Obamacare Is Still Ruining Your Doctor Visits

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2024/08/obamacare_is_still_ruining_your_doctor_visits.html ^

[DIRTYSECRET]

The medical schools do not turn out enough M.D.s to treat the 30 million people (new “patients”) who are being channeled into the American health care system. And...we have increasing numbers of P.A.s and N.P.s supervising the care of very sick people.

[Weirdad]

If a “provider” already knows which “very common ailment” the patient has, it’s easy, doctor Mom can do that.

But here is a method doctors use to avoid mistakes:

Try to think of conditions that are...

- COMMON (because they are common),

- TREATABLE (because they have a treatment that makes their identification important,

- DANGEROUS (because if it is not common, and not treatable, the physician still needs to identify it, if only for prognostication and informing the patient and family, and

- “INTERESTING” (this is so that the physician keeps his or her mind open although if something is NOT common, NOT treatable, NOT dangerous, it is not too likely to be important)

Considering all the possibilities is “making a differential diagnosis” and it is a thought process (and after a lot of experience, and instinct) that requires training and experience.

That is the type of skill that takes people years (actually 11 years minimum) post high school to acquire.

Of course there are exceptional “midlevel providers” who may be older, or who started midlevel training as experienced nurses, or who are just exceptionally intelligent and capable. I go to some mid-levels myself. AND there are some bad and/or lazy physicians, of course, we all know that. But just deciding to let minimally trained people loose because “very common ailments” exist is not a good idea.

Gosh, should we let “Doctor Mom” loose more? How about by making all medicines over the counter (OTC), like in Mexico? Where OTC antibiotics are used excessively all the time, by lay people, for conditions that do not respond to antibiotics? That is creating bacterial resistance, and making antibiotics not work as well when they really are needed.

We DO need MORE doctors, and they need to be paid more IN TRAINING because they are postponing their lives so long, so that after training they will find it more palatable to be paid somewhat less, later in their careers.

If we had more physicians, they would be able to give more time to each patient, and at least doctor prices would drop due to competition.

But hospitals would still end up funding the many “no pay” patients by charging the paying sick more. There is no simple solution to that either.

I would like to see more freedom and free market in medicine, and ZERO Federal involvement. States can handle their own affairs just fine!

It worries me, though, that after a lifetime of paying in to “the system” that my family and I will end up standing in British-like lines and waiting lists because of “Medicare for All” if the Feds are allowed even more say.

[minnesota_bound]

Dentist make money.
I looked up: dental hygienist
In Los Angeles, they can make anywhere from $73k to 190k....
The average salary for a Dental Hygienist is $57.90 per hour in Los Angeles, CA (about $120k)

I had my teeth deep cleaned a week ago. Here is the insurance bill.

CLAIM SUMMARY
$442.00 Amount Submitted
$176.85 Network Savings
$265.15 Total Charge (Allowed Amount)
$165.15 Your Dental Plan Paid
$0.00 Other Insurance Paid
$100.00 Amount You Owe

BTW the woman who did the cleaning was under 30 and bought a townhome near Calabasas (25 miles to LA) (nice area) and said she leased a Tesla while her husband had bought a Jeep Wrangler and her sister bought a Tesla....

When I was in my 20’s I was making next to nothing.