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Heritage
Network
Why
This Doctor Fears Obamacare
Kelsey
Harris
September
12, 2013
Dr.
Tim Shepherd talks about his patients like they’re his own family.
He
gets emotional when he thinks about a patient he’s been treating
for 20 years, and talks about a new patient who’s making progress
like it’s his first grandchild.
He
says his favorite part about being a doctor isn’t having
specialized knowledge or the power to “save lives.” It’s the
opportunity to take care of people.
It
makes it difficult to take care of the whole person if you don’t
have the environment where you are free to do that,” Shepherd told
Heritage.
Unfortunately,
everything Dr. Shepherd loves about his job is now at risk because of
Obamacare.
The
father of 11 children, including Heritage marketing associate Josh
Shepherd, has run a family practice in Lewisville, Texas, for 35
years. He’s concerned about the impact of the law on the care he is
able to offer his patients.
“There’s
a lot of administrative work already, which is taking away from
patient care,” he said. Of the practice’s 15 employees, five do
only paperwork, and they are constantly fighting with insurance
companies and Medicare.
So
it’s no wonder Dr. Shepherd is dreading the layers of bureaucracy
Obamacare creates—layers he’ll have to fight through to treat his
patients. His practice will be faced with more government regulation
and will be increasingly dependent on unreliable government
reimbursement for medical services.
Shepherd
said many family doctors just like him are either retiring or leaving
their practices to join large medical corporations. He said doctors
are being told their individual practices can’t survive the
pressure of Obamacare’s administrative costs.
Read
the rest of the article at Heritage Network
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