ObamaCare and Your Physician

Scott Gottlieb:

The 60% of doctors who are self-employed will be hardest hit. That includes specialists, such as dermatologists and surgeons, who see a lot of private patients. But it also includes tens of thousands of primary-care doctors, the very physicians the Obama administration says need the most help.

Doctors will consolidate into larger practices to spread overhead costs, and they'll cram more patients into tight schedules to make up in volume what's lost in margin. Visits will be shortened and new appointments harder to secure. It already takes on average 18 days to get an initial appointment with an internist, according to the American Medical Association, and as many as 30 days for specialists like obstetricians and neurologists.

Right or wrong, more doctors will close their practices to new patients, especially patients carrying lower paying insurance such as Medicaid. Some doctors will opt out of the system entirely, going "cash only." If too many doctors take this route the government could step in -- as in Canada, for example -- to effectively outlaw private-only medical practice.

WHO Raises Swine Flu Alert Level

Reuters:

MEXICO CITY/GENEVA (Reuters) - A new virus has killed up to 149 people in Mexico and the World Health Organization moved closer on Monday to declaring it the world's first flu pandemic since 1968 as the illness spread further in the United States and Europe.

The WHO raised its pandemic alert level to phase 4 over the deadly swine flu virus, indicating a significant increased risk of a pandemic, a global outbreak of a serious disease.

There were 40 confirmed cases of the flu in the United States, including 20 cases at a New York City school where eight cases were already identified, U.S. health officials said.

Heh: "Swine Flu Over The Cuckoo's Nest"

Swine Flu Emergency Declared

The U.S. has declared a public health emergency, with 20 cases in five states reported so far. Plus, the country's really in the best of hands:

“U.S. public health officials did not know about a growing outbreak of swine flu in Mexico until nearly a week after that country started invoking protective measures, and didn’t learn that the deaths were caused by a rare strain of the influenza until after Canadian officials did. . . . U.S. public health officials are still largely in the dark about what’s happening in Mexico two weeks after the outbreak was recognized.”

More basic info about swine flu here and here.

Roche says it is ready to deliver 3 million doses of tamiflu to the World Health Organization.