Posted on 11/03/2013 8:34:52 AM PST by null and void
You would think that when your party is burying a hole that is getting harder and harder to get out of, you wouldn't want to that hole get deeper faster. But here is Kathleen Murphy, Democrat running for the House of Delegates against Barbara Comstock, telling a forum in Great Falls that she believes it should law to force doctors to accept Medicare and Medicaid patients. Forced by government decree, mind you. A birdie sent me this:
FYI last night at the Great Falls Grange debate, Democrat delegate candidate Kathleen Murphy said that since many doctors are not accepting medicaid and medicare patients, she advocates making it a legal requirement for those people to be accepted.She did not recognize that the payments are inadequate to cover the doctors' costs. She also did not recognize there is a shortage of over 45,000 physicians now and that it is forecast to be 90,000 in a few years.Democrats appear to want to make physicians slaves of the state, but Democrats don't admit they would just drive more doctors out of practice into retirement and other occupations. The Obamacare law and regulations are causing millions of people to lose their health insurance, drop many doctors and hospitals. The HHS internal forecast is 93 million Americans would lose their health insurance due to the Obamacare law and rules about adequacy of insurance.Many more people will be uninsured. The penalties for being uninsured start at $95 per year, but the penalties can't be collected by the IRS if a person does not have a tax refund to attach.The out of pocket costs required by Obamacare's Silver Plan for a non-smoking mother and father with two children making a gross before income taxes of $50,000 (roughly average salary for VA) would be $13,765 per year including the deductible of $10,400. That's 28% of their gross income -- not very affordable and about the same as guidelines for a mortgage payment. For such a family making $100,000 of gross income, The cost would be $21,431 including the deductible of $12,700, or 21% of gross income.With such high deductibles doctors are stuck with trying to collect cash from the patients, even at regulated charge structures. Thus is makes sense for primary care doctors not to participate in Obamacare, medicare and medicaid. They should encourage patients to participate in Concierge Care and insurance programs run by the doctors themselves with patients who can do simple math. Patients can take out catastrophic insurance with high deductibles for major surgeries. Tax deductability for individual medical savings accounts would make health care more affordable.The head of Obamacare programs, Berwick, loves the socialized medical system in the UK, but never mentions that malpractice insurance is minimal. In the UK, panels of doctors review and approve malpractice awards, rather than emotional juries misled by trial lawyers. Malpractice reform like this with caps on malpractice awards would go a long way in making health care affordable.I hope physicians rise up and speak out for common sense, protecting quality medical care in the US and giving patients freedom to choose
THIS along with the fact that Terry McAuliffe has already said he'd go to the government shutdown mat to get a state exchange in Virginia. Unbelievable. Combine the chaos of thousands of people across Virginia losing their health insurance, we are going to add to that on the state level by forcing doctors to accept patients they can't afford to help? Unbelievable. Dark days are ahead, but there is still time. Three days to make sure this does not happen.
Democrats in Virginia will drive up health care costs, drive doctors out of the state, and then drive health care costs up even more because there will not be enough doctors practicing in the state.
Kathleen Murphy, Democrat running for the House of Delegates against Barbara Comstock
This ER doc has gone Galt on Dear Leader by leaving the country
for at least the next 2 years. No O care, no Press-Ganey scores no “satisfaction” surveys, no threats of lawsuits by Medicaid moochers.
To paraphrase Dr. Charles Krauthammer, “Liberals don’t care what their policy is so long as it is mandatory.”
I am not sure who'd go to medical school to earn that.
This is inevitable if Obamacare continues. It won’t be “mandatory.” It will become a condition of licensure to practice medicine.
Dunno. A year or so studying medicine in a Caribbean diploma mill or in, say, India, and you get the spend the rest of your life treating the Swedish Bikini Ski Team?
How about we draft all medical doctors, pay them as officers and have them treat people or go to jail? BUT we also make for these drafted doctors to not be lible to a law suite! They could be court marshalled but not drug into a civil courtroom.
No, really—best plan scrap Obamacare—toss it out and set up a chain of low or trade care Free Clinics all over the nation—They would have just BASIC Care only—use nurses, medics, and training doctors (and any doctors who wish to volunteer) I would call it Cuba Care—No one would want to go to such a place unless they really needed it— This would be for the poor and those who do not have insurance.
Here's a guy with what he's calling a 'common sense' conservative alternative to Obamacare that calls for requiring doctors and nurses to work for free one week per year as a condition of their licensing. Link
Sheer madness. At least they get paid under the Virginia plan.
Mandatory volunteer work.
So which would that qualify as?
A. Slavery
B. Indentured servitude
C. Fascism
D. Communism
E. Freedom
E., obviously! You are free to volunteer.
Is this a wonderful country or what?
And if you choose not to volunteer then you're free to be something other than a doctor.
Called this one years ago when this law passed. Many Doctor friends already went to part time to avoid the massive liability costs and are readying their early retirement.
I think many may go from trying to become a doctor to becoming future tax lawyers.
Exactly! If you don’t want to be groped you are free to stay on the ground.
(Just don’t take the bus, a train or walk in NYC)...
“no threats of lawsuits by Medicaid moochers”
Exactly!
And they are signing up millions more of them expecting taxpayers to pay for it!
That you can conceive of someone modifying their behavior to minimize the impact of a law makes you smarter than a democrat.
Democrats play chess planning only the current move.
Republicans play planning at least one move behind...
Comrade Kaprugina to Dr.Zhivago:
“There was living space for thirteen families in this one house.”
Yuri Zhivago:
“Yes. Yes, this is a better arrangement, comrades . . . more just.”
“Average wage of a general practitioner in Sweden is about 65K (USD).
I am not sure who’d go to medical school to earn that.”
I hear you, but Doctors from third world countries will. The African Doctor I had the pleasure /s/ of meeting during my hospital stay made it clear that he came to America to support the “new approach” to universal healthcare being pushed in America. They’re being sold hope and change and the Socialist utopian way. The “we’re all in this together” slop. He and his ilk is what we’ll be getting. Inept and ideological third rate Doctors from third rate countries.
There is one factor on the plus side.
Technology is making the doctor a smaller part of the equation every year.
Not saying this fixes the problem, but it’s a help.
I think that Obama will pay the student loan debt of new docs in order to get them into the system and that is why many of them will willingly participate. Right now a med student is looking at what, $200,000- $300,000 in student loan debt after graduation? Then there is the high cost of malpractice insurance; paying that for new docs could be another carrot to dangle. Medicare/Medicaid are essentially managed care organizations, meaning that they are insurers and manage the patients’ care. As far as malpractice goes, however, the liability rests solely with the doctor and the yearly premiums are huge.
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