Doctor Says 50% of Physicians Would Quit Under Socialized System
Excerpts from Transcript of doctor's presentation who spoke at the Jonesboro TEA Party Opposing Government Takeover of Health Care May 28, 09 . Name not given to prevent any negative consequences.
"Really, kind of off the cuff I was just asked to speak. Apparently there was another speaker who was supposed to be here who didn't catch his flight. One of the ladies was helping organize this asked me if I would say a few words, and I am glad to.
"What would happen here in this community, and I will tell you right out. I will just be frank with you. We would lose about half of our doctors right off the bat if we went into a totally socialized system. The most experienced doctors that we have in Jonesboro are in their 50's and 60's and they are still practicing medicine basically because they love what they do. They don't have to do it. Most of them are financially sound; they could retire; they could do what they want to do. But they will quit. They will quit. I know it. I have talked to enough of them, and I believe what they are telling me.
"So if we lost one-third to one-half the physicians right off the bat, who is going to provide health care? I heard one of the candidates running for president actually say he wanted a system where every single person in the United States got a complete physical every year. Folks, that is impossible. There are not enough physicians or advanced practical nurses, or nurse practitioners together combined to do that. What has happened is our politicians have promised something they are not going to be able to deliver on. And we actually have men in Washington who are so out of touch with reality that they think they can do it.
"It literally just turns my stomach when I hear the stories. Go to You Tube and put in a search on socialized medicine, and you will see hundreds of videos of personal testimonies of people in Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France – all these countries that have been mentioned that have a completely socialized system.
"Fox news had a story on about a month ago, I believe it was; and it is posted on You Tube on a gentleman in Canada who ended up in Oklahoma City because he had Atril fibrillation with a rapid ventricular response. [I think this diagnosis is spelled correctly] They wanted to treat him with medication, and it was going to be eight or nine months before he was going to get in to see a cardiologist. And if he needed a procedure from an electro physiologist – we have one here in Jonesboro right now – it was going to be probably another eight or nine months before he could have anything done and a pace maker placed. In the meantime, he would have had a stroke and ended up in a nursing home if he didn't kill him. Well, he came to Oklahoma City and he was seen, hospitalized, treated and his story ended up on Fox News. I wish everybody could see that because that is exactly, exactly what the people of Washington are talking about doing for us.
"And I will tell you what. I put in more hours than a lot of physicians do here. I am an independent physician, and I am on call 24-7 pretty much. I have to get up and go to the hospital, and I never know when I am going to be called to the emergency room. In matter of fact, before I got up here to speak, I had to walk around the edge of the audience and call in some orders for someone to get him in the hospital. He has a bad kidney stone; and when I leave here, I am going straight to the emergency room. That goes on 24-7. I am literally worked to death as it is right now. I can not do more than I am doing.
"If we lose a lot of physicians and people like me, stuck in the system still trying to provide care – folks, it is going to be an impossibility. "
For rest of article see this link: http://www.wpaag.org/Tea%20Party2%20-%20Speeches%20Transcript.htm or click on Thursday below.
"Really, kind of off the cuff I was just asked to speak. Apparently there was another speaker who was supposed to be here who didn't catch his flight. One of the ladies was helping organize this asked me if I would say a few words, and I am glad to.
"What would happen here in this community, and I will tell you right out. I will just be frank with you. We would lose about half of our doctors right off the bat if we went into a totally socialized system. The most experienced doctors that we have in Jonesboro are in their 50's and 60's and they are still practicing medicine basically because they love what they do. They don't have to do it. Most of them are financially sound; they could retire; they could do what they want to do. But they will quit. They will quit. I know it. I have talked to enough of them, and I believe what they are telling me.
"So if we lost one-third to one-half the physicians right off the bat, who is going to provide health care? I heard one of the candidates running for president actually say he wanted a system where every single person in the United States got a complete physical every year. Folks, that is impossible. There are not enough physicians or advanced practical nurses, or nurse practitioners together combined to do that. What has happened is our politicians have promised something they are not going to be able to deliver on. And we actually have men in Washington who are so out of touch with reality that they think they can do it.
"It literally just turns my stomach when I hear the stories. Go to You Tube and put in a search on socialized medicine, and you will see hundreds of videos of personal testimonies of people in Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France – all these countries that have been mentioned that have a completely socialized system.
"Fox news had a story on about a month ago, I believe it was; and it is posted on You Tube on a gentleman in Canada who ended up in Oklahoma City because he had Atril fibrillation with a rapid ventricular response. [I think this diagnosis is spelled correctly] They wanted to treat him with medication, and it was going to be eight or nine months before he was going to get in to see a cardiologist. And if he needed a procedure from an electro physiologist – we have one here in Jonesboro right now – it was going to be probably another eight or nine months before he could have anything done and a pace maker placed. In the meantime, he would have had a stroke and ended up in a nursing home if he didn't kill him. Well, he came to Oklahoma City and he was seen, hospitalized, treated and his story ended up on Fox News. I wish everybody could see that because that is exactly, exactly what the people of Washington are talking about doing for us.
"And I will tell you what. I put in more hours than a lot of physicians do here. I am an independent physician, and I am on call 24-7 pretty much. I have to get up and go to the hospital, and I never know when I am going to be called to the emergency room. In matter of fact, before I got up here to speak, I had to walk around the edge of the audience and call in some orders for someone to get him in the hospital. He has a bad kidney stone; and when I leave here, I am going straight to the emergency room. That goes on 24-7. I am literally worked to death as it is right now. I can not do more than I am doing.
"If we lose a lot of physicians and people like me, stuck in the system still trying to provide care – folks, it is going to be an impossibility. "
For rest of article see this link: http://www.wpaag.org/Tea%20Party2%20-%20Speeches%20Transcript.htm or click on Thursday below.
posted by Debbie Pelley at Thursday, June 04, 2009
4 Comments:
I do need to get to the emergency room. I am glad to see people here. Go home, talk to your neighbors. If they think everything will just be hunky dory, just tell them what I said. A lot of doctors will quit. It will take a long time to replace them; and if they think it is a hassle dealing with their insurance companies now, just think about what it will be like under nationalized health care.
The government right now, through Medicare Part B program and a lot of insurance companies, is taking a lot of control away from the physicians. Physicians don't have a lot of say in what goes on. But at least right now I can get on the phone, call somebody up, go through a process and try to get the procedures approved. I may wind up talking to another doctor at the end of the line who is working for an insurance company, but most of the time we can get things done and can get them done pretty fast. It is a hassle on my part, but I am willing to do it for my patients.
If I am in a socialized system - right now if I pick up the phone and I call Medicare, it is sort of like picking up the phone and calling the IRS and saying, Hey I need some help with my taxes. When I call Medicare, and I start asking questions, I guarantee you, (and I have done this before) you can ask 20 different people in Medicare and Medicaid the same question and you will get 20 different answers. It is so complicated and so complex already, I can't imagine what a completely socialized system will be like to work in. I can't imagine, but I am afraid that is where we are headed if we don't stand up and make our voices known and mail in these leaflets to our Senators – if they will listen to us; I hope they will. I really don't know. We have such tight control in special interests groups in Washington that it would take a loud voice of thousands and thousands of constituents to wake these people up. It is going to be really interesting over the next few months to see how this goes.
Anytime I have an opportunity to talk to some folks in the clinic, I do. I have had a lot of people to say, "That would be great; I won't have to pay for anything." I laugh and I just start talking to them. And by the time we end the conversation, a lot of them are shaking their heads and saying, "I never knew that; I didn't know. Like I said there is no free lunch; somebody is going to pay for it.
(See next comment fro rest of this post.)
(Last part of doctor's speech at TEA Party)
I heard a really interesting statistic recently. You have to back away and kind of see the whole picture when you are talking about immigration, health care, foreign wars, federal reserves, the buyout of GM – all the unconstitutional things that are being done right now – all the things the government is trying to get their fingers into now. How are we going to pay for it. How are we going to pay for it? How are we going to pay for it?
They are literally going to nickel and dime us to death in taxes. And think about the local level. We are talking about federal taxes, the federal sales tax; they are trying to come up for ways to pay for a socialized, nationalized health system. But what about on the local level? Our taxes are still going to be going up – property taxes, sales taxes, every kind of thing you can think of.
Add up how much you are paying in taxes right now. Imagine 1.5 trillion dollars added to the budget to be spent in 10 years (and that is a conservative estimate) on socialized medicine. Here is another figure for you. This was on Lou Dobbs the other night. Close to $375 billion dollars per year is being spent on health care related issues for illegal immigrants in the United States. If we got control of our borders, how much of that money could go to take care of Medicare & Medicaid. A lot of it. There are alternatives, but we have got to get Washington to listen. We don't have a choice. We don't have a choice.
If more people would show up at these TEA parties; I was really impressed with the last one. I think there were close to 1,000 people who came. I would hope that everybody here is going to be bending a lot of ears when we have a chance to talk. That is how we are going to change things. Thanks. I have got to get to the emergency room.
Basic economics...Doctors are a scarce resource. What happens when they get even more scarce? Two things...a decrease in rationing of health care or decrease in quality of doctors (another form of rationing).
If the public had even a basic knowledge of economics, we wouldn't get into half the mess we are in...it's bad enough here in Ark now...we don't need Obama to screw it up even more.
"President Barack Obama wants Congress to consider taxing the wealthy instead of workers to pay for a health-care overhaul, as House Democrats discuss a plan to require health insurance for most Americans."
These idiots won't be content until every profitable business has left our country and hyperinflation sets in. Not only are they socking it to "the rich" (a changing definition), but they've already allocated the money they anticipate will come from a class of people whom they assume will endure never-ending discrimination, class-warfare and abusive taxation. What will happen the day that "the rich" are no longer anywhere to be found? What will happen when their dirty money is no longer available to fund the welfare state of the socialists?
I suppose that will be the day that anyone with a job discovers that they have become "the rich."
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