After 21 years in “Private Practice” I saw the writing on the wall. I quit and now work in a Hospital. There is NO Private Practice. Has not been for a long time. Obamacare was the breaking point. The practice I left is now having severe financial problems as I knew was coming. I left before the fall.
It’s truly horrible. How many doctors that you talk to “get it?” I have a SIL (early retirement pediatrician) who thinks single-payer is the way to go, despite encountering the same problems you described in her practice.
I did 29 years in the trenches of general surgery and trauma. I would have liked to have worded another 6 years, but I saw the same thing you did…..I am OUT. I have seen it coming for some time, but, like you, Obamacare made the handwriting clear as crystal. I, we all, bitch about it, but we have done nothing to combat this juggernaut. The shame is, it will come upon most people quiet suddenly. Most people, most of the time, do not need a physician. But when they do,….it will be a maze to run. Only when they have a major medical event in their or their family’s life will they come to understand what they lost. Who is going to develop the drugs or medical devices? Who will pay a billion dollars to develop a drug……that kind of risk will go the way of the dinosaur.