Great article.thanks for posting.
I see a lot of these Ugent Care clinics popping up. People must be going to them. Makes a lot of sense to me: faster and less expensive than an emergency room. The vast majority of people go to doctors for routine maladies anyway.
In Texas, it is difficult to find doctors who accept medicare patients.
Is this in Massachusetts or Greece?
All you have to do to find out how well collectivist medicine works is by looking at the UK’s and Canada’s.
Steve Crowder checks out the Canadian health care system.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2jijuj1ysw
Romneycare, the precursor to Obamacare.
Coming to a town near you.
When I needed a new GP I phoned for an appointment and the conversation went something like: “The doctor isn’t seeing any new patients; wait, what’s your insurance?” I said, “Blue Cross Blue Shield.” She took the numbers and responded with, “The doctor can see you Tuesday at 9:00am.”
My local hospital, a huge building, has almost no hospital beds. Much of the interior has been rented to private doctors. This means that the hospital can legitimately send non-paying patients away because they don’t have the beds for them. As near as I can figure the actual hospital handles very few patients and, I’m guessing, not many long term care patients.
Laws forcing hospitals to handle illegal aliens for free, even long term care patients, have eroded the system to the point it can’t sustain itself. There are also numerous laws forbidding the very thing that would resolve much of the doctor issues; over-regulating nurse practitioners, for example. Keeping companies and organizations from establishing new clinics that would compete with hospitals, for another.
On the other hand, two types of medicine have dramatically reduced costs and improved results every year since their inception; Lasik and cosmetic surgery. That’s because these procedures are not paid for by “insurance.” Practitioners must compete in the open market. Hence, almost everybody can afford their services.
The chameleon-teflon RINO Willard to Felon (now convicted) DiMasi:
"I bet you $10,000 that the evil we've done through today
will make ME the presumed ‘front runner’
with my controlled NBC and FOX News while YOU
rot in prison for eight years for what we do, partner."
Fast forward enough years and it will be like in every other state with socialized medicine - you’ll need to pay under the table bribes to get seen. Won’t happen right away but it will happen.
It is fitting that this would be happening worse in uber-liberal Mass.
What about their WONDERFUL govt healthcare system?
I thought that was supposed to make healthcare available to everyone.
The Current FReepathon Pays For The Current Quarters Expenses?
When I see articles like this I wish the Romney apologists hadn’t been run off so I could send them a ping.
How can a working person be eligible for Medicaid? Isn't that for people on welfare?
thank God i have a great primary care Doc and that he is 15 years younger than me so he won't retire before i die... but there have been 3 times i couldn't see him for at least six months, once because he was in Iraq and twice because he was in Afghanistan...
he's a Major in the Army Reserve
Romney has got a pass on this so far and it is obviously because the other candidates' "handlers" have either done a rotten job of research OR believe voters are so stupid they will tune out the moment a candidate starts citing such data. Their job is to prioritize the data, condense it, and turn it into soundbites. One wonders what those people are doing for their paychecks.
I see, the problem is that medical care has gotten really expensive, so expensive that if you don't have insurance you can't even get it. So the solution is to make sure everyone has insurance, even "conservative" commentators agree on that. The discussion of root causes of cost explosion are simply not to be considered.
I’m on Medicaid and if my experience is typical, this article doesn’t even begin to convey the problems. I’ve had doctors bill Medicaid after talking to me for ten minutes and never putting a hand on me — no exam whatsoever, and most questions not about my condition either. Usually they don’t let you know what they’re billing, but I ask and sometimes get to see the paperwork. I’ve had to borrow vehicles and funds to go far from home to specialists who then assign a PA to interview me and then make another referral to another office far from reach. (They absolutely refused to do this interview over the phone — the rules don’t let them get paid that way.) A therapist once spent half an hour demonstrating leg lifts and then handed me a brochure — cost to the taxpayers over $200. Again, IF this is typical, govt health care should be illegal. I believe it’s a racket with more corruption than a city sewer, and when it comes to mooching, the indigent patients are pikers — the real moochers are the health care workers.
Also, there are indeed very few available doctors who accept Medicaid, outside the metro areas. Appointments are generally two or three months’ wait for a specialist, and it’s ALWAYS a specialist; the local GP doesn’t want to be responsible, or maybe he’s incompetent. Mine asks the standard questions every time, and wants me in there every month, way more than one needs to see him. He does not do basic exam: he’s never looked down my throat, or into my eyes or my ears. Checked BP once in all the years I’ve been seeing him. Orders the same blood work every time — it never changes — and I have to borrow a vehicle to travel to the hospital for that. It’s totally unnecessary, a waste of money, time and energy, and if I don’t do it I’ll be dropped and categorized as uncooperative (which seems to be the worst possible diagnosis for the indigent patient — or subject — or “unit”).
The system is, IMO, rotten and should be dismantled completely and then outlawed.
Obamacare would, I believe, bring experiences like mine within the reach of everyone, regardless of ability to pay.
This article provides some interesting anecdotal evidence of the increase in demand under RomneyCare and soon ObamaCare. Obamacare promises free or highly subsidized care for a large list of required services. With little or no constraints from payment, individuals will take advantage of these new free goods and services.
The article indicates that the supply of health care is essentially fixed leading to increased waiting. Supply will decrease under Obamacare at least the supply available through Obamacare because of price controls. Obamacare will impose price controls on drugs and services. Price controls on services will be imposed indirectly using insurance companies as middlemen to deliver the bitter medicine to providers.
In the long run, we will have an explosion in demand and sharp retraction in official supply. In the short run, Obamacare may seem to work well as providers, insurers, and drug companies cope. In the long run, coping will breakdown leading to reductions in supply. However, Obamacare will be difficult to stop once it is implemented. The illusion of free health care is powerful even if health care is plagued by shortages.
The Democrats will not readily accept a two-tier system with wealthy individuals paying for services outside of Obamacare. If shortages become too severe in Obamacare, Democrats will attack the private system forcing the wealthy to endure the same misery. The private system will need to move out of the reach of Democrats perhaps to medical care ships, Mexican/Canadian border clinics, and Indian reservations (my favorite idea). I am not sure if Canada will permit clinics to serve paying US customers.
If the SC does not stop Obamacare, the only hope is a Republican president in 2012. If Obamacare is fully implemented in 2014+, it will be difficult to repeal in any way.
Let’s see.....if I was a good liberal/Democrat/progressive, and my biggest concern was that there are/will-be too many people on this planet, what would I do to kill off people?......hmmmmmm.....abortion of course.....destroy the medical care in my country?......sure......that would help kill off those little people who are always on the beach when I want to walk there in solitude......and we’d claim universal coverage so the dummies would vote for us......great.....kill ‘em off and get votes!