Dear internet,
In this edition of Dat Blog, I'm going to share with you the paper I just wrote on ObamaCare. Enjoy!
Peter Kobet
Chris Brincefield
English 112
15 October 2012
ObamaCare’s Negative Effects on Patients and Doctors
In March of 2010,
President Barack Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
(PPACA), also popularly known as “ObamaCare,” into law. This health care reform
bill is immensely complex and has been the subject of much heated debate for
the past few years. But in all the shouting and finger pointing among the pundits
and politicians, one very important aspect of the law is not brought up nearly
as often as it ought to be: The ways in which the new rules and regulations
that come from the PPACA will affect those working in the medical field along
with their patients. When one takes a break from discussing the political
aspects of the bill and focuses on what the doctors and patients think of it,
it becomes apparent that the PPACA will be destructive to the American health
care system.
Several important
factors involving patients and doctors must be considered when discussing this
issue. The opinions of actual doctors and patients must be taken into account,
not just the assertions of politicians from both the left and the right. The
bill itself must be examined. The majority of doctors do not approve of the
PPACA, as made apparent by multiple surveys. Quality of care will diminish
(despite the president’s claims). The vision of a medical utopia behind this
bill is an unworkable one. Some mandates from the law result in conflict with orthodox
religious organizations. All of these factors ultimately funnel down onto the
patients whose liberties are at stake.
A survey of 699
doctors across the country has shown that eighty-three percent are considering
quitting the medical field altogether over the PPACA, and eighty-five percent
said that the patient-doctor relationship is suffering and getting worse under extensive
rules and regulations like the ones extended by this law (“Doctors’ Attitudes
on Medicine”). These statistics have been found because there are several
serious problems hidden within the fine print of the PPACA.
New government
rules and regulations in medical practice lead to more red tape and overwhelming
paperwork. At each visit to the doctor’s office, the doctor has to sift through
a pile of mostly unnecessary records and forms. For example, if a person goes
into the doctor’s office to have a rash examined, part of the visit will be
spent filling out forms that are completely irrelevant to the patient’s current
problem. A heart transplant surgeon named William Frist discussed this issue
with his internist who said, “At each visit, I am required to tell the
government whether the patient I’m seeing had a flu shot last winter! Please
help me understand how that improves care” (qtd. in Frist). When more time is
spent on filling out extraneous paperwork, less time is available for actually
caring for the patient. When less time is spent on caring for a patient, the
quality of the care decreases.
Many physicians
have been rejecting more and more patients covered by Medicaid, Medicare, and
even private insurance because of bureaucratization, red tape, and extra
paperwork involved in those systems as well as the fact that there is already a
shortage of physicians. According to a survey of 4,326 doctors by Sandra Decker
of the National Center for Health Statistics, about a third of doctors are not
accepting new Medicaid patients, and almost that many are not accepting even
privately insured patients for the same reasons (Roy). Adopting the PPACA will further
the impersonal and inefficient system seen in Medicare and Medicaid and will increase
health care-related dilemmas.
Under Obamacare,
everyone is theoretically covered for any medical care he or she might need.
That is the central idea behind the bill: No one should go without health care
if he or she cannot afford it. And that is good. Doctors agree with that idea.
In an ideal world, everybody would be covered. The problem is that it cannot
work, especially with the United States economy being in the state that it is in
today. Margaret Thatcher once said that socialist governments “always run out
of other people’s money.” With Obamacare, which is essentially a socialist
government operation, the United States runs out of both money and doctors. The
United States simply does not have enough money to be spent on health care for
all. The cost of treatment will result in higher taxes and the cost of medical
care will only go up.
Another way that the
PPACA will affect doctors is in the case of religiously orthodox institutions,
especially Catholic hospitals. Under the new regulations in the PPACA, Catholic
hospitals will be required to perform abortions and sterilizations, as well as give
out contraceptives and provide them in employee insurance plans. All of these things
go directly against fundamental Catholic religious beliefs and the consciences
of faithful Catholic doctors and employees. The imposition of providing these
services goes against the freedom of religion promised in the constitution. The
Catholic Church will not back down and comply on this issue. Conflicts coming
from this situation are sure to grow exponentially, and over 30 cases have already
been filed against the government based on this mandate. According to the
Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, “there are 36 cases and over 100 individuals
representing hospitals, universities, businesses, schools, and people all
speaking with one voice to affirm the freedom of religion guaranteed in the
Constitution” (“Mandate Information”).
One must consider
what doctors think about ObamaCare. The PPACA was not written and passed by
doctors, but by bureaucrats with no experience in the medical field and no
knowledge of how health care works. This is one reason why so many medical
practitioners are unhappy with the bill. Seventy five percent of 688 doctors
surveyed at “Sermo.com” disapprove of it (“New Survey”). A substantial number
of medical associations have decried the bill and its effects. Mark Kellen,
M.D., the ex-president of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons,
said that “the entire logic of [ObamaCare] is
flawed and is based on decreasing patient choices and ultimately transferring
control to the federal government” and that “the bill has no laudable parts” (qtd. in “The
‘Health Care Reform’ Bill”).
Under the PPACA, around
thirty million people will be added to the health care system without adding a
single doctor. The Association of American Medical Colleges has predicted that
“the United States [will face] a shortage of more than 90,000 physicians by
2020 – a number that will grow to more than 130,000 by 2025 (“Fixing the Doctor
Shortage”).” The country simply does not have enough new people graduating from
medical schools to fill the demands of this law. That number does not even take
into consideration the previously mentioned eighty-three percent of doctors who
consider quitting. When a doctor has to see more patients in a day as a result
of people coming in for treatment covered by their mandatorily purchased
insurance, he has even less time to see each one and will become severely
overburdened by patients. This is also harmful for patients because it will
likely result in a doctor’s office being run similarly to a DMV office where
patients will have to wait in line and take a number.
The Patient
Protection and Affordable Care act violates patients’ freedoms in more than one
way. First and foremost, it does not make sense to require people to spend
money that they do not have on something they do not want or need, which is
health insurance in this case. If a young man is starting a business and wants
to lessen expenses by waiving health insurance, too bad. Section 5000A of the
act requires that he pay a $750 fine if he wishes to opt out of coverage
(Patient 5000A c.3.A). Also, under section 1302, women who cannot have children
must buy a policy that covers maternity services, teetotalers must buy a policy
that includes substance abuse coverage, and single men without children must
pay for pediatric coverage (Patient 1302.a.1). The list goes on. The insurance
plans Americans will be made to buy will be a one-size-fits-all deal. This is
an example of the government having far, far too much control over American
citizens’ lives today. (Hogberg)
Health care reform
in the United States is needed, but not the reform that ObamaCare will bring. In
an ideal patient-doctor dynamic, the doctor is able to focus all of his or her
attention on the patient. Quality medical care is provided and the patient is
successfully treated without going broke paying for the coverage. With ObamaCare,
the doctor has an array of things distracting his focus. Quality of care
diminishes due to shortage of doctors and added patients. Treatment is not
always given properly due to physician distractions and waiting lists like
those found in the health care systems of Canada and the United Kingdom. The
country, and therefore patients, will sink further into debt when insurance and
taxes cannot pay for everyone’s coverage.
ObamaCare does not
fix the problems in the United States’ health care system; it amplifies them by
furthering the same failing systems that are already in place. It does not
provide quality care for all as the politicians who passed it have continued to
say; in fact, it does just the opposite. The United States needs a health care
plan that is not comprised of two thousand pages of fine print. The Patient
Protection and Affordable Care Act is, and will continue to be, destructive to
doctors, patients, the medical system of the United States, and the entire
country; therefore, the bill must be repealed and replaced, lest the United
States be brought to its knees.
“Doctors’ Attitudes on the Future of
Medicine.” Doctor Patient Medical Association
Foundation. n.p., June 2012. Web. 3 Oct. 2012.
“Fixing
the Doctor Shortage.” Association of
American Medical Colleges. n.p., 2012. Web. 21 Oct. 2012
Frist,
Dr. William H. “What My Doctor Thinks of ObamaCare.” The Week. The Week Publications, 29 August 2012. Web. 3 Oct. 2012.
“HHS
Mandate Information Central.” The Becket
Fund for Religious Liberty. n.p., n.d. Web. 13 Oct. 2012
Hogberg, David. “20 Ways ObamaCare Will Take Away Your
Freedoms.” Investors Business Daily. n.p., 21 Mar. 2010. Web. 3 Oct.
2012.
“New Survey: 75% of Physicians Largely Oppose the
President’s Health Care Law.” Sermo.com. n.p., n.d. Web. 13 Oct. 2012.
Roy, Avik. “‘Health Affairs’ Study: One Third of Doctors Won’t
Accept New Medicaid Patients.” Forbes.
7 Aug. 2012. Web. 13 Oct. 2012
“There are ‘No Laudable Parts’ in the ‘Health Care Reform
Bill,’ say AAPS Members.” Association of
American Physicians and Surgeons Online. n.p., 26 July 2006. Web. 13 Oct.
2012.
United States. Cong. Senate. House. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Hearings 111th
Cong., 2nd sess. Washington: GPO, 2010. Web.
Peter
Dat Blogger
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