"The hospital took us over." I heard that three times before asking: "What does that mean, 'the hospital took you over'?"

Have you been to a doctor in the last few months?

We have chronic illnesses that require medications. Medications require regular doctor visits. That's the law. I already find it ironic that government forces people to incur more medical costs than they want in the first place.

Doctoring was always a personal affair with us, through small town providers. Our hospital is a small hospital. How could they afford to 'take over' so many local doctor offices and, more importantly, why would they want to if they could afford to do that?

Out of the ordinary late last year one of our doctors, until then a manual record keeping kind of guy (and we liked it that way), said we had to come in "for new paperwork." They casually said Obamacare required electronic record keeping and they were making that transition. Figuring 'it is what it is,' we clinched our teeth and beared it.

Recently I needed to change family doctors and made calls to equally small providers. Each one said the same thing in explaining their 'new paperwork.' "The hospital took us over." Then I had to speak with a doctor's office that had treated us for years and they said the very same thing: "The hospital took us over."

It was as if they wanted us to ask or weren't allowed to tell us unless we did ask. Okay. I give up. What is with this hospital takeover thing in the middle of Rural Nowhere, USA? They explained that Obamacare requires all "clinics" be owned by a hospital. My next question followed naturally, "And your doctor's office is considered a 'clinic'?" Yes, under Obamacare it is.

Here's an earlier (October 17, 2010) article forewarning of what is happening to doctor practices, in 2012, under Obamacare:

Killing Marcus Welby - How ObamaCare stifles private practices

The health legislation doesn't call on government tribunals to euthanize seniors, as some fanciful critics claim, but the bill does kill off private-practice medicine.

ObamaCare envisions that doctors will fold their private offices to become salaried hospital employees, making it easier for the federal government to regulate them and centrally manage the costly medical services they prescribe. To get this control, ObamaCare creates "Accountable Care Organizations," which are basically hospitals coupled with local doctor networks that the hospital owns.

It forces doctors to sell their medical practices to these networks if the physicians want to maintain what they're paid by Medicare.

The implications are endless. "The beginning of Tryanny's Chain Of Command" was my first thought. Hospitals own our doctors, the federal government owns our hospitals. When government owns our medical care, government owns us. This is the trickle down theory in vivid, living color.

Reading about ACOs addresses both sides of the argument. In theory there are lots of good ideas claimed by ACOs. There also remain two repeatedly proven facts that cannot be ignored by reasonable, thinking people:

The government has never effectively managed anything. Its recent GSA $820,000 abuse of taxpayer money and flaunting that abuse as worthy of a comic skit that flies in the face of taxpayers is just one. Countless green energy fiascos that ate our taxpaying lunch and spat it back in our faces is just one other. The long list of government taxpayer and humanity abuses hardly end there, we could only wish they did.

ACOs do, by every definition, seek to end America's free enterprise market in one of the most critical arenas of human life, medical care. When you give up America's concept of free enterprise you give up your personal freedoms. Free enterprise and personal liberty go hand in hand. You cannot have one without the other.

You may spoof at medical care now but your day is coming when medical care will not be so spoofable. I cannot recall any incident of government raking private enterprise into its prockets that has not led to (circle back to number one), more government cronyism and taxpayer abuse.

Probably the most objectionable aspect of this hospital-takeover is that medical services will be strictly limited. It's hard to imagine that's a benefit to anyone needing medical care. Since Obama and his staff and others who voted for it made themselves and their cronies exempt from Obamacare, they probably don't care how practical it isn't.

How Many Businesses Are Exempt from Obamacare?

When added together, the healthcare waivers excuse about 4 million people, or about 3 percent of the population, from having to participate, HHS said … what’s slightly unsettling is the fact that the majority of the waivers were handed out to labor unions.

Earlier in the process, HHS had been granting waivers to a type of plan that it later decided should be completely exempt from the restrictions on annual limits,” Baker writes. “HHS had granted waivers to almost 500 of those plans before exempting them altogether.”

Guess Who's Exempt from Obamacare?

You didn’t think they’d have it any other way, did you?

Then again, they may think they’re exempt, but I’m sure the ruling class in Canadathought the same thing when socialized medicine was enacted there.

New Ledger: One such surprise is found on page 158 of the legislation, which appears to create a carveout for senior staff members in the leadership offices and on congressional committees, essentially exempting those senior Democrat staffers who wrote the bill from being forced to purchase health care plans in the same way as other Americans.

Leadership Aids Exempt from Bill?

Leaving out committee staffers means aides at the 24 standing House committees and the 20 Senate panels will each be exempted as well, if CRS's interpretation of the measure stands.

It was never more important to use our own God given common sense than it is today. The one thing that cannot be dimissed is the less government is directly involved in our personal lives the better we all are. Our medical choices being first and foremost in that equasion.

Obamacare is not about health care, it's about health insurance: "[Obama] used the phrase five times in his opening statement: 'Even as we rescue this economy from a full-blown crisis, we must rebuild it stronger than before. And health insurance reform is central to that effort,' he said."

Unlike Obama's takeover of the the auto industry and the banking industry and his micro-management regulation of zillions more, Obamacare is a takeover of you.