Not only are hospitals closing, physicians are hanging up their white coats at an alarming rate. I can't begin to tell you how many physicians I am familiar with that have retired in the last 2 years. Most in frustration & disgust with the way the ACA is negatively effecting the physician/patient relationship. From what I am witnessing, it's happening all over the USA.

EMR (Electronic Medical Records) are a joke. Something that was touted as improving & speeding up physician documentation has turned into a bunch of BS & a time consuming nightmare. It's actually used as governmental surveillance of you, the patient. It's very sad when your physician has to spend all their time staring at a computer screen & typing, rarely having time to actually look up at you, the patient.

When will the Physicians revolt? They are, but it's a silent revolt. The best of the best are leaving in droves. What's being left behind are the Drones. Those that come to work only for a pay check. They do the bare minimum & feel no remorse at not going the extra mile. They feel no connection to their patients. They are not dedicated to the patient but to their pay check. They don't know their patients, they know nothing about their patient's families nor do they want to know anything about them.

It will take a few more years for the general public to reap the woe. Patients who thought they were given a clean bill of health will be dying of terminal diseases that were missed because no one bothered to coordinate their test results with their clinical condition.

The only ones coming out ahead are the Insurance Companies, Big Pharma & big medical equipment companies.

Primary Care Physicians (PCP) will become a thing of the past. You will only be seeing nurse practitioners & physician assistants. I am not adverse to either, they have their place. But.....a few years of condensed medical education is no substitute for the long term education & experience an MD or DO receive.

I am truly sorry this is happening. Medicine is my life. I know for a fact that it does not have to be this way. If you are one of the minority that feels you're getting adequate healthcare, just wait a few years. The people suffering the most are the self-employed working people aged 40-64. They are being punished for being self sufficient & aging.

Those over 65 are suffering too. They were sold a bill of goods with the Medicare Part D plans. Big Pharma. & our Government have gotten creative & are putting all the small Generic Companies out of business, thus tripling the cost of Generic meds. How fortunate for Big Pharma. How unfortunate for those living on Social Security. Who can afford most of these meds? Mitt Romney, George Bush, Obummer, Harry Reid, John Boehner & Nancy Pelosi that's who. Of course, they are spending our hard earned money to pay for their meds.

If this mess, ACA, goes on much longer, irreparable damage will be done to our medical system. In 5 years, you may not even recognize our system. The dedicated will be long gone & all will be treated as a disease, not a human in need of assistance. Those with misdiagnosed terminal illnesses will die needlessly at the hands of the Drones.

Here are a few tips:
1-If at all possible, stay away from all hospitals. They are filthy, germ ridden places with a shit load of incompetent Drones, many with foreign names, who have difficulty speaking English & can rarely be understood.

2-If you or a loved one must stay in a hospital, do NOT leave them alone. Arrange for a family member to be available at their bedside 24/7. Make sure this family member has an aggressive personality, refusing to be intimidated by the Drones.

3-Avoid all ERs unless near death. Opt for an Urgent Care Center instead.

4-If you do have a Primary Care Physician, be extremely nice to them. Don't complain about having to pay a copay or having to wait a bit. If your Primary Doc refuses to institute EMR, praise them for their intelligence & common sense. They are actually protecting your medical information from surveillance. Consider yourself lucky!

5-Pay attention when your PCP suggests you need to change something to improve your health. Absolutely, they may be saving your life!

I could go on for pages, but I am sure many find my observations boring. Just keep my statements in mind, they may become handy in a year or two. Good luck out there, it's not a safe place to be without significant medical knowledge & a shitload of common sense.