As many as 70% of California's doctors are boycotting ObamaCare

Ah, California. "Planet Cali." America's great liberal playground, and home to all those movie star junkies who just love to tell you how you should be living your life. If there's one place that (despite its imploding economy) Democrats love to view as their Mecca, it's the Southern half of the left coast.

Why, it was even one of the first states to get its ObamaCare exchange, Covered California, up and running. Since then, it's been exhibit A whenever the leftists need to claim that people love the ACA and are signing up in droves. It's a state that bought into the O-care scam hook, line, and sinker. ....But it's a shame no one bothered to ask what California's doctors thought, because they're fighting the President's scheme tooth and nail. According to the state's largest medical association, as many as 70% of the Golden State's doctors are refusing to participate. As the Washington Examiner reports....

---

An estimated seven out of every 10 physicians in deep-blue California are rebelling against the state's Obamacare health insurance exchange and won't participate, the head of the state's largest medical association said. “It doesn't surprise me that there's a high rate of nonparticipation,” said Dr. Richard Thorp, president of the California Medical Association. Thorp has been a primary care doctor for 38 years in a small town 90 miles north of Sacramento. The CMA represents 38,000 of the roughly 104,000 doctors in California.

Say it ain’t so! And here we were thinking that, if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. Apparently, in California, if you like your doctor, but lost your insurance due to ObamaCare, you're out of luck. If your doctor is in the overwhelming majority, the ACA has managed to alienate him. How could this be, you ask? Well, even in California, with the majesty of its vineyards, orange groves, and giant redwoods, people expect to get paid for the work they do. That's right. In the immortal words of Navin R. Johnson, "It's a profit deal!" It seems that while Cali likes to pretend it's the land of liberal plenty, it doesn't feel like paying its doctors very much.

California offers one of the lowest government reimbursement rates in the country -- 30 percent lower than federal Medicare payments. And reimbursement rates for some procedures are even lower. In other states, Medicare pays doctors $76 for return-office visits. But in California, Medi-Cal's reimbursement is $24, according to Dr. Theodore M. Mazer, a San Diego ear, nose and throat doctor. In other states, doctors receive between $500 to $700 to perform a tonsillectomy. In California, they get $160, Mazer added. Only in September did insurance companies disclose that their rates would be pegged to California’s Medicaid plan, called Medi-Cal. That's driven many doctors to just say no.

Don't worry, though, if you received a "transition letter" from your insurer, you can head over to Covered California and select a new ACA-compliant plan. When you do, you'll think your preferred doctor is participating, even if he or she isn't. The state exchange has decided to list many physicians as participants whether they like it or not. Donald Waters, the executive director of the Alameda-Contra Costa Medical Association, refers to the bogus listings as an age old con.

“This is a dirty little secret that is not really talked about as they promote Covered California,” Waters said. He called the exchange's doctors list a “shell game” because “the vast majority” of his doctors are not participating.

As Doctor Thorp says, no other business would be forced to operate like this....

“We need some recognition that we’re doing a service to the community. But we can’t do it for free. And we can’t do it at a loss. No other business would do that."

According to California's doctors, who are obviously monstrous, greedy, men preying on the poor and downtrodden, physicians actually think that what they do is worth paying for. Medi-Cal and Covered California clearly disagree. As a result, the states medical professionals are giving the collective middle finger to President Obama's signature legislation. What Thorp, Mazer, and Waters don't seem to understand is, the services provided by California’s doctors are no longer a “business.” Democrats, who Californians overwhelmingly voted for, have decided that people have a “right” to the work they do. Their "industry" has been co-opted by the federal government. ….and you can’t put a price tag on your rights, can you? Oh, and just in case you're wondering who the heck Navin R. Johnson is.....