Physicians Say Will Leave Profession

An article in the New England Journal of Medicine advises that nearly one-third of all practicing physicians may leave the medical profession if President Obama signs the current version of health care reform legislation.

The Medicus organization, which is in the physician recruiting business, said its survey resulted in a majority of the physicians it reached saying that the quality of health care would deteriorate and that it could be the final straw that would see a significant number of physicians leaving the practice of medicine.

A total of 1,200 doctors were surveyed and some 29% said they would quit or retire early if this legislation becomes law.  If a “public option” were to be included in the legislation, the number of doctors saying they would leave their profession jumps to nearly 46%.  This is at least a representative sampling based on the numbers of people routinely contacted by political polling organizations.

Interestingly, the American Medical Association’s “support” of the current legislation is used most often by the Obama Administration to justify health care reform saying that doctors favor their bill.

There are some 661,000 doctors in the United States (in 2008).  Of those doctors, only 250,000 are members of the AMA, and 100,000 of those members are medical students.    When you consider that the AMA represents fewer than 25% of practicing physicians, there seems little credence to their support of this legislation.

In addition to driving physicians out of the profession, it also raises our costs and limits our choice.

The idea that we are suspected of being as stupid as to buy into this foolishness is mind-boggling.  Maybe this is among their reasons for members of Congress not wanting their individual names to be associated with the disaster they are about to wreak.