The chilling effect is well stated here:
The practice of medicine is a calling and as such, my colleagues and I have endured more unfair revenue cuts than most businesses would have endured. Yet, a medical practice is also a small business, and there are limits to how much we can endure. We are now at the point where further cuts are not survivable. Just like any small business, our revenue has to exceed costs in order to survive. Despite everything that I have been able to do to cut costs, the margin of profit is now thin, and the proposed greater than 10 percent cut will put us out of business. The only option will be to downsize the practice and stop seeing all Medicare patients. I would hate this, but it will be the only option I have if Congress does not reverse the proposed cuts.
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Yet another case against universal health care. The bureaucrats and legislators don’t have a clue.
The first change should be to increase – yes increase – the reimbursement for primary care physicians and decrease the reimbursement for specialists. It can be done in a manner that will have no appreciable effect on the lifestyle of those specialist docs.
It may offend the ego and greed of some, but that’s part of the reason we are in the mess we are in today.
This must them be accompanied by a serious attempt at decreasing overuse, fraud and abuse. A fairly easy task if approached with common sense.
Put health care back in the hands of real doctors, take the lawyers out of the system and reward prevention and management instead of treatment.
Will Atlas shrug? Probably not.
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