Free Republic

Patients should welcome this development. Not only does the move toward direct payment have the potential to reduce health costs — it could also yield higher-quality care. Even before Obamacare, direct-pay practices were growing in popularity. According to the Center for Studying Health System Change, direct-payment practices increased from 9.2 percent of the market in 2001 to 12.4 percent by 2008. Nearly 7 percent of doctors say they are planning to change to some form of direct-pay care in the next three years, according to a survey of 13,000 doctors done for the Physicians Foundation. The consulting firm Accenture projects...

Eighty-three percent of American physicians have considered leaving their practices over President Barack Obama’s health care reform law, according to a survey released by the Doctor Patient Medical Association. The DPMA, a non-partisan association of doctors and patients, surveyed a random selection of 699 doctors nationwide. The survey found that the majority have thought about bailing out of their careers over the legislation, which was upheld last month by the Supreme Court. Even if doctors do not quit their jobs over the ruling, America will face a shortage of at least 90,000 doctors by 2020. The new health care law...

Heath care is an expensive product, with high demand chasing limited supply. There are only so many doctors, and training new ones requires a long education at great personal expense. Meanwhile, advances in medicine are steadily prolonging life and improving its quality. It follows that if we want to decrease the cost of health care (or, to use the currently popular political vernacular, “improve access”) we need more doctors. Conversely, reducing the supply of doctors would make medical care more expensive, and reduce its quality. If government controls are then applied to skyrocketing costs, shortages and rationing would be the...