Playing the Percentages Leading Up to 2012 Elections

If you were a politician looking at the following percentages as revealed by a survey of 2400 physicians in a Physicians Foundation Survey (Health Reform and the Decline of Physician Private Practice, October 2010), what would you do in preparing for the 2012 elections?

• 60% said health reform will compel them to close or significantly restrict their practices to certain categories of patients.

• Of the above, 93% said they will be forced to close or significantly restrict their practices to Medicaid patients, while 87% said they would be forced to close or significantly restrict their practices to Medicare patients.

• 40% of physicians said they would drop out of patient care in the next one to three years, either by retiring, seeking a non-clinical job within health care, or by seeking a non-health care related job.

• 59% said health reform will cause them to spend less time with patients.

• While over half of physicians said health reform will cause patient volumes in their practices to increase, 69% said they no longer have the time or resources to see additional patients in their practices while still maintaining quality of care.

One, risk alienating over 500,000 physicians by not arranging for a permanent fix of the Medicare formula for paying physicians.

Two, risk alienating 47 million seniors by depriving them of access to doctors.

You decide. All of you in the House, and 33 of you in the Senate will be up for re-election in 2012. Meanwhile in the next two years, 10 million more baby boomers will become Medicare eligible.