These developments herald an approaching crisis for Obamacare that will dwarf the present confusion and political damage caused by disastrous launch of healthcare.gov. The coming crisis will force the hands of President Obama and the program’s main congressional advocates, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. If just half — to say nothing of 70 percent — of America’s doctors refuse to treat Obamacare patients, Obama, Reid and Pelosi will have to decide whether to throw in the towel or to ramrod through Congress legislation to force doctors to do their bidding.

Being the smart politicians that they are, they may already have contingency plans to do just that. As National Review Online’s Kevin Williamson pointed out recently, “In the long run, the fact that physicians have a choice about whom they see and where they practice is the most significant challenge to the full implementation of Obamacare. The logical thing — politically and economically — is to eliminate that choice. You don’t have to formally nationalize the health-care industry; you just nationalize 40 percent of each physician’s practice and call it his ‘fair share.’ ”

In the meantime, unless their rebellion magically goes away soon, expect in coming days an increasing flood of criticism of physicians from Obamacare’s backers. They will never admit Obamacare causes a doctor shortage, so they will demonize them to set the stage for nationalizing them. They’ll probably call it something like the “National Health Service.”