"Docs Bailing Out of Medicare, Medicaid"
Plummeting Reimbursement Rates Have Some Doctors Looking for a Way Out
Frustration Mounting for Physicians
According to Dr. Scott Nelson, a family practice physician in Cleveland, Miss., the reimbursement cuts have hit doctors in his state very hard.
"There is an unprecedented level of frustration with the government and Medicare in Mississippi," Nelson explained. "I have not heard of any doctors in my area opting out of Medicare, because there are not enough patients with private insurance in the rural Mississippi Delta... we have no choice but to see them, and we are literally at the mercy of the government. I foresee some small practices closing altogether."
Full article:
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=5326078&page=1
Commentary
While comparatively new to the US, the phenomenom of doctors rebelling under the heavy-hand of government-run health care is almost boringly familiar elsewhere around the world. The article below was written several years ago under slightly different circumstances, though nothing has changed- and it is no less true today...
The Worldwide Epidemic of Doctors Strikes
By Robert Tracinski
Excerpt:
"The outbreak of doctors' strikes in America is spreading…….These strikes, so unusual in the United States, are an early symptom of the spread to this country of a worldwide epidemic….
If you haven't heard about any of these cases, you are not alone. Doctors' strikes outside the United States have apparently become so frequent that they are no longer regarded as newsworthy.
Yet there is something shocking and dangerous in the idea of a doctors' strike. In the industrialized world, we are blithely accustomed to the fact that when an emergency strikes, when we fall seriously ill, or even when we suffer from minor aches and pains, a doctor will be there to diagnose the problem and solve it. We take our doctors -- and the instant availability of their life-saving knowledge and skills -- for granted.
If there is a worldwide scourge that is prompting these people to walk off the job, it is crucially important to discover the cause.
A physician investigating the cause of a disease would begin by looking for a common element, a risk factor that is present in all cases…."
Diagnosis contained in the full article:
http://www.capmag.com/article.asp?ID=2487
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