I recently had a shock when my children’s pediatrician announced she was closing her office. We love this doctor, she helped us through scary times and was always there with answers when we had medical questions or even seeking general advice about our children.
She is closing her practice for financial reasons and those who know the philosophy I follow may assume I am going to blame the government or ObamaCare for this. Well I cannot, I don’t have enough information to make that judgement in her circumstance. But I do have two points I’d like to make.
First if the government makes further incursions into healthcare as is proposed under ObamaCare which is currently embodied in the so called Baucus plan physicians will quit or close their practices, they’ve said so (I’ll provide a link later).
Second, on a recent trip to get our daughters a flu vaccine, our pediatrician — upon first facing my wife since making her announcement to close her practice — asked her, “please don’t yell at me.” My wife was shocked, we were of course both saddened to hear she was closing but we would never berate her for it. I was appalled to learn that other parents thought they were right to yell and insult her for a decision that she made which was obviously painful for her. I think the idea that makes people think they were right to yell at this woman is very closely related to the idea that makes them think they are right to force the doctors, insurance companies and ultimately their neighbors to provide healthcare under government coercion. The idea is that the sick are entitled to some sort of medical treatment above all other considerations including who has to go broke or more importantly who has to be forced under threat of violence to provide it.
This all came to mind when I read Dr. Paul Hsieh’s most recent, and quite excellent, op-ed published at Pajamas Media, titled Is Your Doctor getting ready to Quit? I recommend everybody read this as the proposed legislation will impact them.
If you are genuinely interested in the morality and practicality of so called Universal Healthcare — and not just partisan bickering or blatant lies — The Objective Standard has made several of Dr. Hsieh’s other articles on the subject available to read online for free:
Thanks for discussing this issue from the patient’s perspective! I’ll link to your piece from the FIRM blog.
Just curious did you assure her it was perfectly ok to be quitting under such mounting pressure? And if so how did she respond?
Richard, I did not, at least not directly. I did tell her through email that while I was sad to see her leaving her practice, I knew she would do well as she continued her career, based on the excellence she demonstrated to me working with my children. She told my wife that the message meant a lot to her.
Richard,
I am Kevin’s wife & I did tell her that I totally understood why she was quitting. If she can’t make money for her family, then she needs to be doing something where she can. I know her family should be her top priority so while I was disappointed to be losing such a great doctor, I could not be angry at her about it. I also told her that there was NO way that I would yell at her for this. I know her level of care & I know that had NOTHING to do with her practice closing. I was shocked when she said that several parents were screaming at her that day; I could not imagine any rational reason to do such a thing.
Her response was that while she needs to begin making money for her family (she hasn’t brought in an income from the 2 year old practice at all), she said that she also was concerned with the 300 families that she cares for. She wanted to be able to bring them/us the highest level of care & is getting to the point where she can’t financially do it.
Her main concern was that the community would not totally shut her out, as she lives in the area & her children attend the local schools. She basically wanted to know if we’d still say hi if we saw her on the street. With the level of care, kindness & concern that she has given my kids, me & my family in the past 3 years (we saw her at a practice prior to her solo one), she deserves more than a simple hello. We exchanged personal info & will stay in touch, with me forever hoping that she goes back into pediatric medicine (she’s going to be an er doc in the city) while my kids are young enough.
Kevin,
“I think the idea that makes people think they were right to yell at this woman is very closely related to the idea that makes them think they are right to force the doctors, insurance companies and ultimately their neighbors to provide healthcare under government coercion.”
Well these people will get what they deserve but it’s too bad that you and your family had to suffer for it.
They were screaming at the doctor? As the goverment expands its control, that type of terrible behavior is only going to get more common.
Steve
Hi Steve,
Yes, I suspect they feel entitled somehow to have whatever they want or need. Granted some people are just jerks and that could explain it but this was a small practice and she would literally spend as long as needed with each family answering questions and explaining her medical judgements. So it’s not possible to question her dedication to her craft or feel she just grew tired of it. To feel saddened is one thing. To feel like you were unjustly wronged is unwarranted and wrong.
I suspect more and more of the better doctors will for various reasons need to flee to other careers or less risky positions. Those that will flourish under the increasing regulations will be those you don’t want.
Kevin,
No reason to question her dedication. I guess its always possible for someone to get tired of their career or decide something else is more intersting. However, if people are treating you poorly it sounds it’s probably, at minimum a contributing factor.
So based on your supposition, you expect to see a general movement of people away from occupations with the most regulations toward those with less regulations? That’s reasonable and it seems like a testible hypothesis to me; I wonder if there is any data to support it?
Steve
Just clarification, I didn’t intend to question her dedication, rather was postulating a possible justification for anger at her by others for quitting.
I would agree. In general I would expect people to choose less regulated industries or migrate away from industries as they become more regulated. This is not based on any sources or studies I’ve read but I suspect numbers are available if someone were to go looking. Although, I think, you may get a different kind of person migrating into that position. Politicians instead of physicians.