This Patient Does NOT Get It (with apologies to Kevin)

This doctor went bankrupt.

This is what one of his patients has to say:

I am disappointed with whoever is responsible for allowing a shortage on primary-care physicians. Our Dr. Matthew Masewic is closing his practice due to finances and high insurance costs, which are ridiculous.

It's sad and a shame to lose such a wonderful, kind doctor who is much needed and wanted. We pay high premiums every week and expect our doctors to be paid when due. They work long, hard hours and deserve every cent they get.

Dr. Masewic had a dream - helping everyone - and I believe everyone should help him. He kept us on the right track to staying healthy, and he will be greatly missed.

It would be nice if legislators would do there job and stop allowing insurance companies to do what they want, and hospitals from charging a fortune. It costs more for an aspirin than a doctor visit. Hello, what's up with that? It's time we helped keep our doctors, because soon we won't have any.

Did this patient pay her co-pay when she saw the doctor? If he had tried to stay in business by cancelling his contracts with all the insurance companies and insisting on payment at time of service, would she have continued to see him, cheerfully paying the full fee for receiving care from "such a wonderful, kind doctor who is much needed and wanted"? Or would this letter to the newspaper have been in the same mail as a heartfelt letter to the wonderful doctor thanking him for all his kindness while regretfully requesting the transfer of her records to the big practice up the street who will take her insurance so she can see another wonderful, kind doctor for only $15?

We can go around and around and around about what a shame it is that docs like this guy, me and all of the rest of us primary care dinosaurs can't make a living without ever pointing a finger squarely where the blame belongs:

1. The enormously lucrative, parasitic industry called "Health Insurance" (instead of what it really is: "Health Care Brokerage") that sucks out billions of dollars a year from the interactions between doctors and patients, because it can.
2. American citizens who have come to believe that health care doesn't (and shouldn't) cost them anything. Deep down (not even so deep in some cases) everyone thinks the "ideal" health insurance plan is one that is completely paid for by one's employer and pays for everything. Payroll deductions, deductibles and co-pays are admitted to be necessary evils, but the smaller the better -- hence, the ideal.
   

Capitalism is a good way to do a lot of things, but what it has done to health care in this country -- unfettered -- is to bring it to the brink of destruction. Despite all the calls for doctors and legislators to "do something" about it, I believe Matthew Holt is right: "We'll eventually end up with a health care system like Brazil's where you can have anything you want if you're rich, and most of the rest of you can die in the slums." (quoted from 6 Dirty Little Health Care Secrets)

America is already polarizing itself into oblivion; why should health care be any different?