Going Galt

Definition: Expression for undergoing a voluntary financial strike or decrease in income. An individual might choose to do this in order to protest the amount of money going to the government, or to protest what they feel are unfair taxes (if they earn less, they will be taxed less, therefore hurting the government). The term is taken from a character in Ayn Rand's novel "Atlas Shrugged"; the main character John Galt leads a movement where the wealthiest individuals leave their jobs for low-paying jobs in order to protest the socialist economy. (Source: InvestorsWord)

Doctors and Hospital administrators in one Western State are already opting out of the government-run Health Care system, in an ominous sign for the Obama administration.

From Bloomberg, (via Memeo):

Mayo Clinic in Arizona to Stop Treating Some Medicare Patients

Dec. 31 (Bloomberg) -- The Mayo Clinic, praised by President Barack Obama as a national model for efficient health care, will stop accepting Medicare patients as of tomorrow at one of its primary-care clinics in Arizona, saying the U.S. government pays too little.

More than 3,000 patients eligible for Medicare, the government’s largest health-insurance program, will be forced to pay cash if they want to continue seeing their doctors at a Mayo family clinic in Glendale, northwest of Phoenix, said Michael Yardley, a Mayo spokesman.

Mayo’s move to drop Medicare patients may be copied by family doctors, some of whom have stopped accepting new patients from the program, said Lori Heim, president of the American Academy of Family Physicians, in a telephone interview yesterday.

“Many physicians have said, ‘I simply cannot afford to keep taking care of Medicare patients,’” said Heim, a family doctor who practices in Laurinburg, North Carolina.

The article goes on to cite $840 million lost on Medicare, just last year by the Mayo Clinic.