A return to capitalism?

Today doctors have a number of dilemmas with Obamacare, including eroding autonomy, hospital/doctor relationship glitches due to risks complying with hospital "meaningful use standards," and falling incomes. Paperwork, increasing at a rapid pace already, is set to take off to stratospheric proportions with Obamacare.

One of the crucial but little-mentioned issues surrounding Obamacare is that no provision was made for supplementing the number of doctors needed to care for additional millions of new patients who will now be entering the already overcrowded health care system. Studies show that even before Obamacare passed, an increasing number of doctors were either reducing their workload or retiring and declining to recommend their profession as a career.

Why should doctors spend many years and thousands of dollars training for their profession, just to be marginalized by dreadful government edicts?

With full implementation of Obamacare in 2014 fast approaching, signs point to the resilience of capitalism. An upside to this lamentable legislation is its possibility of fueling a resurgence of much-needed market forces into the health care sector.

Some shrewd doctors are finding if they circumvent the insurance option, they can cut their prices nearly in half in many cases as well as spend more time with each patient. Some patients cannot fathom the "no insurance" model and will move on. However, much time previously spent filing insurance and dealing with Medicare, Medicaid and government regulations can now be used to interact with patients.

Maybe something good will eventually result from this deplorable legislation.

ESTHER H. BOHNERT, Jackson