[Paladin2]

It’s unprecedented and unexpected that a 30 yr trend continues?

[griswold3]

The doctors in France are unionized....

[GregNH]

I need to change my primary care physician and have approached three, no luck yet.

[ethics]

Thanks to Hugo Chavez Obama!

[ken5050]

fyi..NOWHERES in the article are malpractice premiums or frivolous lawsuits mentioned..ya think??

[dfwgator]

Everything is going according to plan.

[antonico]

This is precisely what the Obama administration wants to happen. They’re going to force doctors to quit (at least the very good ones). Just like their tax policies in the Health Bill will punish companies to the extent they will be forced to lay off people - and the Obama calculus on that is simple. He’s betting laid off employees now needing government assistance to survive will become his and the Democrats salvation in November. he’s betting on the idea the newly turned out masses of the jobless won’t bite the government hand that will be feeding it.

Every company ought to lay out ads saying that if the government took less of their earnings, they’d hire every released employee back.

[Alberta's Child]

As doctors move from being employers to employees, their politics often take a leftward turn. This helps explain why the American Medical Association — long opposed to health care reforms — gave at least a tepid endorsement to Mr. Obama’s overhaul effort.

Very interesting observation. It's also important to note that as doctors move from being employers to employees, they find themselves dealing with the same economic pressure from foreign labor that destroyed blue-collar jobs in so many industries here in the U.S.

The only difference is that workers in manufacturing jobs lost out when their jobs moved overseas. Workers in health care are losing out when the foreign labor moves right into their own offices and hospitals.

[Sir Gawain]

The next round of doctors will come out of Obama’s housing projects.

[Liberty1970]

I live in a small town, and was _very_ pleasantly surprised a few weeks ago. We have a small clinic in town. After spending 2 months at Riley Hospital in Indy, we brought my daughter home. We needed to have her doctor in town see her, but she has a halo and was still frail so we hated to take her anywhere by car. Imagine our surprise and pleasure when the doctor called and made plans to see Lydia at our house (he even brought a student with him) to check on her.

It's wonderful knowing that caring, personally caring physicians are still out there. I just hope they can survive what's coming. (I wouldn't be surprised if an underground medical industry grew up on just such a basis, if things continue as they are.)

[johniegrad]

As doctors move from being employers to employees, their politics often take a leftward turn. This helps explain why the American Medical Association — long opposed to health care reforms — gave at least a tepid endorsement to Mr. Obama’s overhaul effort. Gordon H. Smith, executive vice president of the Maine Medical Association, said that his organization had changed from being like a chamber of commerce to being like a union.

Nonsense. The AMA endorsed the health care debacle because it no longer represents physicians. It has multiply been posted on FR that AMA represents less than 15% of physicians. Conservative physicians are no longer drawn to the left wingnuts remaining in the AMA.

Physicians for the most part remain very conservative politically and socially. That a state medical association would suggest a statement like this is not surprising since they are tied to the AMA.

[parisa]

Damn! I say, starve the beast. Come next and future elections, close off the spigots and starve the beast. That’s the only hope we have, and stop pussyfooting around leftists. They are thugs, they have acted as thugs; we need a few thugs of our own to go toe to toe with them and shove them back.

[mondonico]

Obama loves this—fewer independent small businessmen, more employees dependent on the government and unions to deal with their employers.

We have to kick every single Social Democrat out of every single office.

[STONEWALLS]

...on Monday after Obamacare passed I was in my doctor’s office for my regular 6 month follow-up visit...I asked him if he was going to quit...he said ‘no for now’ but he’s in his early 50s and still has two in college...he was pretty sure that doctors in their 60s would start dropping out however.

.....and then he said something I hadn’t thought about before....sometime in the mid 1990s more doctors came to the US than graduated from US med schools...go to a big city hospital and you’ll see what he’s talking about...third world doctors, some with poor English skills...me, I don’t want to be treated by some guy who went to med school in a foreign country...neither do rich foreigners...that’s why they come here to be treated.

[Mamzelle]

The AMA represents a very small fraction of doctors, and I’m sure the leadership has long since been bought off by the progressives to say anything they want. But it is unfair to tar doctors with what the AMA does.

[businessprofessor]

We will see a sharp rise in labor cartels for health care providers especially physicians. I predict by 2015, we will see the first physican labor cartel. Although I despise labor cartels, I do not think that physicians have a choice. The rats will drop price controls and many other regulations on them. They need to form cartels to fight the tyranny of the rats.

Labor cartels will also spread to many other areas of health care. We will see reduced quality and higher costs as a result of labor cartels in health care. It may be a nightmare to receive treatment in a labor cartel dominated health care system.

I see one potential solution for physicians. Since Indian nations are sovereign, health care providers could set up practices on reservations (with Indian cooperation). This approach has appeal for reservations close to population centers. Physicians may also want to practice offshore on hospital ships. They could spend long periods on ship duty and then return home for extended periods.

[jveritas]

Doctors are still 2:1 against socialist medicine. Most doctors who want socialist medicine are losers and have no specialty. They are envy of the doctors with specialties who make more money than them. Envy of other people wealth is the most important driving force in socialism.

[LearnsFromMistakes]

Do we have a clue as to what it will mean to be in a ‘government approved’ health care plan?

If there are fines, then you must be in a plan. But not just any ol’ plan will work, I assume...

[Melas]

This is news? Except for the time I spent in Deep East Texas, I haven’t seen a doctor in private practice since I was a teenager. All the large hospitals, Humana, Cedar, Hopkins, Mayo, Baylor, Christus, etc etc, have had doctors on staff not only in the hospitals themselves but in corporate satellite clinics as well.

[pieceofthepuzzle]

Of course. What you will see more of is ‘shift’ medicine. When the social contract between physician and patient is broken via the involvement of government, and there is no appreciation of time and commitment, fewer and fewer physicians will be willing to live the lifestyle of a traditional physician. More and more will opt for lifestyle over professional dedication. Ultimately this will lead to a very significant reduction in the quality of care. You can bank on it.