Patients continue to lose, as more of these stories are surfacing:

Lalka, 54, says that with an income of only $60,000 last year, and little opportunity to expand his practice, he no longer is able to make ends meet.

“I am giving up my practice, the love of my life,” he said recently as he stared out of his office window . . .

. . . “Here is a doctor who is not retiring because he wants to,” says Constance Mondel, 81, who Lalka has treated for many years. “He is leaving because the system is not working. It’s a real shame.”

Her husband, Joseph Mondel, 78, said that his first reaction to the news was fear and then anger.

“Who is going to take care of me in my aging life?” he asked. “What the hell do I do now?”