Posted on 11/16/2013 7:43:44 PM PST by tobyhill
Obamacare is intensifying the doctor shortage though not in ways that were anticipated.
Everybody seems to have expected that Obamacare would sign up some 30 million people who dont have health insurance, and they would overwhelm doctors offices. But these people especially the young and healthy whose sky-high Obamacare premiums were supposed to finance everybody elses subsidies have stayed away. They know a bad deal when they see one.
Although the young and healthy arent going for Obamacare, the doctor shortage is intensifying, because government intervention generally is making it more expensive and difficult for doctors to do their job.
Government-run Romneycare the model used for Obamacare was enacted in Massachusetts in 2006, and a recent survey by the Massachusetts Medical Society found that half the states primary care practices arent accepting new patients. At practices accepting new patients, the average wait to see a family physician is 39 days, and the average wait to see an internal medicine physician is 50 days.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
Lawyers are expected to do uncompensated pro bono work. In fact firms have to hire someone to handle their uncompensated pro bono work.
My doctor just quit the clinic where he worked for the past 8 years and moved to Costa Rica. He told me, "Drop down and see me whenever you like. There are two medical flights daily from Orlando."
I dunno, I called my doctor’s office last Monday, the receptionist transferred my call to a nurse. After talking with the nurse for a bit, she set up a doctor’s appointment that afternoon and he sent me to an ophthalmologist the same day. Cost me $20 out of pocket. But I’m sure that ObamaCare will improve all that. RomneyCare had virtually no impact on people with insurance through work, except that emergency rooms are crowded with even more shiftless layabouts.
I wish they had taken a clue from the military - pay for doctors, nurses, MA's, EMT's etc. etc. to go to school and receive training. In return they'd give back 3, 4, 5 (?) years of PAID service in free clinics. If the poor want free health care, give it to them. Open clinics nationwide and provide free services there. (And don't allow them to run to the ER unless it's a real "emergency"! After a doctor, nurse, etc. finished with his/her commitment, they'd be free to go into private practice.) At least we wouldn't be worrying about doctors, etc. quitting or never starting to practice in the first place.
A person who works and pays taxes should be given the CHOICE OF buying an insurance plan (of his own choosing) or going to the free clinic. He should be allowed to get in line with the "poor" and get treated for free because HE'S PAYING FOR IT. But he also must have the option of going to a private doctor, who will give him an appointment and who knows he will get paid a fair price from an (evil capitalistic) insurance company!
In our screwed up PC world, you can't distinguish between the poor and the working class. Sh, they might notice they're poor and we can't have that! I don't think progressives will be satisfied until "poverty level" is simply defined as: "not having what rich people have"!
In my perception, one big problem with American healthcare is overuse by hypochondriacs and the bored. A lot of gimme girls run to emergency room for aspirin because they’re bored and lonely and like the attention and company they get in an emergency room. Another problem is people with decent health insurance who run to the doctor for every runny nose.
Last week a woman brought four children in, all with the chicken pox. After exposing everyone in the ER to their pox, they ran up a bill of approx. $1300 so they could take home some Calamine lotion. Geez, when my kids were small, we didn't even go to the doctor for chicken pox. We knew how to treat them at home.
Sir, will that be cash, charge or livestock?
A "poor" person on MediCaid, or a MediCare recipient, might think twice about a drug or a doctor's visit, if they were required to pay $5 for every transaction. There could be a cap of say $100 (20 co-pays). After that amount, the co-pay goes to $2. But, as long as it is "free", there's an open invitation to abuse.
That would include Americans who attended a foreign medical school but practice in the US(Like the ones Reagan saved when he invaded Grenada). Foreign born who went to medical school in their country then immigrated to the US. Foreign born who immigrate to the US then get their education at a US medical school.
We import a lot of nurses too.
ummmhhhh...pass the hand sanitizer please
Obamacare is making the old, dysfunctional, broken healthcare system of the past (last year) look pretty darn good. I’ve been defending American healthcare for years, and the idea that it needed to be completely replaced is as big a lie as the one that people are starving in America. Letting the left frame the issues is our downfall.
I have that novel. :)
OK can you explain this phrase?
How about adding just one more word?
"Obama's HUGE Socialized Health Insurance Tax.
OHSHIT.
It is as great a tag as Can't Afford Care Act or CACA. I forget which FReeper posted that, but it's so stolen, too. Both are clever, and accurately descriptive.
Darn that George Bush!
My town had 2 medical practices. Then Obamacare came along. Now we have 1. The owner of the practice was rumored to refuse to comply with the regulations and just closed it’s doors. If this is happening around the country, it’s going to be a disaster at the levels we on FR have always predicted.
That’s what she said!
0_o
Yeah.
Contrary to popular opinion, most doctors are not making millions. Only specialists make the big bucks.
Doctors in family practices make good livings, but they’re not getting rich.
Many can just go fee for service and refuse to take patients they lose money on.
If they’re close to retirement age, they don’t need this crap and may just hang it up and do charity work.
If they haven’t already, it won’t be long before the socialists in Congress try to mandate how doctors run their practices with threat of refusing to renew licenses unless they toe the line.
Young people who want a medical career would be wise to consider the military as an avenue to that rather than go out into this uncertain market with mega loans they may not be able to pay off.
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