Grim Milestone: Obama HHS to send spies into doctors' offices

Or, as Don Surber puts it, "Obama’s new war is on doctors."

President Obama’s solution to a shortage of doctors caused by Obamacare? Spy on them. ...Of course, that is not the spin from the New York Times:

Alarmed by a shortage of primary care doctors, Obama administration officials are recruiting a team of “mystery shoppers” to pose as patients, call doctors’ offices and request appointments to see how difficult it is for people to get care when they need it.

The administration says the survey will address a “critical public policy problem”: the increasing shortage of primary care doctors, including specialists in internal medicine and family practice. It will also try to discover whether doctors are accepting patients with private insurance while turning away those in government health programs that pay lower reimbursement rates.

...“I don’t like the idea of the government snooping,” said Dr. Raymond Scalettar, an internist in Washington. “It’s a pernicious practice — Big Brother tactics, which should be opposed.”

So, American Medical Association, how’s that support of Obamacare working out for you?

The AMA doesn't care: its leadership is getting amply rewarded for its support of America's largest entitlement program.

When I sent Doctor Jay the article, he responded:

Thanks,

Actually, I was aware of it. What a waste of resources.

And what do they do with this info? Command Docs to accept government insurance?

Precisely, Jay.

In a wonderfully written article in National Affairs by Avik Roy, the imminent and inevitable collapse of Medicare is described in plainspoken terms that even liberals should be able to comprehend.

Something like the Ryan approach will be crucial to the future of Medicare. The program is set to go bankrupt in a decade, and seems past the point of small fixes or yet another tweak to the price-control formula (as proposed under Obamacare). A broader reform must come. Medicare's history, its importance to the seniors who depend on it, and the nature of its fiscal problems suggest that such a reform must take account of six factors.

First, we must remember that Medicare's primary achievement — protecting economically vulnerable retirees — is a salutary one, the preservation of which must be the cornerstone of reform ... As many have suggested (and as the Ryan budget proposes), reforms should be implemented only for future enrollees age 55 or younger, in order to allow for a gradual transition into a reformed system, and to preserve benefits for those who have long planned their retirements around the existing system.

Second, we must appreciate the power of cost-sharing ... from 2003 to 2010, Medicare's prescription-drug benefit contained significant cost-sharing provisions, in plans administered entirely by private insurers, and the program came in under budget as a result...

...Third, we must introduce means-testing into Medicare...

...Fourth, we should index the Medicare retirement age to life expectancy...

Fifth, we must address the substantial problem of Medicare fraud. It is estimated that $60 to $100 billion of annual Medicare spending — between 8% and 13% of the total — is fraudulent. Medicare processes over one billion claims per year, and is required by law to reimburse claims within 15 to 30 days. This makes it almost impossible to prevent criminal activity. Private administration of the program would do much to incentivize the development of more thorough auditing practices.

Finally, Medicare must evolve into a system in which individuals can shop for value in insurance plans...

This moment in our politics — when our long-term fiscal situation has suddenly captured public attention — might just offer the opportunity to attempt such [steps]. It is an opportunity we must not allow to slip by.

But instead of seriously addressing their own collapsing entitlement programs, Democrats instead demagogue serious plans like that proposed by Paul Ryan. They mock those would repair the system. They run commercials showing Republicans pushing Grandma off a cliff.

And they will spy on doctors and eventually enslave them. Too harsh a term? What would you call compelling doctors to work at wages dictated by the state? To serve the federal government in locations specified by the state --- whether they like it or not?

That, my friends, is the inevitable result of Obamacare. Indentured servitude at best, slavery at worst. In other words, Obamacare has nothing at all to do with improving health care in America. It is intended to control you. Your body, the physical container of your soul, so that the government -- not God and not family -- becomes the most important entity in your life.

It is a totalitarian system and antithetical to the America's founding, traditions and history.

I urge you to remember in 2012.