The "doctors will quit in droves if Obamacare goes into effect!" narrative always feels to me like the "that's it, I'm quitting Facebook!" uproar everytime FB changes a setting: I've no doubt both represent a real, if extremely minor, discontent, but there's not a chance in hell of either actually occuring. How many doctors are really going to give up what is, by any metric, let alone one based off the worst recession in several generations, an extremely lucrative career over some fuzzy ideological and/or financial frustration?
83% of them, if you believe The Daily Caller, which you shouldn't, ever. Via No More Mister Nice Blog:
The link goes to a Daily Caller story posted yesterday afternoon:
Eighty-three percent of American physicians have considered leaving their practices over President Barack Obama's health care reform law, according to a survey released by the Doctor Patient Medical Association.
The DPMA, a non-partisan association of doctors and patients, surveyed a random selection of 699 doctors nationwide....
"A non-partisan association of doctors and patients"? Really?
Not really:
The Doctor Patient Medical Association (DPMA) ... is a member of the National Tea Party Federation....
The DPMA is a member of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). DPMA Chair and Co-Founder, Kathryn Serkes, is on ALEC's Health and Human Services Task Force....
So this is a blatantly partisan survey. What's more, it's a fairly old blatantly partisan survey -- Townhall and RedState cited the results on June 14.
Given the tea party's penchant for exaggeration, and tendency to view basic government functions as not reminiscent of facism but the very living, breathing thing, 83% is probably a little high. As Lisa Simpson said to Bart when he tried to change his report card full of Ds into As, "Why didn't you at least forge plausible grades?" The only thing 83% of anybody agrees on is hatred of Congress. And while nobody wants to take the individual mandate to prom, it falls well short of that threshold.
Anyway, this ain't a betting blog, but I'll put down PoliticOlogy's August budget that no more than .000001% of physicians end up quitting over Obamacare or its consequences. Hell, more of you might actually quit Facebook.
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