New from the AP predicts massive doctor shortage................

Primary care physicians are already in short supply in parts of the country, and the health overhaul that will bring them millions more newly insured patients in the next few years promises extra strain.

This was a common criticism of the Health care reform legislationthat was constantly ignored by our media, and casually dismissed in political debate. The healthcare reform adds 32 million new patients to a system that is already low on supply, and at the same time reduces the financial incentives of becoming a medical practitioner. The result is obvious, we are bound for a shortage of doctors. This fact can no longer be ignored as the bill has now been signed into law. In a report published by the AP, some of the obvious issues are finally coming to light:

"Recently published reports predict a shortfall of roughly 40,000 primary care doctors over the next decade, a field losing out to the better pay, better hours and higher profile of many other specialties. Provisions in the new law aim to start reversing that tide, from bonus payments for certain physicians to expanded community health centers that will pick up some of the slack."

Along with the current shortage and 10-year projection, many current doctors will be leaving their profession as government regulations threaten their profitability. In a poll conducted one week before the health care passage, nearly 50% of doctors stated that the passage of the legislation would lead them to seek a new profession. Provisions in the healthcare bill attempt to entice them to stay, but the attempt is laughable at best. The new law provides a 10% bonus from Medicare for primary care doctors serving in areas already short on medical professionals. However, the government only cover around 80% Medicare payments, so the clinic still comes away losing money on the care.

Its not rocket science. The reason there is a shortage of doctors in certain areas is because the people in those areas don't pay for their care. There is no money for doctors there, and without that evil profit, the medical practitioners can't sustain their practice. There is nothing greedy about it, it's just a fact of life. No matter how many times you hear people say that healthcare is a basic human right, it cannot be considered a right as long as we depend on other people to and perform specialized care. Clinics cannot cover an area of people paying 80% of the costs. It is unsustainable

What this bill will do, is take the doctor shortage in these localized areas, and spread them among the general population. It wont’ get any better for those experiencing the shortage now, if anything it will get worse. What will be different is  all the other areas around them that start experiencing the same shortages. That’s what socialized systems like this do. They guarantee the lowest common denominator for all.


Massachusetts offers a snapshot of how giving more people insurance naturally drives demand. Which until the passage of this bill, was completely ignored by everyone supporting the reform. The Massachusetts Medical Society last fall reported just over half of internists and 40 percent of family and general practitioners weren't accepting new patients, an increase in recent years as the state implemented nearly universal coverage.

Romney-Care in Massachusetts, is essentially as a model of how Obamacare will work. They are the same legislation on different levels of government, and they wont work on either. Nationally, the big surge for primary care won't start until 2014, when the 32 million uninsured starts claiming the care. But we won’t have to wait that long for doctors to begin experiencing the increased demand, as many co-payments for patients are now happily paid for by their government.

Sooner will come some catch-up demand, as group health plans and Medicare end co-payments for important preventive care measures such as colon cancer screenings or cholesterol checks. Even the insured increasingly put off such steps as the economy worsened, meaning doctors may see a blip in diagnoses as those people return, says Dr. Lori Heim, president of the American Academy of Family Physicians.

The government knows that there is already a shortage. They know that less people are going to make the investments required to become licensed doctors. They know that even under the best case scenario, we will be severely deficient on doctors in the next 10 years. Worst of all, as many as half of our current doctors may soon leave the profession as the government continues to regulate what they can and can’t do.

In  light of all this good news, here’s a wild prediction for you: The government is going to try and make it so that people use less medicine. Through preventative care measures, they will attempt to pursuade Americans to live healthier and use less medical care. Unfortunately for them, The American people are not going to change the way they live because of the suggestions of the government. To get the real change necessary in your behavior, the government will need to regulate your choices. It will be sold as some movement to get America healthy, but it will result in the government regulating your behavior. Now that they subsidize healthcare they have every right to regulate it. The campaigns against smoking, drinking, and eating fatty foods will go into hyper drive. They will ban -or regulate- everything from salt, to cigars. At best they will levy massive tax increases on unhealthyactivities. At worst, they will control your daily freedoms. If you keep smoking, no coverage. If you continue eating fatty foods, no coverage. If you don’t start exercising, no coverage.

They have the legislation in place to control behavior, so they will. When this legislation begins to be exposed as the boondoggle it is, that’s when the media reports on how unhealthy we all are will start. The talking heads will all explain that Obama’s reform is still the greatest bill ever, and that the real problem with our healthcare industry is the poor health choices of Americans. Health experts and concerned parents of obese children will claim that this is the only way for us to be saved from ourselves.

The preventative healthcare that the government is goin to push is the first stage of rationing. They know they don’t have the supply to add 32 million people to our care, but they justify their action with the hope that we will simply use less. It's truly absurd. This is like McDonalds offering free cheeseburgers and expecting people to eat less of them, hoping they will get sick of taste. They are gambling against the house, and it is not going to work. They don’t have the resources to give this away without running out of supply. Sure, everyone will finally have health insurance, but that doesn't mean their going to get health care.