Does Obama Think Being a Doctor is Akin to the Priesthood? :: Obama's Challenge to Doctors

A snippet:

Fee-for-service inefficient and wasteful

Obama wants to change that math. He has made it clear that he expects doctors to sacrifice along with insurers and drug companies. Although the President made no significant new proposals in his speech, he strongly reiterated his position that the current payment system, in which doctors are reimbursed for every service and office visit, leads to waste and inefficiencies and must be changed.

"It is a model that has taken the pursuit of medicine from a profession—a calling—to a business," said Obama. "And a lot of people in this room know what I'm talking about."

If they did, they didn't show it. The 500 delegates in the room met this portion of his speech with a deafening silence. Only his call to reform malpractice laws met with sustained applause, though Obama quickly followed up that statement—quieting the room—by saying he would not impose caps on malpractice awards, something doctors have long fought for. Nor was there much enthusiasm for his call to use Medicare reimbursements to reduce the number of patients readmitted to a hospital within 30 days of release, which would almost certainly lower hospital revenues. Likewise for the President's call to adjust Medicare payments to reflect medical advances and productivity gains, which would almost certainly lower payments to doctors.

A profession is a "calling" and not a business? Good grief, that definitely wins as the Marxist statement of the day.

Obama's Challenge to Doctors - BusinessWeek