By Dr. Elaina George
The power to choose your doctor, and for you in partnership with your doctor to decide your course of treatment is the foundation of excellent medical care. With The Affordable Care Act, the government has inserted itself to become the final arbiter of your care. It will ultimately decide who becomes the health winners and losers. Proponents of ObamaCare want people to believe that the system is so broken that it can only be fixed through fundamental change. The disastrous roll-out has certainly fed the push for single payer, but an argument can be made that the government bailout written into the bill has actually already ushered in single payer – since whoever controls the money controls the access and makes the rules.
As the ObamaCare train wreck continues to roll out, it will become painfully obvious to patients that although they have health insurance with no pre-existing conditions, free birth control and preventative care, they still may not be able to afford to access medical care when they need it because either the out of pocket costs from their co-insurance and deductibles are so high, or they will find that because they qualified for a subsidy, they will have that money clawed back the following year if their financial situation improves, or if they took the Medicaid option they will be unable to leave any of their wealth to loved ones because the government will take it to recoup payments made for their healthcare. Physicians will ultimately find that they will have no control of their talents. They will be considered to be providers of services that are a right that must be given for whatever value the government deems to be fair. They will become interchangeable with the healthcare team and with that innovation, individualized healthcare and the art of medicine will be gone forever….but the antidote to what is ailing the American healthcare system is NOT more government intervention, it is more choice via free market medicine.
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