Some doctors have decided they are fed up and not going to take it any more.California pain specialist Dr. Bradley Carpentier is among them.

While Republican strategists stir up fears about government meddling in health care, the San Francisco Chronicle reports on doctors like Carpentier who  are concerned about insurance companies that come between them and their patients.

Many insurance companies hire doctors to review the treatments prescribed by physicians. Insurers claim these decisions are a "second set of eyes" that allow insurers to make sure doctors are recommending the best and most effective treatments for their patients, reports the Chronicle. Doctors disagree—the doctors hired by insurers have no face to face contact with the patients to whom they are recommending the approval or denial of treatment. Some doctors believe insurance companies use this practice to delay and deny costly care.to patients.

Carpentier, from Monterey, California got so sick of fighting with insurance companies about the treatments he wanted for his patients he started a political action committee, Stop Practicing Medicine. He told the Chronicle,

We need to let the doctor take care of the patient...Pretty much, doctors ultimately do what they want, but it just depends on fighting a lot to get that done. What we've found is fewer patients have access to care in general because we have limited resources. We're being kept so busy fighting and advocating for patients.

According to a statewide poll of California doctors released last month, 84 percent consider helping patients to be the most rewarding aspect of being a doctor, while 87 percent said the limits and restrictions that insurance companies place on doctors is a major problem. More than 80 percent of doctors said they have felt pressured to change the way they treat patients or recommend a course of treatment they would not otherwise recommend because of pressure from insurers. Doctors don't want the government or health insurers dictating precisely how they should care for their patients.

The survey also found that nine out of ten California doctors believed the health care system was in "serious trouble or crisis." Though historically, doctor groups such as the American Medical Association were wary about health reform, many doctors are now open to the prospect—just about everyone realizes that sticking with the status quo in health care is no longer a viable option.

One problem with the current expensive system of course is that we are spending too much on unproven or duplicative or unnecessary tests and imaging and treatments, on expensive new drugs when cheaper older ones might -- we don't always know - be just as effective. A reformed health care system should promote wiser use of our resources but in a transparent, evidence-based manner. More care isn't always better care. But less care isn't always in the patients' interest either.