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 don’t 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 else’s subsidies – have stayed away. They know a bad deal when they see one.
Although the young and healthy aren’t 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 state’s primary care practices aren’t 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 ...
bump
Doctors are among the 1% era. Who cares?
Warp 4. She canna’ take much more a’ this, cap’n.
Don’t page me, I’m going fishing.
1.High cost insurance 2. High deductibles
3. Pay out of pocket for most expense
4. Medical care shortages
5. Utter uncertainty about of the current and future rules.
In other words, the very worst of a free of market and a corporatist market combined…Forward! It’s time to have another drink and then go sleep,
and the leftist answer will be to outlaw us paying cash for healthcare
All your doctors are belong to us.
Seriously, how many doctors are going to put up with this? Basically, it's a mandate that doctors must treat some patients for free or even at a loss.
“Perhaps an executive order establishing a doctor’s mandate to serve a minimum number of Obamacare patients as a condition for renewing their medical licenses”
You pretend to pay, we pretend to work. You’ll need at least 7 years of residency to replace a neurosurgeon that retires in one minute. Or you can import a Pakistani doctor that still needs to pass the National boards and go through an accredited residency and pass the speciality examination.
What a waste of talent.
The title reminds me of the movie `The Sound of Thunder’ with Edward Burns.
A company that figured out time travel put on T-Rex hunts. They messed with the past (the butterfly effect) and doomed the future, with changes coming in waves until eventually men changed into weird ET type creatures being hunted by huge reptilian gorillas.
We’re not that screwed. Maybe. But yeah, we’re doooooomed .......
Obamacare reimbursement rates are lower than Medicare. Obamacare has a special disadvantage, too: a 90-day grace period. This means people can buy an Obamacare policy, have costly procedures done and then cancel the policy within 90 days. If the cancellation comes during the first 30 days, the insurer is responsible for trying to collect payment, but after that, doctors are on their own. They would have to spend time and money chasing patients for payments. California Healthline reported that deadbeats “would not receive a fine, a premium rate increase or a repayment order. They also would not be barred from purchasing another subsidized plan during the next enrollment period.” No other type of health insurance has a 90-day grace period like this no Doc in their right mind should accept 0care...
No, actually I’m an accountant...but I offered to lend a hand....Sore throat you say? please lower your top.
2 thoughts:
The next big “shockwave” will be the reaction when large portions of the many Americans who get medical insurance from their employers start getting dumped. It will make the last 6 weeks look like a cake-walk
I hope enough doctors and hospitals dump 3rd-Party payers altogether, and set up cash only networks. We may see the formation of a true consumer-choice, lower-cost, high-service health network.
We'll get "free" clinics with "free" healthcare clinics, run by SEIU union workers and government dicatates.
What could go wrong? /s/
I live in Massachusetts, my wife was just recently eligible for medicare, she had to call three doctors (I know that’s not astronomical) to find one who took medicare.
when I was younger, it was like you had gold plated insurance when you had medicare. now doctors look at you like you’re no better than a welfare queen.
“Or you can import a Pakistani doctor that still needs to pass the National boards and go through an accredited residency and pass the speciality examination.”
As though Obama won’t just order all that to go away. Foreign docs will get free license to practice here.
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