I spent my professional life in healthcare, nearly 35 years as a nurse, the last 20 years in anesthesia after obtaining a master's degree. I shrugged in 2012 based on what I saw healthcare becoming.
For the first time in over 30 years we regularly saw drug shortages. We were counseled by lawyers to NOT have "personal" discussions with patients- don't ask what work they do, where they came from, what family will be available to help post-procedure. For the first time, working 6-8 hours without any break (even for bathroom!) became the norm.
Frankly, I am surprised most of my co-workers and physician friends are still practicing. Once I heard the US gov't say "healthcare is a RIGHT", I was out. In America we have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Our individual rights end where they infringe on the rights of anyone else.

My daughter recently reminded me of these lines:
"Let them discover the kind of doctors that their system will now produce. Let them discover, in their operating rooms and hospital wards, that it is not safe to place their lives in the hands of a man whose life they have throttled. It is not safe, if he is the sort of man who resents it- and still less safe, if he is the sort who doesn't."

I going to be 82 on July 7th.
I only mention this so you'll understand what I'm about to post. I see a lot of doctors. I have already lived longer than all my relatives have with the exception of a few cousins. Some of the maladies that did in my grandfather, my mother, and my father have been found in me and have either been controlled or cured. So, you must know that I see a Lot of doctors. Many of those doctors have been seeing me for years. Many of them are suddenly retiring. And orthopedist, a urologist, a heart surgeon, are some of the more recent ones. I am an example of a person being worked upon from head to toe. Literally. Some of the retirees have become friends. A cardiologist, soon to retire, told me off the record, that several doctors in his group are retiring or going to work at lesser positions because they no longer want to put up with the ACA and what they see it is turning into down the road.
This is how the left wins. Obamacare: "In hoc signo vinces.".

His name wouldn't happen to be Hendricks, would it?

I have much the same thoughts everyday, only I'm an automotive engineer. 100% of my time (and so with many others here) is spent figuring out how to meet government mandates for fuel economy and emissions. After those mandates are met, then building cars that customers will actually want, at a price they can afford, and at which my employer can make a profit, comes into play.

K just read an article about this.

Part of the plan, Coward and Piven, Alynski....... Overload the system and bring it down. Solution: single payer healthcare.

My wife's long time Doctor is moving to another state because of CT's cooperation with the obobo careless system...many in this state will not take obobo care never mind Mediocrecare or minimuncaid and she's having a hard time finding another doctor...

A doctor of mine shrugged four years ago.

actually doctors have been leaving the medical profession since the 1980's. the basic reason then was when medicare started reducing what they would pay doctors for their services when the patient had no insurance or in the case of pediatricians when their insurance rates skyrocketed because women did not listen to the doctor and the result in many cases were damaged births that could have been avoided. today i suspect the rate of doctors walking is increasing for the reasons cited by this doctor.

unfortunately on a daily basis we hear, see actions that are making life in the usa let us say "not so good"!

My pediatrician owns his own practice and is known for being one of the few who makes house calls. Next year he's closing his office and converting an RV into his office. No staff. No rent. Hopefully, no more phone calls from people trying to wedge Obamacare patients into his practice...

The only doctor I see (and as little as possible) is a genuine doctor in the sense of caring for people. He had a practice and went under because he took too many medicare and medicaid patients as a sense of doing what he loves doing - using his knowledge and skills to help people. He took a while retrenching and opened a clinic that doesn't take coverage for his services. Just $50 a visit. He is open to walk-ins. Since most policies these days amount to catastrophic coverage only with such huge deductibles, it makes little difference if you only occasionally need something simple.

Of course when he has to refer to other services, such as prescriptions, imaging, etc, then you must do what it takes with whatever healthcare policy you may or may not have.

I wish it weren't so. Too many good doctors are leaving.I wish you ten best in your new endeavors.

Hello RMP,
"If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there'd be a shortage of sand." Milton Friedman
Regards,
O.A.

I had that moment in 2007 after years of medical device control by fda. We just closed our medical device company and I vowed to stay out of medical manufacturing forever
I suppose I shrugged in a small quiet way too.

After 30 years of practice, ranging from military service, to big Med Center, to solo and integrative practice, my wife has recently shrugged ... sort of. She has transitioned her 3,000+patients practice of seeing "nearly all comers" to a system under MDVIP (see MDVIP.com for more info on this system) that allows only 600 patients who subscribe to a rather sophisticated annual "Executive Wellness Exam" to remain in her practice. They still use their insurance, but they now get same/next-day appts, lots of access to the doctor and staff because of the smaller patient panel, very customized and personalized health evaluations and research that has been proven to improve participants' health in peer-reviewed studies.
I say all this because this is the kind of practice she has provided for YEARS, but without adequate compensation under the "health cost containment and crisis management" program that US healthcare has evolved into.
Now she can practice medicine in the way she feels it SHOULD be done ... with the patient's best care in mind with patients who recognize the value of getting their best health care and in true Gulch fashion, they are willing to PAY for the service they get. No demands for their "right to health care", or expectation for discounts to get her years of experience and research effort.
So yeah, I guess she "shrugged" as far as the 2,400 patients are concerned ... but she is salvation and hope for the 600 who respect knowledge and value.

And the ones who don't are becoming slaves...

On a slightly related note...the regulatory squeeze is really on smaller investment firms. Not unusual to spend 15 hours/week just doing compliance. Talking to a guy in my office about it last night - I haven't seen a small firm open up in our region...ever. Not in 20 years here.

but it is not the business of medicine which has
created "too big of a wedge" between the doctor and
the patient. . it is the government. -- j
.