Doctors aren’t thrilled about the way the health care landscape is changing.
In the face of health reform and other regulatory pressures, a survey reveals that a big proportion of doctors wish they could turn back time and choose a different career path. Forty percent of doctors said they wouldn’t become a physician again given the chance to rethink their career, according to research from the Physicians Practice, which surveyed 1,172 physicians.
Of those who said they wouldn’t become a physician again, 32 percent felt there was too much third-party interference in their practice operations. When asked to indicate the largest barrier to good health care for their patients, 37 percent of physicians identified a lack of adequate insurance coverage and 19 percent said they don’t have enough time to adequately educate patients on better health strategies.
Meanwhile, just 35 percent of respondents said they support the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act or support it with minor changes.
PPACA has been a sore subject for many doctors, as research continues to find that PPACA could deepen the doctor gap. The influx of millions of newly insured Americans who gain coverage under PPACA next year, on top of the already growing physician shortage, will have profound implications for patient access to medical care, industry insiders warn.
“We are at a critical juncture,” Dr. Steven Wartman, president and CEO of the Association of Academic Health Centers, said earlier this year. “As the 2014 deadline for most Americans to have health insurance approaches, the health care workforce is not ready, and we are quickly running out of time.”
The Doctor Patient Medical Association has argued that PPACA will have little positive impact on patients’ access to medical care and will only create red tape for doctors.
Similarly, 45 percent of physicians surveyed by the Physicians Practice said that the re-election of President Obama “bodes poorly for the future of health care.”
Though the survey focused on the frustrations of doctors, the majority — at 60 percent — said they’d choose their career again. The survey also found that 46 percent of physicians said they will continue to practice the same way they do today over the next five years. Fourteen percent of those surveyed plan on retiring in that same time frame.
By Kathryn Mayer September 10, 2013