Posted on 11/15/2012 12:55:40 AM PST by CutePuppy
The United States will require at least 52,000 more family doctors in the year 2025 to keep up with the growing and increasingly older U.S. population, a new study found.
The predictions also reflect the passage of the Affordable Care Act — a change that will expand health insurance coverage to an additional 38 million Americans.
"The health care consumer that values the relationship with a personal physician, particularly in areas already struggling with access to primary care physicians should be aware of potential access challenges that they may face in the future if the production of primary care physicians does not increase," said Dr. Andrew Bazemore, director of the Robert Graham Center for Policy Studies in Primary Care and co-author of the study published Monday in the Annals of Family Medicine.
Stephen Petterson, senior health policy researcher at the Robert Graham Center, said the government should take steps — and quickly — to address the problem before it gets out of hand.
"There needs to be more primary care incentive programs that give a bonus to physicians who treat Medicaid patients in effort to reduce the compensation gap between specialists and primary care physicians," said Petterson, who co-authored the study with Bazemore.
< snip >
Green added that he believes this is because currently primary care specialties are not well paid, well treated or respected as compared to subspecialists.
< snip >
Perhaps the best known example of this approach has been Massachusetts, which since 2006 has mandated that every resident obtain health insurance and those that are below the federal poverty level gain free access to health care. But although the state has the second-highest ratio of primary care physicians to population of any state, they are struggling with access to primary care physicians.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
RomneyCare in MA already shows the strain of access to healthcare. 'Tis the future of ObamaCare or single-payer (government-paid) "planned economy" of health care.
Some doctors already understand what's coming: "Coverage" and "access" are not the same thing, when it takes months or a year to see primary care physician.
But the people of MA wanted it, and Romney said it was good for MA. They were told about the "coverage" part, nobody told them about the "access" part, which is basically rationing of health care and hits mostly those who can least afford to pay?
Liberals must think money and doctors grow magically from trees.
I say, Good. Dying in the gutter, whether from a brick to the head, from war in Syria, from a Muslim dirty bomb, from hyperinflation and empty stores, from the disappearance of doctors—in other words, all the things the Obama voters voted for—is the only way morons who vote for Democrats will wake up.
And reality ??? That’s an inconvenience. . . .Fast forward to 2015, and Obamacare in place. . . .and Doctors are disappearing faster than fried chicken at an Obamaphone convention. . .
“Doctor Shortage Could Cause Health Care Crash”
of course it will.
(doctors won’t stay in the US to get taxed to the hilt... making no money... instead going go overseas for 6 months out of the year)
next question
Just watch all the minority doctors that quickly get minted in the next several years . . . .
The issue has got to be much more complicated than this, or it wouldn't require more than 2,000 pages of the bill and having to "pass it to know what's in it."
Is it possible that the smartest people on the planet (Obama, Pelosi and Reid and the "world's greatest deliberative body" didn't really "solve" all the health care problems?
This ER doctor is looking at international opportunities...
Gonna have to be honorary Doctors because medical schools can’t crank em out that fast...
That's already printed in ObamaCare's many pages: new doctors will be trained in their native language(s).
Didn't you read that? :-/
Anybody else remember that, or was it a dream?
Uh... let’s see... work my arse off as an undergrad to get into a good medical school... work my arse off in med school to get an internship... work my arse off as an intern so I can get a residency... work my arse off as a resident so I can spend the rest of my life being dictated to by some government commissar about what I can and can’t do, what I can and can’t charge...?
Uh... nah, don’t think so!
Thanks to socialized medicine, there will be far fewer doctors in future, and an explosion of patients getting in on all that subsidized healthcare.
Good luck getting in the door of any hospital in America with an urgent problem.
Healthcare in the US id officially f*cked.
Entirely possible. Indeed, Probable. They appear to actually think you can change just one thing, and nothing else will change. Static analysis in the extreme. . .
Just goes to show, none have any practical, real-world experience. . .
Entirely possible. Indeed, Probable. They appear to actually think you can change just one thing, and nothing else will change. Static analysis in the extreme. . .
Just goes to show, none have any practical, real-world experience. . .
Yup....only so many spots at so many med schools and it’s a loooong haul to the end.
I’m wondering if we will see a push to use nurse practioners in an expanded role.
Doctors will be replaced by computers. You enter your symptoms and the computer spits out a prescription.
Oh! Now the media tells us!
No matter how onerous health care rationing becomes for the majority, the Democrat elites will have the best. No doubt even today in Boston under Romneycare if Elizabeth Warren, Patrick Duval, John Kerry, the royal Kennedys, or even Mitt himself can get same day service with a primary care physician while the average senior waits months for an appointment.
Now that the federal government has rejected the free market it will have to ration services by some mechanism. Expect most life enhancing and prolonging services to be denied to the average citizen over age 75. Expect to see seniors die everday due to delayed receipt of essential services. Consultation with a real MD will become rare for the average citizen who will depend on nurse practitioners, PA’s, and self treatment.
There will also be government regulations regarding priority of treatment in understaffed emergency rooms. When a white 65 year old female citizen insured by Medicare and suffering from a massive heart attack arrives in the emergency room at the same time as a 22 year uninsured male non English speaking undocumented gang member with a gunshot wound, who do you think will be treated first if there is only one MD available? Likely there will be a government regulations defining priority based on age, sex, and race.
One question is how will the elites be identified as having priority for service? When the 75 year non celebrity white Democrat Harvard professor emeritus, former undersecretary of state and frequent contributor to the NY Times editorial page lands in a Richmond, VA urban hospital one evening after suffering a heart attack at a conference, how will the hospital know to give him priority over the 12 year old minority gunshot victim? Will he have a special chip embedded in his arm or will there be a special notation on his Medicare card? Perhaps this is the real reason for the requirement all medical records are being digitized and linked in national databases. As soon as his record pops up, the ER staff sees a special flag that tells them to focus all of their efforts on saving the VIP.
Even more important, if you are a member of the elite class, is how your case is prioritized by the medical community when you need care at the same time as another VIP. For example will Warren Buffett have priority over a retired Leon Panetta or will senior government service triumph over private sector wealth when the best surgeon can only handle one person at a time? Will Jessie Jackson have priority over Hillary Clinton due to his race or will Hillary’s sex and government service give her higher standing? Some government bureaucrat is going to have to write the rules to guide the caregivers because decisions like these are too important to delegate to the health care providers on the front line.
Imagine the rules for allocating organs or medicine when there is a shortage. Will access to the best brain surgeon in the US be limited to the elites only or will there be guidelines allowing her to handle a few cases of medical interest involving average citizens? Perhaps the Secretary of HHS will maintain the appointment books of the top surgeons, oncologists, and medical specialists in the nation.
My point is that health care rationing will necessarily result in the institutionalization of status and privilege defined by political leaders. Not unlike the royalty of Europe assigning titles to the upper crust of society. Perhaps the simplest thing is for us to acknowledge openly the concept of individual equality is now dead and move forward by having the government assign titles of rank to each citizen. The current administration might designate conservative average citizens in flyover country as “untouchable” to the applause of the media and academia.
Wonderful photo! He looks right at home.
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