Record number of conservative physicians running for Congress to fight Obamacare

[jsr]

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/08/us/politics/doctors-confident-in-their-healing-powers-rush-for-congress.html

Is There a Doctor in the House? Yes, 17. And 3 in the Senate.
By JEREMY W. PETERS | MARCH 7, 2014

LAKE OSWEGO, Ore. — First thing on a recent Monday, Monica Wehby could be found in the operating room performing brain surgery on a child. But the Saturday before, she was shooting guns, because sometimes that’s what you do when you’re running for office...

With a few exceptions, these physician legislators and candidates — there are three dozen of them — are much alike: deeply conservative, mostly male, and practicing in the specialty fields in which costs and pay have soared in recent years. Dr. Wehby fits their profile in all but gender, though Republicans say that having a female candidate is an added advantage in Oregon.

Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky and an ophthalmologist, is seen as a serious contender for his party’s presidential nomination in 2016. Candidates for the Senate this year include an obstetrician in North Carolina, a radiologist in Kansas, a liver disease specialist in Louisiana, and two other doctors in Georgia — all of them Republicans.

At least 26 more physicians are running for the House, some for re-election. In all, 20 people with medical degrees serve in Congress today, 17 in the House and three in the Senate, a number that has doubled over the last decade, according to the American Medical Association. (By contrast, a Johns Hopkins University study found that from 1960 to 2004, only 25 physicians served in either the House or the Senate.)

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

1. The key....

With a few exceptions, these physician legislators and candidates — there are three dozen of them — are much alike: deeply conservative, mostly male, and practicing in the specialty fields in which costs and pay have soared in recent years

Translation: By ensuring everyone, you're threatening my 1% lifestyle.

[EC]

5. Or non-essential surgeries

face-lifts and stuff.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

6. So, costs and pay have soared in recent years

and this is because of ACA, how?

Oh and there's this directly from the article:

“Medicine has so changed, and it’s not necessarily the Affordable Care Act,” said Senator Tom Coburn, Republican of Oklahoma, who had a family medical practice before being elected to the House and later to the Senate.

[sharp_stick]

2. I'd like to know how many of these

doctors accept Medicare and Medicaid patients in their private practices.

[jsr]

3. Exhibit A - Rand Paul:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/05/22/868772/-Is-Rand-Paul-M-D-s-income-from-Socialized-medicine
Sat May 22, 2010 at 01:44 PM PDT
Is Rand Paul, M.D.'s income from "Socialized medicine"?

[EC]

4. Instead of Drs.

they should be running lawyers. None of the Republicans running lately have no idea how to write law. Of course they don't have to know how to since they just take what ALEC gives them and introduces those to Congress as though they wrote the law. Their knowledge of the Constitution and laws are so sub par I don't know why people elect them to go to Washington and make laws. They've not a clue.

[Blue_Tires]

7. Seriously? Running against Obamacare is Sooooo 2010

But most voters are idiots, so they'll lap it up