Hanging Up The Stethoscope ... J. D. Longstreet

Hanging Up The Stethoscope 
The Doctor Is OUT!
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet

America's unmatched healthcare delivery system is already taking a beating from Obamacare.  

As a semi-professional patient, having been hospitalized over eighty times since the mid 1960's, I have had a front row seat from which to observe the disintegration of our healthcare system.  It's bad, dear reader, very bad.

Many doctors are just hanging up their stethoscopes and walking away, going into retirement, selling their practices out to hospitals or to companies that specialize in running medical services.   Both my doctors had done exactly that. One retired and the other sold his practice to a hospital.

And this is on top of the doctor shortage we are already experiencing.

Consider this:  "When the Affordable Care Act’s insurance mandate takes effect in 2014, some 30 million newly covered patients—people generally treated in emergency rooms now—will be shopping for doctors. That’s a problem because the U.S. has 15,230 fewer primary-care physicians than it needs, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services." SOURCE: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-09-27/a-looming-u-dot-s-dot-doctor-shortage

Then there is this:  "In fact, a recent Deloitte 2013 survey  of U.S. physicians found 57% doctors view changes in the industry under health-care reform as a threat, and six in 10 physicians report it’s likely that many will retire earlier than planned in the next two to three years, fueling the shortage."

The article goes on to say the following: "... but come 2020, there will be about 70,000 less doctors available to consumers as a direct result of the law, according to Deloitte." SOURCE: http://www.foxbusiness.com/personal-finance/2013/04/17/obamacare-reality-doctor-shortage-on-way/#ixzz2VNdKV1C7

Think about this for a moment:

Suppose you went to school for 6 to 8 years (and longer) to earn your medical degree?  Suppose you had HUGE student loans to pay off as well as set up a practice and purchase the necessary equipment you need as a doctor to treat your patients properly -- and suppose you had to submit to more training practically every year of your career to stay abreast of new treatments, new equipment, and new federal and state laws pertaining to your practice of medicine.

Just suppose you did all of the above and then wake up one morning to find that you were no longer a private physician, no longer a small business owner, no longer your own boss, but a government apparatchik taking orders on how to practice medicine, how and with which government approved treatment plan you are allowed to treat your trusting patients.   What would YOU do?

Well, according to a recent survey, 46 percent of the Primary Care doctors practicing medicine in America today said they WOULD quit when Obamacare becomes the law of the land… and I do not blame them one bit!  The New England Journal of Medicine reported in its March-April 2010 issue that 46.3% of Primary Care Physicians would likely leave the practice of medicine if Obamacare was passed into law.

With a large shortage in Primary Care doctors causing problems in America today and half of the remaining P. C. doctors vowing to quit – do you still believe the myth, no, let’s call it what it is, the LIE, the Obama Administration fed to gullible Americans that there would be no healthcare rationing in America.  It was BS all along… and Obama and his minions knew it then -- and they know it now!

Face it people, you/we have been had – again!  Obama LIED to you/us. The socialist (sometimes referred to as democrats -- but more often these days the more accurate term is – socialists) lied to you/us!

The whole Obamacare package is a lie from start to finish!  It is the biggest swindle ever perpetrated on a nation anywhere, anytime.     America has been SCREWED!

You know, we have come to expect politicians to lie, but for goodness sakes, dear reader, the Obama Regime has become a nest of pathological liars.

Look, America blundered, big time, back in 2008 when they elected Obama as President then doubled-down in 2012 with his reelection.  I suppose one ci;d say we deserve what we get, huh? 

The folks in Europe may just LOVE him, but here in America, he is fast becoming one of the least respected Presidents ever -- worse, even, than Jimmy Carter OR Bill Clinton (Clinton was Impeached!)  I am convinced he is a socialist.  I mean:  If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and flocks with other socialist, then it is most likely, a duck/socialist. 

Obamacare is destined to ruin the American healthcare system.  With the current HUGE shortage in doctors, especially General Practitioners, plus the 46%, or so, of currently practicing doctors about to quit – where will the doctors come from to work in the Obamacare system as government apparatchiks?   How many scholars, who had been considering medicine as a career, will look elsewhere for a profession not yet tainted by the mailed fist of the federal government, thereby maintaining the doctor shortage? 

We must ask if the US government is considering bringing in doctors from abroad, doctors who may, or may not, have been trained up to the standards required of doctors practicing medicine in the US?  Will he activate military reserve medics and doctors and place them in civilian hospitals and government clinics?  Hey, the doctors have to come from somewhere?

We already expect to find, manning the front lines in doctor’s offices, Physician’s Assistants and Nurse Practitioners. My state is even considering allowing Nurse Practitioners to use the title of “Doctor.”  

America is in serious trouble.  The depth of that trouble is, as yet, unfathomable.

© J. D. Longstreet