[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 13]
[House]
[Page 18040]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    WHERE HAVE ALL THE DOCTORS GONE?

  (Mr. POE of Texas asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, half of the primary care physicians 
say they would like to leave the practice of medicine in 3 years. There 
is just too much cost and time involved from red tape by insurance 
companies and the government agencies. And that's before government 
bureaucrats nationalize the whole system. Also, their costs for 
malpractice insurance has skyrocketed.
  The American Medical Association said more doctors are leaving the 
profession than being replaced by new doctors. Doctors are just hanging 
up their stethoscopes and choosing a different line of work. It's just 
not worth it.
  It costs about $200,000 to get through medical school. The government 
keeps bailing out its special interest buddies, but not one cent goes 
to help pay off these college loans. And the administration wants 
doctors to shoulder even more of the costs of practicing medicine. It's 
no wonder they're choosing other professions and moving off to Jackson 
Hole, Wyoming.
  To make matters worse, many doctors are no longer accepting Medicare 
or Medicaid patients because government reimbursement doesn't even 
cover the cost of the treatment. Now, isn't that lovely? No doctors and 
more patients.
  Mr. Speaker, when we run out of doctors, what will we do? Turn our 
health care system over to government snake oil salesmen?
  And that's just the way it is.

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