OBAMACARE, PLEASE FIND ME A DOCTOR

We like to think that our doctors are as bright as our congressional lawyers. As we are going to add 37 million people to the insured list, we certainly will need more doctors to take care of them. Where will we find them?

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OBAMACARE, PLEASE FIND MY DOCTOR

We like to think that our doctors are as bright as our congressional lawyers. As we are going to add 37 million people to the insured list, we certainly will need more doctors to take care of them. Where will we find them?

After finishing the University, and being accepted to a medical school, the 23-year-old student will begin his training as a doctor. Medical school tuition today runs around $50,000 a year. Before doctors can open up a practice they will owe over $350,000 before they open their medical offices.

Obama care seeks to increase the number of primary care doctors, at the expense of the number of specialists. Once a doctor starts treating patients at the age of 32 after 9 years of postgraduate medical training, he is squeezed between what government programs and insurance companies will pay him, pay his escalating malpractice insurance rates, and meet his family obligations.

After finishing a primary care residency of three years following his internship, he finds he gets paid less and has to charge less for his services than his fellow specialist colleagues. The reality is that most physicians can't afford to go into primary care and still pay their huge student loans.

We now have around 700,000 doctors in practice. Over the next 15 years our Medicare population will increase from 37 million today to 64 million. In the next 10 years, one third of the doctors currently practice will likely retire—and may push their retirement even sooner with Obama care.

Before this health care reform, it was estimated that we would need 125,000 physicians by 2025. So this doctor shortage, will not be just in primary care positions, but also will need more cardiologists, neurologists, orthopedists, oncologists, urologists, general surgeons, and other highly trained specialists.

ObamaCare does not include provisions for the coming doctor shortages. To save money, Obama care may take training dollars away from doctors and use it to train nurses and other health professionals to practice medicine.

No thought has been given to containing the rising costs of health care. Congress has to think about how to increase doctor pay, not decrease it. They must come to the plate and institute malpractice reforms to lower malpractice costs for physicians, despite offending their trial lawyer contributors. Congress must also think about providing subsidies to reduce the amount of debt doctors have to take on. The list goes on and on.

Since our medical schools do not recruit dummies to become doctors, it's hard to believe that our new doctors would be foolish enough to enter primary care.

Our senior population is challenged enough. After this health care reform is passed, our greatest challenge will be to try and get an appointment with your doctor.

What do you think? Your comments are always appreciated.

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