I’m reminded of my grandfather, who began practicing in 1919 and kept at it until about 1980. He told me how totally the type of person who entered medicine changed after WWII, when antibiotics became prevalent. All of a sudden, it was technicians entering medicine, rather than the empathetic and caring types (no, not ALL of them) who were more attracted to the profession before. Because all of a sudden, there was something you could DO to cure your patient….where before antibiotics, the ability and willingness to sit with the family of a dying patient was an important part of being a physician.

Anyhow, when the government begins to control the patient-physician relationship even more than they do today, the type of person going into medicine will change a LOT. The folks who become doctors will be those willing to do what the government tells them, rather than what they believe to be best for the patient. And I expect a LOT more docs will be like the guys described in the New Yorker – perfectly willing to decide on this or that modality, deciding mainly on the basis of its financial implications FOR THEM…….

http://directorblue.blogspot.com/2009/06/government-run-health-care-questions.html

http://directorblue.blogspot.com/2009/06/my-new-katherine-sebelius-motivational.html

And here’s another heads up:

http://astuteblogger.blogspot.com/2009/06/health-care-alert-canadian-socialist.html