Got an email on Friday that my Doc was hanging up the scalpel (literally), he’s had enough and not willing to kowtow to Obummercare and the new rules… This is a practice that’s been around since the late 70’s founded by he and another doc. Now both of them are gone and they’ve turned it over to a younger generation (and been forced into a cooperative with the local hospital).
I had an appointment with the replacement doc this morning and Doc P dropped in to say good by, I’m gonna miss that grouchy ol’ sumbitch… He was Army/Army reserve for years, so NO bedside manner, but he was a damn good doc a listened. And he wasn’t into all the tests and hyper-expensive prescriptions for everything.
The new Doc seems pretty good, and listens but damn, he’s a bundle of energy (but the nurses seem to like him)!!! Quick worker, but tells me what he’s doing, and continuing the ‘tradition’ from Doc P (stop smoking, lose weight, less stress)… But I was in and out in under an hour, and actually spent 20 minutes with him.
On a side note, they’ve had to hire two more people to keep up with the new paperwork requirements, and I had to ‘verify’ my insurance this morning before I was allowed to see the Doc. And there was an older lady there who was concerned, since she was scheduled for a procedure and had just gotten a letter from her insurance that she was being dropped, so they were trying to reschedule her to get her in before the cancellation (kudos to them for that).
The impacts are truly starting to hit, and I can’t help but wonder what the real fallout is going to be…
From day-one medical professionals have predicted that many doctors would simply “retire” if they were able rather than deal with ObamaCare.
BUT don’t worry, there there will still be room at the top for doctors who want to treat people who have exempted themselves from ObamaCare. The new upper class, the apparatchiks who have (by virtue of their affiliation with the “Party”) risen above and are “more equal than others” will need special care for themselves.
You know well what the fall out will be my friend, and its not good
The fallout is going to be more untreated illnesses and deaths that could have been prevented.
What Farm Dad said – fewer doctors, more patients, higher prices, less coverage, more sickness, and more deaths.
Oh, yes: and fewer folks able to afford any kind of good care at all.
More docs that stay in will probably go to the concierge model… 1500 a year for unlimited care.
On a side note, my doc said she will have to fork over about 80k for the “proper” computer system and software to digitize all the medical records so the Hauptgesundheitsamt can have access to them. I’m sure this has a lot to do with the docs bailing, as well.
We had a GP that we really liked once. He operated about like you describe yours: no excessive testing or medication, talking to the patient rather than dictating. He was very old and retired, leaving his practice to a young one who we have referred to as “Skippy” or “Doogie” at one time or another. We were not fond of the replacement and wound up finding another local GP who we could get along with (a gunnie no less). About a year ago, he closed his open practice and sent an invitation for a buy-in to his new co-op deal. We simply couldn’t afford to pay the dues to continue seeing him and have been without a family doctor since. This is a story that we will be seeing a lot more of unless something drastically changes.
When my wife and I moved to California, Kaiser dropped my policy. We found a concierge physician and I was pretty happy with him, he was a damn good GP, and right there if I needed him.
Medicare kicked in and we’ve got Kaiser Senior Advantage right now, but if something happens to that we won’t hesitate to go back to the concierge physician. His fees are still way lower than what we’re hearing about Obiecare. He worked with other providers as well, whose cash fees were quite reasonable.
My employer-sponsored plan went up 17% from last year…every dime of it due to new obamacare fees – which are being extorted out of any company that provides employer-sponsored health-care plans. And you know those fees are only going to go up – mostly because they can be raised at the discretion of a non-elected, non-accountable bureaucrat.
Co-pays went up 25%, deductible by 50%, out-of-pocket max by 50%. Those all went up to keep from raising the employee share of cost of the plan.
And, this plan, though it’s not a great one, will no longer be available in 2015, as it’s considered a “cadillac plan.”
All- Thanks and I believe this is ONLY the tip of the ideberg-
Sent from my iPhone.
iceberg… dammit…
Sent from my iPhone.
I haven’t written much about this because it causes depression. Our government, as usual, is doing it all wrong (again) and virtually no one is trying to fix things.
It’s so hard to find someone you are really comfortable with. Then they leave. Or an idiot electorate sends us into a rat hole and drives them out.
We have a shortage of doctors, and it will only get worse.
MJ- Understood and agreed… dammit
PH- That it is!
WSF- Oh yeah, and worse is SHORT order!!!
Is there no option to just pay cash?
Way back in ’95, my wife and I simply could not get an OBGYN to even listen to us after I answered the question “Who is your insurer?” with “Me.”
But that was in the socialist medicine regime of Australia, where we have had the “free medicine for all” BS for as long as I can remember.