Obamacare: Not enough doctors in CA, FL

Feb. 26, 2013

By John Seiler

An axiom of Econ. 101 is: Lower cost increases demand.

That’s what’s happening to Obamacare. By cutting the price of health care to zero for more patients, it’s greatly increasing demand. More people that might treat themselves — say, popping Advil instead of going to the doctor and getting a prescription painkiller — are going to doctors. Why not? It’s free. That’s producing a shortage of doctors.

In a free market, increased demand would produce an increased supply — in this case, of doctors. But medical hospitals are controlled mostly by the federal and state governments, and by the doctors’ cartel known as the American Medical Association. So the supply isn’t increasing enough to meet demand.

From Governing.com:

“As the state moves to expand healthcare coverage to millions of Californians under President Obama’s healthcare law, it faces a major obstacle: There aren’t enough doctors to treat a crush of newly insured patients.”

The same is happening in Florida, according to SunSentinel.com:

“Whether you’re employed and insured, elderly and on Medicare, or poor and covered by Medicaid, the Florida Medical Association says there’s a growing shortage of doctors — especially specialists — available to provide you with medical care.

“And if the Florida Legislature goes along with Gov. Rick Scott’s recommendation to offer Medicaid coverage to an additional 1 million Floridians — part of the Affordable Care Act [Obamacare] that takes effect next January — the FMA says that shortage will only get worse.”

So Obamacare will give everyone “Affordable” medical care — assuming you can find a doctor who will see you.

But I’ll tell you the secret of surviving Obamacare socialism: Don’t get sick.