Research Briefing

Obama’s Restrictions On Doctors’ Freedoms Could “Soon Be The Law Of The Land”

ROBERT GIBBS: “I Think Whoever Sits Here This Time Next Week, You Will Be Talking About Healthcare Reform Not As A Presidential Proposal, But As Something That Will Soon Be The Law Of The Land.” (Robert Gibbs, Fox News’s “Fox News Sunday,” 3/14/10)

IF HOUSE DEMS PASS OBAMA’S GOVERNMENT TAKEOVER OF HEALTH CARE, OPPRESSIVE REGULATIONS AND MEDICARE CUTS WILL MAKE DOCTORS DROP PATIENTS …

Obama Conceded Senate Bill “Might Have Violated” Pledge That Americans Could Keep Their Doctor. “[W]e said from the start that -- that it was going to be important for us to be consistent in saying to people … that you’re not going to have anybody getting in between you and your doctor in your decision making. And I think that some of the provisions that got snuck in might have violated that pledge. And so we were -- we were in the process of scrubbing this and making sure that it’s tight.” (President Barack Obama, Remarks At The House Republican Retreat, Baltimore, MD, 1/29/10)

Mayo Clinic Says Government-Run Health Care Will Force Doctors To Drop Patients. “[L]awmakers are on track to approve across-the-board federal payment reductions of $155 billion over 10 years for hospitals ... ‘Across-the-board cuts will be harmful to everyone and we think it is particularly bad to penalize the high-value organizations,’ said Jeff Korsmo, executive director of the Mayo Clinic Health Policy Center. ‘We will have to violate our values in order to stay in business and reduce our access to government patients.’” (Phil Galewitz, “‘Model’ Health Systems Press Case For Medicare Fix In Reform,” Kaiser Health News, 7/20/09)

Government-Run Health Care Could Drive Doctors Out Of Business, Especially In Rural Areas. “According to Dr. Scott Nelson, a family practice physician in Cleveland, Miss. … ‘There is an unprecedented level of frustration with the government and Medicare in Mississippi,’ Nelson explained. ‘I have not heard of any doctors in my area opting out of Medicare, because there are not enough patients with private insurance in the rural Mississippi Delta ... I foresee some small practices closing altogether.’”  (Audrey Grayson, “Docs Bailing Out Of Medicare, Medicaid,” ABC News Medical Unit, 7/8/08)

Virginia Cardiologist Says Medicare Cuts Will Force Him, Other Small-Town Doctors To Close Their Offices. “The cuts would be ‘impossible’ for some small-town cardiologists who rely on Medicare patients, said Zia Roshandel, a heart doctor in Culpeper, Virginia. The town of 10,000 people is about 60 miles southwest of Washington ... If the proposal stands, ‘the bottom line is I’m going to close the office,’ he said. ‘This is impossible for me to survive.’” (Alex Nussbaum and Lisa Rapaport, "Cardiologists Crying Foul Over Obama Medicare Cuts," Bloomberg, 8/28/09)

WILL RESTRICT THEIR FREEDOM OF CONSCIENCE …

Obama’s Bill Would Conflict With Current Conscience Protections For Doctors Who Do Not Want To Perform Aborrtions. “The proposed healthcare bills would impose new mandates to cover certain services, creating new risks of conflicts over conscience… Thus, any item or service defined as ‘essential’ must be provided—regardless of any conscientious objection on the part of the insurer, purchaser, or plan sponsor. The freedom that insurers, purchasers, and sponsors currently enjoy under federal law to offer or purchase health plans that are not morally or religiously objectionable to them will be lost. Health plans may therefore be newly required to exclude providers because they have a conscientious objection to particular procedures.” (U.S. Conference Of Catholic Bishops, “The Need For Conscience Protection,” Fact Sheet, Accessed 3/15/10)

WILL RESTRICT THEIR FREEDOM TO TREAT PATIENTS AS THEY SEE FIT …

Former Georgia Medical Association President Says Dems Will Create “Interference In The Physician-Patient Relationship.” “[Dr. Michael] Greene, a family doctor and past president of the Medical Association of Georgia, is not a fan of what he’s heard or read ... Greene’s biggest issue with the plans? ‘From a physician’s standpoint, the interference in the physician-patient relationship ... We’re handing over a tremendous amount of power to an appointed branch of government ...’” (Rodney Manley, "Middle Georgians Weigh In On Health-Care Reform," The Macon Telegraph, 8/16/09)

Louisiana Executive Physician Says Government-Run Health Care Would “Take Away [His] Ability To Practice Medicine.” “Dr. Andy Blalock, an executive physician at Our Lady of Lourdes Regional Medical Center, called the Obama reform plan ‘the biggest health care crisis to face this country in the last 50 years. Health care that’s run like the post office is not good medicine...’ Blalock said a government-run insurance system would ‘ruin’ the U.S. health care system by escalating costs and limiting patient choice and access. ‘Government takeover of health care will take away my ability to practice medicine,’ he said.” (Jeff Moore, "Health Care Forum Draws Overflow Crowd," The Daily Advertiser, 8/18/09)

Doctors Would Be Prevented From Starting Their Own Hospitals. “The bill would bar physician-owned hospitals that do not have a provider agreement prior to Feb. 1, 2010, from participating in Medicare... The bill also would limit expansion of the hospitals, barring such hospitals from increasing the number of operating rooms, procedure rooms and beds beyond the point where they would have 200 percent of the operating rooms, procedure rooms or beds that they had on the date of enactment.” (Emily Ethridge and Kate Davidson, “H.R. 3590,” CQ Bill Analysis, Accessed 3/15/10)

• As Physician-Owned Hospitals Provide Better Care Than Community Hospitals. “Patient satisfaction among Medicare beneficiaries treated in specialty hospitals was very high. Contrary to allegations made by competing hospitals, we found very little evidence of poor quality of care in specialty hospitals relative to community hospitals; instead, we found many instances of high-quality care that should be encouraged. Physicians’ commitment to and pride in their specialty hospitals are powerful positive forces that critics have underappreciated…” (Leslie Greenwald, et. al., “Specialty Versus Community Hospitals: Referrals, Quality, And Community Benefits,” Health Affairs 25 No. 1, 2006)

AND WILL GIVE THEM NO FREEDOM FROM FRIVILOUS LAWSUITS

Obama’s Tort Reform Pilot Program Proposal Was Not Serious, And Was Just “A Test Balloon” To See If Republicans Would Support His Government-Run Health Care Bill. “Politically, the program, mentioned in Obama’s joint speech to Congress, was a test balloon to see whether medical liability reform could be a sweetener to build Republican support for reform. It didn’t work and Obama largely dismissed the issue a few days later. This program is what remains.” (Chris Frates, “W.H. Launches Medical Liability Reform Pilot,” Politico’s “Live Pulse” Blog, 9/17/09)

And Obama Instead Wants To Fund “Pre-Litigation Screening” Program That Does Nothing To Lower Costs. “Officials at Health and Human Services say they will provide specifics on how much money will go to these pilot projects and/or how states will access that cash within the month, but the White House has already given some indication of what projects they would like to see funded. One idea is pre-litigation screening, where patients would have to present their claims to a panel of experts before going to court… A legislative audit conducted in 1993 found ‘no objective way to determine whether the pre-litigation process has been a success.’” (Matt Canham, “Republicans Skeptical Of Malpractice Reform,” The Salt Lake Tribune, 9/13/09)

CBO Says Republicans’ Tort Reform Proposal Would Could Save $54 Billion Over 10 Years. “Congressional budget analysts said Friday that lawmakers could save as much as $54 billion over the next decade by imposing an array of new limits on medical malpractice lawsuits ...” (Lori Montgomery, “Tort Reform Could Save $54 Billion, CBO Says,” The Washington Post, 10/10/09)

But Howard Dean Says “Tort Reform Is Not In The Bill… Because The People Who Wrote It Did Not Want To Take On The Trial Lawyers.” “Here is why tort reform is not in the bill. When you go to pass a really enormous bill like that, the more stuff you put in it, the more enemies you make, right? And the reason that tort reform is not in the bill is because the people who wrote it did not want to take on the trial lawyers in addition to everyone else they were taking on. And that is the plain and simple truth.” (Howard Dean, Town Hall Meeting, Reston, VA, 8/25/09)