, seeing fewer patients and retiring early.  As the older and more experienced doctors leave quality will suffer.

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