Free Republic

While much of Washington was fo cused on the tax compromise be tween President Obama and congressional Republicans, the Senate was putting together another deal that shows how little both parties really understand what happened in the last election. Senate Democrats and Republicans agreed on -- and passed by a vote of 99-0 -- a one-year extension of the so-called "doctor fix" for Medicare. The result is almost certainly going to mean higher deficits and more debt piled on the backs of our children. The entire conundrum is an artifice of the way Congress does business. Back in 1997, Congress...

My Medicare patients -- and those who'll soon qualify -- are worried. Will the doctors they're used to seeing still be able to take care of them when big cuts in Medicare payments are constantly hanging overhead? Even if I keep seeing a particular patient, I don't know that I'll still be able to find specialists to examine his skin, perform his stress test, operate on his hip or remove his cataract. Medicare reimbursement to me for an average primary-care visit has remained around $50 for the past decade, even as my office expenses have skyrocketed. Cataract and hip-replacement operations...

The American Medical Association wants me back -- but it's out of luck until it mends its cheating ways. The group's revenue is down by $13.4 million over the past year; it expects 5 percent to 7 percent of its 228,150 dues-paying physicians to quit this year. Why is the AMA hemorrhaging members? Obviously, because of its foolish support for President Obama and Congress' remake of American health care. In desperation, the AMA membership group is e-mailing ex-members like me, begging us to rejoin at half the usual fee. Sorry: I'm not forking over $210 for the "privilege" of being...

The Vote: Conned by the promise of an ephemeral executive order, the last holdouts cave and ObamaCare advances. It doesn't add a single doctor or hospital room, but needs 17,000 new IRS agents to enforce it. Congressman Bart Stupak, D-Mich., spent months spelling out in minute detail how the Senate version of the health care overhaul permitted federal funding of abortion through its failure to expressly prohibit it. In the end, he cashed in his principles for an unenforceable executive order that is trumped by the Senate bill he voted to pass. An executive order is not the law of...