Thanks for such a fine post. My specialty, psychiatry, is a bit different than most, but I and my patients will likely be among the hardest hit. I don’t see Medicaid, and will be curtailing Medicare soon I think. I specialize in more difficult cases in an area where there are few options for patients. If I retire, there will be a huge gap here. But I will likely retire as soon as possible from a specialty that can normally be practiced far into old age, and one which already attracts far fewer applicants than slots in residency programs.
Many of my elderly patients, without my saying anything, are bringing up their understanding that I may either retire soon (early) or stop seeing Medicare folks altogether. They understand the ship is going down. They understand there will not be a seat in the life boat for them. Many explain their embarrassment at having voted for Obama and the rest of the gang forcing this and other similar changes upon the country. It is poignant. Sad for them. Sad for us all.
Cicero and other Greco-Roman moral philosophers often wrote treatises arguing against fear of death. One of their arguments pointed out that an early but otherwise neutral death is preferable to a longer life that then ends in a death amidst great mental suffering. I think many of my patients, when the time comes, will look back and wish they had died before their lives and their country came to this. Perhaps we all will.
I was talking to my elderly Mom a couple days ago about this mess. No, SHE didn’t vote for the Zero...but she hurts for her kids, knowing what we’re about to go through....