I love this story about a doctor from Maine. Rather than putting up with all of the ADDITIONAL rules and regulations of ObamaCare, he is essentially “opting out” of the health care system entirely.
According to the article:
The family physician stopped accepting all forms of health insurance. In early 2013, Ciampi sent a letter to his patients informing them that he would no longer accept any kind of health coverage, both private and government-sponsored. Given that he was now asking patients to pay for his services out of pocket, he posted his prices on the practice’s website.
The doctor explained that he can actually do business as he sees fit under the new paradigm:
“I’m freed up to do what I think is right for the patients,” Ciampi said. “If I’m providing them a service that they value, they can pay me, and we cut the insurance out as the middleman and cut out a lot of the expense.”
To me, this is the real-world way that people will “Go Galt” as outlined in Ayn Rand’s classic Atlas Shrugged. After all, it is not the entire society that must be abandoned, but the constricting and inefficient government rules and mandates that hinder humans from acting in their own rational self-interest. While I suspect many MD’s nearing the end of their careers will simply retire due to the new health care law, I hope that younger doctors like this one from Maine will simply “opt-out.”
Any examples of New Mexico MD’s doing the same? I’d love to compile a list of physicians who plan to operate outside ObamaCare’s parameters.
HT: Paul Jacob
Holy Cow, I am just shaking my head at this. The most important health care providers that I see have never taken insurance, and I gladly pay them out of my pocket, because if I did not, I could not compete in triathlons at the age of 50+. And the providers that I see that DO take insurance, I’m about to quit going to, because they are using Obamacare to gouge the hell out of me. “Preventive Care” is supposed to be paid 100% under Obamacare. So you go into the office for a “free” preventive visit, but if you ask one teeny question outside the bounds of what is considered “preventive” as defined by who knows what, they also charge you for an Office Visit. Yeah, all these f*cking MDs are complaining about OBC, but they must be laughing all the way to the bank. So far, OBC has cost me about $1,000 a year more than I use to spend just two years ago. I don’t really know whether it’s actually OBC or not, that’s just what the billing office claims when I call and complain. I’m sick of the whole racket. A free market would take care of all of this.
I have heard of one I will inquire about him.