I would bet that no member of the House who voted on the ponderous Pelosi bill last week had read the whole thing. But even if someone had managed that, simply reading a bill is not sufficient. Those who purport to represent us must also evaluate the likely effects of legislation. Knowing what a bill says just gets you to the more important question: what will it do?
What legislation will do means not just what the bill’s supporters want it to do, but also the unintended consequences. Among the probable unintended consequences of the federal government’s proposed control of health insurance is the decline in the number of doctors. Pols like David Price assume that they will always be able to get medical care, but what about the rest of us? If anyone were to ask one of the zealous supporters of the bill about this prospect, would you get an answer, or just the kind of bombast that greets questions about constitutionality?
What puts me in mind of this is the following letter published in today’s Wall Street Journal:
LETTERS
Government Can’t Marshal Doctors Who Aren’t There
Dr. Herbert Pardes (“The Coming Shortage of Doctors,” op-ed, Nov. 5) leaves out the most important cause of a shortfall of personnel in the medical profession: the manifest hostility of the current environment facing physicians. There is a growing reluctance of bright ambitious young men and women in high school and college to make the commitment necessary to pursue pre-medical studies.
Most of us enter the profession not with expectation of great wealth but expecting a secure and substantial living appropriate to the years of study and training required, the rigors of practice, and the continued maintenance of high standards of performance. Above all we expect autonomy and the ability to configure our work to suit ourselves and our patients best.
These expectations are totally unrealistic today, and the passage of ObamaCare into law would serve only to make a bad situation incalculably worse. One can only wonder at the motivation and judgment of individuals planning to become doctors today. The country should anticipate seeing physicians seeking early retirement in droves, and the ranks of medical schools thinning out. Don’t say no one warned you.
George B. Goodman, M.D.
Sewickley, Pa.
