But it’s okay: it’s a <em>government </em>program.

Doctors in Texas are voting with their practices:

Two years after a survey found nearly half of Texas doctors weren’t taking some new Medicare patients, new data shows 100 to 200 a year are now ending all involvement with the program. Before 2007, the number of doctors opting out averaged less than a handful a year.

…More than 300 doctors have dropped the program in the last two years, including 50 in the first three months of 2010.

Low pay plus more red tape equals fewer doctors willing to put up with that crap. Or, in other words: it cost too much, so demand fell.

Other thoughts:

• This means hundreds upon hundreds of seniors will have more trouble finding a doctor;

• That means hundreds upon hundreds of seniors whose insurance carrier – the federal government – is failing to provide service for them.

• That means we need a further expansion of taxes and spending in order to pay doctors fairly;

• And that means: there’s never any such thing as “the final piece of regulation.”

Via Memeorandum.