Mar 17 NEJM Finding: Half of the Doctors Retire if Obamacare Passes

The New England Journal of Medicine commissioned a poll that should scare Democrats. This isn't the type of news that politicians can ignore:

Health Reform and Primary Care Physicians

46.3% of primary care physicians (family medicine and internal medicine) feel that the passing of health reform will either force them out of medicine or make them want to leave medicine.

You can't reform health care without having enough physicians. It's physically impossible. I highlighted in this post something from a study done by the American Medical Students Association, aka AMSA:

There would be a removal of profit-motive in health care. The driving force behind the health industry would be patient care and not profit maximization.

Removing the profit motive of any profession will get you less of that product or service. The NEJM's study verifies that.

Again, according to AMSA's study, here's the downside to single-payer:

Increased access to preventive care and the ability of government to purchase prescription medications in bulk would also help drive down health care costs. However, the corresponding drop in revenue for pharmaceutical companies could lead to a reduction in overall research and development, slowing down technological advancement.

Without a profit motive, new miracle cures won't be developed nearly as quickly. How many people would be willing to pay less in exchange for getting fewer life-saving cures? I'm betting that far more people would be willing to pay a little more in exchange for those life-changing drugs and procedures. I'm betting that because Americans always want added value from whatever they buy.

Ed nails it with this analysis:

If we want to maintain access to the health-care system, we need to maintain and increase the provider supply. Policy makers should note the pricing signals being sent by ObamaCare. If it discourages almost half of all current primary-care physicians now, what will that supply look like in ten years? It won't be growing, especially with the industry's eminences grises taking a pass on mentoring new talent into the field. The best and brightest will turn away from medicine to other fields, probably the law, which will get a huge boost from ObamaCare, leaving future positions to be filled by others.

Rejecting Obamacare is the only sane option. There is little to be gained and much to be lost if Obamacare is enacted.

To put it in simplest terms, that's an easy cost-benefit analysis.

Comments welcome at LFR.