What Will the Doctors Do?
Without question Obamacare will surely increase the demand for medical services from millions of new patients seeking personal care for little or no cost to them. But who will supply these additional services? Virtually ignored in public debate is how government mandated free medical care will impact on the professional behavior of private medical practitioners. One of the most fundamental principles of economics gives us the answer to that question: As prices fall, more will be demanded and less will be supplied.
Medical service is not a free good, but when treated as such by arbitrary government edicts, its future supply will be undermined and severely reduced both in quality and quantity. Doctors are dedicated but they are not saints or dullards. They, like everyone else, will respond to getting less by offering less. While inertia may slow the process of a shrinking supply of medical care as lower mandated fees and arbitrary edicts are imposed upon doctors, inevitably a decline in medical care and its quality will be the ultimate, unintended result.
