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Healthcare analysts say that under the Affordable Care Act, physician availability will decrease dramatically, as there won’t be enough practicing medical providers to tend to the greater number of insured patients.

Moreover, once the Affordable Care Act takes full effect — in 2014 — some say doctors will have to devote more time and resources to preventive health services, and as a result, productivity will decrease.

Dr. John C. Goodman, president of National Center for Policy Analysis and Research Fellow with the Independent Institute, said as a result of the no-cost preventive services mandated under the Affordable Care Act, doctors will be bogged down with routine medical tests and have less time to spend on seriously ill patients.

“Doctors are going to be spending all their time giving screenings and other tests to healthy people and have very little time left over to treat any real medical problems,” Goodman told CNSNews.com.

He also believes more doctors will gravitate towards “concierge medicine” to escape the burdens placed on them by the Affordable Care Act.

“Doctors are stepping outside of the insurance system and providing a different kind of service and a better kind of service. So typically, the patient pays $1,500-$2,000 a year, and in return the doctor is usually available the same day or next day. Also they talk to their patients by phone and by email, and they really become agents of the patient in a very bureaucratic healthcare system,” Goodman told CNSNews.com.

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