Over the last few months, Americans have been questioning the validity of the

statement: “If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor.” Dr. Merrill Matthews (in

an article in Forbes) has been asking this question: “Will you even be able to find a

doctor?” America has been facing a doctor shortage for some time. There is reason to

believe that Obamacare is making that problem much worse.

The Association of American Medical Colleges warns that the nation will face a

shortage of 91,500 physicians by 2020. As I have mentioned in previous commentaries,

you don’t turn these numbers around quickly. Even if you could increase the number of

students in medical school today, you wouldn’t see any appreciable impact for more than

a decade. The educational pipeline to create a doctor takes years of medical education,

internship, and residency.

We aren’t just talking about doctors certified with medical specialties. The

Annals of Family Medicine predict a primary care physician shortage of 52,000 by 2025.

Older doctors are leaving the medical field early because they are fed up with federal and

state regulations and bureaucracy. They have had enough.

The additional regulations imposed by Obamacare are hastening the departure of

doctors. Add to this the problems associated with Medicaid and Medicare. More and

more doctors are refusing to take Medicaid and Medicare patients because of the low

reimbursement payments and bureaucratic hassles. Each year the Centers for Medicare

and Medicaid Services (CMS) report the annual exodus of thousands of doctors from the

Medicaid-Medicare system.

These doctors are also likely to refuse to take patients under Obamacare. A

survey of the New York Medical Society found that nearly half (44%) of New York

doctors are not participating in Obamacare. And of those who are participating, three-
fourths are doing so because of existing insurance contracts.

The current debate should not be over the phrase: “If you like your doctor, you

can keep your doctor.” We should be even more concerned about finding a doctor.