A recent survey by the Doctor Patient Medical Association suggests that 83% of current physicians are considering leaving the field. DPMA Survey Results
This week on Varney and Company Dr. Marc Siegel discussed these results with Stuart Varney.
Not all doctors will leave the practice; many cannot afford to but the strong results indicate most physicians are very concerned with the future of health care. The decrease in pay for Medicaid and even Medicare patients is already causing many physicians to stop taking these government plans. President Obama uses the decreased payments as a positive to tell citizens that Obamacare is not costing them money. Yet, many patients are already feeling the pinch as they find it more and more difficult to locate a health care provider, in their area, who takes their insurance. While some say doctors need to become more efficient, buck-up and take the lower reimbursement rates many physicians say they are having to reduce staffing and some are closing their offices due to these cuts.
While doctors in practice may not retire incentive to join will certainly be impacted. Do we want our best and brightest to choose another vocation due to the complex regulations placed by Obamacare?
The upcoming election gives voters the opportunity to change the direction of health care in the United States. We can make it better.
Obama Care is not worth the paper it is written on. The benefits of this plan only benefit a very small % of all the people it covers. I will restrict the quality of care for most. There will be restriction on what care can be given to a large % of those covered. If you just happen to be over the age of 75, to may not get any type of care at all. What they will tell you, “We are sorry, but you have outlived you usefulness and are just going to die anyway”. And who will decide this, some one that is thousands of miles away and has no medical knowledge at all and most likely is one of these new IRS employees that has never had a real job in their life. But , of course they will be covered by their own government medical plan the covers everything, cost them nothing and we have to pay for it.
If there is anyone out there that votes for Obama, they are just plain stupid and are among the most uninformed people in this world.
Thank you for your comments. I agree with your sentence about people outliving their usefulness. As a mom with a handicapped son I have to wonder how those with special needs will be treated under Obamacare. Because they are not ‘productive’ members of society will they be denied coverage? As you say, will the elderly or even those who are just retired from the workforce meet the same resistance to treatment?
The silent majority cannot afford to remain quiet.
May I strongly suggest a careful review of the statistics cited in the survey you mention?
According to Politifact.com, the statistics from this survey are not very reliable (see this link –
https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2012/jul/12/jeff-duncan/gop-lawmaker-jeff-duncan-repeats-survey-finding-83/).
In particular, Politifact takes issue with the claim that the findings isolate Obamacare as THE reason for doctors’ current dissatisfaction with the field; they point out that the question regarding leaving medicine doesn’t specify a reason for the dissatisfaction. They also point out that the survey’s response rate was less than 5%, which suggests a bias toward respondents who are concerned enough so to take time out of understandably busy schedules to respond to the survey (usually only the highly unhappy take the time to answer).
Reminds me of Mark Twain’s line that there are “lies, damn lies, and statistics”….
BUT, I don’t think that changes the overall perspective you’ve presented, and I DO agree that the survey’s results hint at real problems in the current state of the healthcare industry in the US.
I just wish they’d done a better job in TAKING the survey, so we really COULD see valid responses from physicians on the impact of Obamacare and overall government regulation on the field in general. I think it would STILL be pretty negative, and support the claims of Mr. Varney.