New survey: 65% of doctors say healthcare quality will decline under ObamaCare January 19th, 2011 11:55 am ET As the House of Representatives begins its debate on efforts to repeal a law that gives the government control over 18 percent of the gross domestic product, alternate sets of numbers are being put forward by members of the opposing parties on the ramifications of repeal. On the anti-repeal side, the Department Health and Human Services released figures indicating that up to 129 million Americans under 65 who have a pre-existing health condition would risk losing health insurance if the law is repealed. On the pro-repeal side, Republicans charge that the Congressional Budget Office estimate of the cost of repeal, some $230 billion, is based on inaccurate input. One number over which there can no dispute is the 65% of doctors who insist that the quality of healthcare will decline if the law goes forward as written. This was one of a number of findings from a newly released Thomson Reuters survey of 2,900 doctors. No matter which side of the health care debate you find yourself on, one indisputable fact is that our health care system is only as good as the number and quality of medical professionals who staff it. As to the number of doctors, at a time when coverage is being extended to between 30 and 45 million Americans, the nation is going to need more health professionals. But another study suggests the opposite is likely to happen. When asked about plans to change the way they practiced medicine as the health care reform law was being phased in, only 26% of doctors said they intended to maintain the status quo. * 16% said they planned to retire. * 19% said they would cut back on the number of hours. * 12% said they would cut back on patients seen, and 6% said they would close their practice to new patients. Reacting to the findings of the Thomson Reuters poll, David Shrier, chief executive officer of HCPlexus, is quoted by CNBC as having said: The National Physicians Survey tells us that physicians have not been enlisted in the healthcare reform process⦠The message they've taken from healthcare reform appears to be 'Do more with less.' Doctors are telling us they feel disenfranchised and overburdened. In the meantime, the number of states challenging the constitutionality of the law is now up to 26, more than half of all states in the union. http://www.examiner.com/libertarian...althcare-quality-will-decline-under-obamacare
I wish that were the only thing wrong with Obamacare. It is going to be a nightmare if we don't get it repealed eventually.
My 90 year old grandfather called one of his doctors to make an appointment and was told that his physician is no longer seeing Medicare patients. I don't know if this is widespread, but if so it could become a huge problem.
1 - Yes it's widespread, and has been for many many years. I doubt this is the first time you heard of it. 2 - Obamacare has nothing to do with Medicare. Had we gone for the simple solution, i.e., extending Medicare to everyone, then your observation would have had some relevance. As it is, it has this much relevance: zero. 3 - My wife is a doctor and her work has been utterly totally and completely unaffected by Obamacare. We are both extremely confident that will continue to be the case, because it was very very weak as a reform of the healthcare system. 4 - There's a reason we have two parties: they're supposed to check each other's excesses. Instead of this bullshit carping, how about some Republican doing something that would be actually constructive to this whole debate, that is, introducing a bill for tort reform??? I have heard nothing on this subject.
Obamacare robbed Medicare of $500B in the legislation. Also, Medicare is emplementing further payment cuts to providers which will result in more doctors refusing to see Medicare patients. http://www.heritage.org/Research/Re...are-Provider-Cuts-Jeopardizing-Seniors-Access
Wait a minute. Are you saying you want money restored to that commie pinko socialist single payer program that, in a world not dominated by brainless tea party fools, would have been extended to the entire population???? I already knew you were a hopeless hypocrite, so don't bother answering.
1. It's not the first I've heard of it, but it's the first time it happened to someone I knew. 2. I don't know enough about Obamacare to know whether it's connected or not. But I do know it's a bad sign and will effect our medical system in a major way if it continues to happen, irrespective of Obamacare. 3. My wife is also a physician, though she hasn't practiced since our oldest daughter was born thirteen years ago. She believes that our medical system will continue to deteriorate with or without Obamacare because there's nothing to significantly control costs on a long-term basis. She was born and raised in Australia (med School in USA) and believes that a single-payer system is the only way to control costs long-term. 4. I would also like to see Tort Reform, but it won't happen. I doubt it could get through the Senate, and if it did Obama would veto it it a heartbeat.
On four, you're right about Obama, but it would still be a good way of keeping that subject in the public eye. At this point, no one is paying any attention to it, and that's not good.
In order for you to be correct in your assumptions they are going to have to pass laws forbidding doctors the ability to choose insurance reimbursements. good luck making that work in the real world