Change is good... scary, but good. I have said this many times and about a variety of topics because it is consistently true. Change is inevitable so, even if you are a person who despises change, it is best to find the positive in it, adapt and forge ahead. Some of us choose to see these moments as opportunities for greatness.
That being said, there is still a great deal of fear and uncertainty surrounding the Affordable Care Act. As with anything new, it will take time to implement and work out all the "kinks." What I find most disturbing about this process is not the implementation itself but, rather, the abuse of systems in which we are beginning to witness physicians engaging.
I have previously discussed the moral and ethical impacts Obamacare was beginning to have on physicians and how the treatment of patients was being impaired as a result. Now that the "threat" of the Affordable Care Act is over and doctors are being faced with the reality, many have taken it to a new level. More and more doctors are offering "concierge services" to their patients for the low, low price of several thousand dollars a year to get what is really just standard care by most people's definition. One of the many problems with a system such as this is that is negates the whole idea behind the Affordable Care Act and institutes a very strong class system where only the wealthy are entitled to quality health care.
For years insurance companies and physicians abused the healthcare system for their own benefit and lined their pockets, which is how the system got to a place where it need to be reformed. I recognize how disturbed they must be by the Affordable Care Act, however, if we allow this kind of corruption to continue nothing will change. We are setting the system up to fail before it ever truly gets off the ground. Will the rich continue to get richer and the poor poorer? Perhaps even more shamefully, can we really permit the less advantaged to get substandard healthcare if they cannot afford physician-imposed "concierge" services? In short, are we going to be the kind of society that sees change as an opportunity for greatness or greed?