Let’s say your employer decided to cut your pay in half.

How do you suppose you might respond?

Dr. Ronald Dworkin, an anesthesiologist, has a column in today’s Wall Street Journal that brought that question to mind. He writes:

Congress’s proposed health-care reform plan risks skimping on anesthesia. According to one of the health-care bills in Congress, H.R. 3200, the public option would reduce reimbursement for anesthesia by over 50%.

Via Memeorandum.

Questions:

• What happens to surgery when anaesthesiologists refuse to work for that amount?

• Or when new doctors reject anesthesiology for some other specialty that pays better?

• Will that 50% reduction would apply only to doctors being paid by the government?

  I think so, which means doctors who accept that payment will attempt to make up at least part of the difference by charging other patients more. This already happens – we call it the Medicare Tax.

• Is this an example of how the “public option” will “compete” with the private sector?

And, most importantly:

• Why don’t Obamacare supporters understand that reducing reimbursement is the same as cutting services?