I will tell you exactly what will happen if you get this Universal Health care.
By Daniel at 8 November, 2009, 1:12 am
This is based on 26 years in the Medical field and I warn you I am not going to pull any punches. I will not “pretty it up” so it sounds better as the media and our government is so adept at doing.. I am going to tell it exactly how it will be and how events will transpire.
This is based both on my understanding of the situation and that of many of my colleagues in the field. This is long and is a condensation of “our collective opinion” in regards to this matter.
If Universal Health Care is passed:
Physicians are going to refuse to accept it. The reasons follow below.
1) The amount of paperwork and red tape involved now with Private insurers is horrendous and getting worse. You now spend more time fighting Insurance Companies than you do treating patients. When the government gets involved the amount of paperwork will explode beyond its already intolerable levels. But this time it will be different.
If you fail to navigate the incomprehensible procedures of a Private Carrier the worst that can happen is you don’t get paid. With government programs you risk going to jail.
Ever wonder why virtually no Private Practitioners accept Medicaid? That is one of the reasons.
2) It will open up Private offices to belligerent demanding people with an entitlement mentality who are often combative and have the capacity of becoming violent.
Private Medical offices often consist of a Doctor and a half dozen staff ( usually female) and that is it. They have no on site security and are not equipped to deal with people who can and often do get verbally abusive and have the potential of becoming physically abusive as well when they do not get their way.
I left Orlando 18 years ago for that very reason.
We had people threaten and terrify my staff over something as minor as a $50.00 copay. We had another threaten to come back and kill my Receptionist when she told him we did not take “Walk-ins” and did not accept their particular insurance as a form of payment.
If you go to a Doctors Office in Florida cities now you do not see the “open environment floor plans” you saw thirty years ago. The Front desk is behind glass and the doors from the waiting rooms are always locked.
Neither Doctors or their staffs have the temperament or the training to subdue or even deal with potentially violent people. It scares the h.e.l.l out of them. That is the other reason so few Private Practitioners take Medicaid.
And as peoples financial situations continue to deteriorate both from government spending and the added burdens this legislation will create their ability to make ends meet will become even harder and their stress levels will continue to increase, and with it their potential to explode.
If you doubt that go to any Walmart or grocery store now and see how people are acting.
3) The other reason is what the government will pay will force Doctors to see even more patients for less money while still being held hostage to endless lawsuits. I don’t care if you are a Doctor or Lucille Ball in the famous “ Candy Factory Assembly Line Skit” , if you force people to do more than they can competently accomplish in a given period of time mistakes will skyrocket and so will the lawsuits.
4) The final reason is while this program promises to lower costs and compensation to Physicians it does nothing to address frivolous lawsuits by crooked lawyers and outrageous Malpractice premiums. The average Malpractice Premium for a Physician in Florida is around a half million dollars a year. If he can not pay for Malpractice then these lawsuits stop being just an emotional nightmare and turn into a financial one as well. Without coverage his house, personal bank accounts, and other personal assets are directly at risk. No Doctor will take that chance so he will stay away from Universal Healthcare as long as he can.
So now you have a situation where the government enacts Universal Healthcare but very few Physicians are willing to risk their personal safety or assets by accepting it.
What does the government do?
First they will pass a law that you can not accept Medicare unless you accept Universal Healthcare as well. That will work for a few Doctors but not enough.
When that doesn’t work they will do what they did with HIPA- “either do what we say or lose your License, pay a $100,000 fine, and spend five years in jail”.
For those of you who want government controlled healthcare I am going to stray for a minute and tell you about HIPA.
HIPA stands for “Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act” and was shoved through quietly by the Clintons but did not go into effect until a few years ago.
Among other things it prohibits us from saying anything about a patient to anyone- including a family member.
Let’s say your spouse is sick and comes to my office. You are both patients so we know you are a married couple.
After a while you call my office asking if your spouse is all right.
We can not tell you if they are okay or even acknowledge they are in our office. If we do I could face up to a $100,000 fine and five years in jail.
Let’s say it’s not your spouse but your 17 year old daughter - same rules apply unless you are physically present at the time.
I can not say for sure why they passed this but with the emphasis on kids I can make a pretty good guess. I think it was to allow underage girls to get abortions at Planned Parenthood clinics without their parent’s knowledge or permission.
Sorry for the aside.
So now the government forces Physicians to accept their Universal Healthcare and the patients that go with it whether they like it or not.
What will the Doctors do?
At that point you will have made the practice of medicine so intolerable people will start to get out by whatever means available.
Those who can retire will do so immediately. They will not risk their personal safety or financial ruin for the sake of Obama or anyone else.
Those who can not retire will flee to the military, try to get jobs as consultants, or ( if they are young enough) try to leave the country entirely.
American Doctors are still the best in the world and other countries know it. They will be more than happy to accept our Physicians.
So now Universal Healthcare exists but there is a vast shortage of American Doctors since they have left Private Practice by whatever means they could find.
What does the government do then?
Probably two things:
1) They will open government facilities which will make your current Health Department look like the Mayo clinic. The conditions will be terrible and the treatment even worse. But since it is the government it can not be sued or held accountable.
The Physicians they manage to employ will be those who lacked the skill or credentials to get out before it was too late. But as government employees they will be immune to Malpractice suits and will practice whatever kind of medicine the government tells them to.
They will probably also have an army of Physicians Assistants in the Waiting Rooms who decide who sees the Doctor and who doesn’t. If you are too old, or your illness is either not serious enough or too expensive to treat you will be sent on your way.
By the way- if you are middle or upper middle class and are thinking you won’t be dealing with this, better think again. If it plays out that way Private Doctors offices will either be a thing of the past or very very scarce. If any do exist they will not accept Medicare or any other form of Insurance since all Insurance will ultimately be tied into Universal Healthcare in one way or another.
Those offices will take months to get an appointment and even if you get one the fees will be extremely high simply due to the dynamics of supply and demand.
2) The second thing that will probably happen is the government will begin importing thousand of foreign Physicians who are poorly trained and lack the skills or knowledge of American Practitioners today. When this occurs the Federal Government will abolish all State Licensure requirements or State Board Examinations since these people will not be able to pass them in their current form ( they can’t pass them now) and opt for a National Licensure program which does not require a demonstration of skills or knowledge in order to Practice Medicine in this country.
The end result will be the destruction of quality healthcare in this country and at that point it will be no better than that of any other third world country.
And by the time the population realizes the government destroys everything it gets its hands on it will be too late.
By then the majority of American Medical Schools will have closed due to lack of applicants since no US college student will consider Medicine as a career under those conditions ( Medical Schools even now are lowering their standards both in GPA and MCAT scores to fill their classes and they still can’t get enough people). And when the medical schools close the instructors are gone as well along with all the research facilities that develop new treatments and surgical techniques.
Our Medical Schools are the best in the world and they took 200 years to get to where they are today. If you lose them they can not be recreated easily.
While facilities are easy to build, getting qualified people to work in them is another story. Especially if the instructors have either died with no one with their skills or expertise to replace them or have left the practice of medicine entirely.
That is what Universal Healthcare will give you and my guess is it will take about ten to fifteen years to happen.
I said in a previous post and I will say it again. The government itself is responsible for the mess healthcare is in today. With their mandates and politically correct agendas they have nearly destroyed a system that was the envy of the world 30 years ago and have made it so inefficient and expensive few can afford it and the Doctors themselves are having a hard time making a decent living.
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If you give the government the rest of it then healthcare as you know it will cease to exist. There will be very little healthcare and what there is will be below any standards imaginable today.
Finally, those of you who feel you have a better understanding of medicine than the people who have worked in it for decades feel free to push for your “right” to Healthcare. I am old enough now that it will have a much greater impact on you than it will me or my other friends who are my age or older.
You seem intent on wrecking this country for an agenda. You remind me of people who are constantly setting fires in their own house faster than the firefighters can put the last one out.
And I will tell you now- you will accomplish your goal.
Your social agendas and politically correct philosophies have created a malignant culture that has destroyed marriages, the concept of personal responsibility, and even children themselves by turning them into promiscuous basket cases before they have even passed puberty.
You have been so determined to bring this country to its knees and this may well be the final nail in the coffin. So by all means go right ahead.
The day will come that you will have to live with the nightmare you have been so intent to create.
I only hope I live to see it.
Sorry- but I told you I wasn’t going to pull any punches.
- proton3333
Bravo. You hit the nail on the head with this post. Everything you said is true. Thank you for this. I have posted it to my Facebook page for all of my raging liberal friends to read. I am sure they will have some comeback or excuse for it, but I for one am glad you said it.