Posted on 09/14/2009 5:37:53 AM PDT by Freeport
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Some 5,000 patients suddenly found themselves without an ob/gyn last November when Dr. Tara Wah closed her practice in Tallahassee, Fla.
Wah, 55, informed her patients in a letter that she could "no longer afford to make ends meet."
After 24 years, "I'm working longer hours than ever," she wrote. "Insurance payments for patient care have stayed virtually the same for the last 15 years, while the cost of doing business, including health insurance, staff salaries and supplies have risen."
The rising cost of malpractice insurance, particularly for her specialty, was the straw that broke the camel's back.
"My malpractice insurance was $125,000 a year, and going up," said Wah. "The only way to get the extra money was to cut back on my salary."
But it wasn't always like that. Being a doctor was once thought to be a path to a cushy lifestyle. Six years after she started practicing, Wah hit her "peak" income year in 1990. Then she took a pay cut every year from 1993 onward, to eventually take no salary for two months prior to permanently shutting her office.
(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...
Let's see.... For no other than the following, I'm totally against ANY health care "reform" out of Washington:
1) Medicare is broken 2) Medicade is broken 3) Amtrack is broken 4) The Post Office is broken 5) Social Security is broken
And these dorks in Washington want to "Fix" health-care! The English have a delightful saying for things like this... P#$$-off!
I don't even care if there MAY be some good ideas buried in the bill. I. DON'T. TRUST. WASHINGTON!
That’s too bad. I am surprised though that this doctor put up with insurance companies for so long. A lot of them seem to get fed up and simply stop accepting insurance.
The Gimme class will demand services at the point of a gun. That’s what governments are for, right?
Doctors WILL leave in droves. I work with over 300 of them and they are NOT happy about this.
I would say about half will retire.
Barry has, as usual, NO ANSWERS for this certain problem.
Barry S. obviously dozed through his Ivy League econ classes.
Insanity and logic do not mix. The only “cost in health care is “sick” people. They only way to reduce cost is to give less care to the sick, and pay the providers less. Paying providers less will lead to less providers for more sick people. The current government options are completely and totally bankrupt. Liberal solution...another government option. This is insanity out of desperation.
Let’s not overlook the fact that she reached this stage before Obama’s hell-th care crusade. What alternatives can the GOP offer that will make the situation better and not worse.
I ran a Psych’s office.
This was back in the 90’s. My main doctor got 150.00 for an initial evaluation and 80.00 for a regular visit. Sounds like a lot.
Our expenses including malpractice insurance was more than the man made. His wife, an RN, paid my salary for the last year. He closed up shop and went into the Private Sector.
I expect this much more often.
It used to be the best and the brightest went into academic medicine....they wanted to pass on their knowledge.....they too are getting out of that arena....the pay is even worse in those environments because Deans are raping the MD’s to pay for their own pet projects. The Universities getting dumped on by other hospitals because they take on the sickest patients which no one will pay for......it is scary folks!!! but hey it will be free !!!!
And their solution for this is...to give her 40 million new patients to treat...
Oh Hussein has answers. You will get ACORN “dcotors” and Islamic doctors he will let flood in. lots of pretend third world doctors will toe the line with ACORN nurses. We will have Kenyan witch doctor healthcare.
Heh. Of course 0bama would never diss his trial lawyer buddies by pushing for tort reform. If it was up to me, simply applying the same legal principles that exist in criminal proceedings to civil lawsuits (especially the idea that the defendant should be presumed non-liable until proven so beyond a reasonable doubt) as well as allowing for doctors with a certain level of experience and cash assets to simply opt out of malpractice insurance, we'd see far more doctors not leave the profession.
Quit while you can, I say.
Of course, if too many physicians do likewise, 0bama will have to arrange for mandatory civilian service to bring these people back in.
Thanks John Edwards for this !!!!!!!!!
Does everyone know the story?
So now he has $30,000,000 from his shyster law practice (yet another Dem lawyer who lies!!!!!!!!)
and the people of Florida have lost a hard working doctor.
Wake up people!!!!!!!!!
ACORN = Obama
Say it over and over and over,
Make it stick.
Out in 2012 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Something about the story doesn’t ring true. Why not just accept patients who are paying out if their own pockets as my wife’s doctor recently decided? I suspect there is more to it.
The doctors I know dream of the time when they would work only 40 hrs/week. And a good number of them say that the time is coming.
Lawyer, meet bus...
Is your wife’s doctor a OB/GYN?
I. DON’T. TRUST. WASHINGTON!
You’re not alone.
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