Since she cannot serve two masters, the government and her patients, she chooses the latter. Daniel Foster reports:
An M.D. in family practice passed along this letter she sent to her patients after Obamacare became law. She relates that, so far, "100% of those who have contacted me about it have supported me and accepted the new conditions."
March 23, 2010
My Dear Patient,
As you must know,
Congress has just passed extensive legislation governing health care
delivery and insurance systems. Whether you agree with what it does or
not, we are all now subject to this law and its sweeping changes.
I
have always conducted my medical practice with my patient’s best
interests as my first priority. Although not legally obliged to do so, I
have routinely provided you with a receipt that has all the codes
necessary to bill your own health insurance company for any
reimbursement to which you are entitled. Until now, that insurance
company was a free enterprise despite the fact that it was heavily
regulated by state and federal laws. Now the situation is quite
different. Through the new law’s mandates,
regulatory powers and reform,
health insurance is and will be largely a government activity which
will have an ever larger jurisdiction over how doctors practice, make
clinical judgments and are paid.
The new law provides for about
150 new government agencies, many of which are designed to be
‘oversight’ bureaucracies which will have the right to decide what
medical care is legal to provide through insurance. Among other things,
they will have the right to review my medical care of you and read your
medical record. Now, as soon as you submit our economic transaction to
your insurance company for reimbursement, you have involved me in these
regulations and put me in the jurisdiction of government for my
activities, decisions and behavior as your doctor.
No one can
have two masters. Either I can serve you as my patient or I can serve
the government. Either I can continue to make your welfare and health my
only concern, including the protection of your privacy and medical
records, or I can abide by ever-increasing amounts of government
regulations and dictates to my decisions. I can’t do both. I choose to
continue to follow my conscience and practice medicine to serve you.
For
this reason, I am responding to the situation created by this new law
by exercising my right not to participate in any health insurance
program. I will still provide you with the same medical services that I
always have, but the interaction will be exclusively and privately
between you and me. This means that I will provide you only with a
receipt for the services you have paid for, but without the additional
information that is required to submit your receipt for reimbursement to
your health insurance company. That is the only way I can make sure
there will be no conflict between following the law and serving you.
Because the law is now in effect, so must these changes be to my
practice.
Sincerely,
Linda Johnston, MD