Thanks To Obamacare, A 20,000 Doctor Shortage Is Set To Quintuple

[Stephanie]

you voted for it, enjoy.

SNIP:'

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Typical scene at a local emergency room
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Obamacare is set to provide some 16 million people with health insurance through Medicaid or the new exchanges next year. Unfortunately, their policies may not be worth much — as they may not be able to actually get care.

America is suffering from a doctor shortage. An influx of millions of new patients into the healthcare system will only exacerbate that shortage — driving up the demand for care without doing anything about its supply. Those who get their coverage through Medicaid or the exchanges may feel the effects of the shortage even more acutely, as many providers are opting not to accept their insurance.

Right now, the United States is short some 20,000 doctors, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges. The shortage could quintuple over the next decade, thanks to the aging of the American population — and the aging and consequent retirement of many physicians. Nearly half of the 800,000-plus doctors in the United States are over the age of 50.

Obamacare is further thinning the doctor corps. A Physicians Foundation survey of 13,000 doctors found that 60 percent of doctors would retire today if they could, up from 45 percent before the law passed.

Doctors are also becoming choosier about whom they’ll see.

all of it here
Thanks To Obamacare, A 20,000 Doctor Shortage Is Set To Quintuple - Forbes

 

[lynn63]

There is currently only 24 states that are expanding Medicaid so they are only actually expecting 6.5 million that will be eligible for medicaid. Since this population consists of mostly minimum wage or part time workers and are young and healthy, they are unlikely to create any disturbance for healthcare providers.

There are primary care physician shortages in some states but the real problem is many physicians no longer want to see Medicare and Medicaid patients due to low reimbursement. The only problem with that is these physicians will lose their hospital privileges if they are not contracted with Medicare and Medicaid.

 

[Mad Scientist]

There is currently only 24 states that are expanding Medicaid so they are only actually expecting 6.5 million that will be eligible for medicaid. Since this population consists of mostly minimum wage or part time workers and are young and healthy, they are unlikely to create any disturbance for healthcare providers.

That's pretty funny! I see a boatloads of young, fat people most everywhere.

 

[tjvh]

Why would people become Doctors when they can spend 8 or ten years getting an education for something that will make them a better income than the finite one they are going to endure under Ocare...

 

[Ava]

Stephanie, check this out. Obama's policies and mandates, and punishments may just send all of us back to our roots....

WICHITA, Kan., June 14 (UPI) --
A Kansas physician says he makes the same income and offers better quality care to his patients after he dumped all health insurance companies.

Doctors dump health insurance plans, charge patients less

The comments after the short article are particularly interesting. I hope it all becomes a trend.

 

[Mr. H.]

There are more abortions each year in this country than there are non-aborted who die from "lack of health care". This country has become one giant twisted cluster fuck over the last 5 years.

 

[Ava]

Here is the doctor that is making waves by going back to "private practice" and ditching the insurance companies. Your prescriptions are less and so are the visits to the Dr., of which he is seeing some patients that have no money. There is a provision in ObamaCare that allows physicians to strike out on their own, without being assassinated...lol. Here, he is being interviewed relative to the hows and whys of it all:

Fox News - Breaking News Updates | Latest News Headlines | Photos & News Videos

 

[Spoonman]

Stephanie, check this out. Obama's policies and mandates, and punishments may just send all of us back to our roots....

WICHITA, Kan., June 14 (UPI) --
A Kansas physician says he makes the same income and offers better quality care to his patients after he dumped all health insurance companies.

Doctors dump health insurance plans, charge patients less

The comments after the short article are particularly interesting. I hope it all becomes a trend.

that is a great article. what is really interesting is i have a cousin who is a physician and about two years ago he was telling very much the same thing. and when you think about it, healthcare used to be affordable. what changed? insurance. you can now not afford healthcare with out insurance. and that is because everything is over billed. he was telling me that he has to bill the established rates, then insurance companies decide what they are willing to pay, and it is different in each case. your insurance company pays for preventive proceedure. you go in for your colonoscopy, everything checks out well. no problem. they pay your bill. but you have your preventive colonoscopy and they remove a polyp. same preventiive proceedure, taking a preventive a preventive step, only now the billing code is changed and it is no longer a preventive proceedure. so unless you know this is what happened and you know you have to fight it and how to fight it, you pay more.

 

[dblack]

There is a provision in ObamaCare that allows physicians to strike out on their own

Link? Which provision is that?

 

[dblack]

There is a provision in ObamaCare that allows physicians to strike out on their own

Link? Which provision is that?

Anybody?

I'd love to find a silver lining in the PPACA cloud. I'm dubious though. Given that the entire thrust of the law is to push us into the deep end of insurance, it seems unlikely it would include this kind of escape clause.

 

[peach174]

We just lost our primary physician. She retired early, way early.
We had a heck of a time trying to find another one who would take new patients with Medicare.
The problem is he is not young and probably will be retiring in a few short years also. Then I don't think that we will be able to find anyone at all around here at least and we will have to go to Tucson.
that's a 100 mile round trip and it will get expensive for my Husband to have to go there every month to get his pro time read.

 

[Katzndogz]

We just lost our primary physician. She retired early, way early.
We had a heck of a time trying to find another one who would take new patients with Medicare.
The problem is he is not young and probably will be retiring in a few short years also. Then I don't think that we will be able to find anyone at all around here at least and we will have to go to Tucson.
that's a 100 mile round trip and it will get expensive for my Husband to have to go there every month to get his pro time read.

I lost mine too. His practice is being administered by a physician's assistant employed by the county health department. She just doesn't know what she's doing. I have to go in there having made the diagnosis myself, and determined which medication I need to treat the illness.

And she lies. My medical records are full of falsehoods. Because this woman is protecting her job, she doesn't want to be seen as missing anything. She has "diagnosed" diabetes, acid reflux, arthritis and emphysemia. I just don't actually have any of those conditions. After I left, she went back into my electronic records and inserted prescriptions for treatment of these conditions I don't really have. I don't have the prescriptions either. She told me that a pinch of tumeric every day is all I need. When I asked her why she was putting all this junk in my records she said "These are very common ailments for a person your age. If they weren't there, someone would think I missed them."

obamacare has been a total disaster.

 

[AmyNation]

More people will be able to see a doctor and so the doctor shortage will be made even worse.

0.0


That is one of the stupidest arguments against the ACA I have ever read. How dare those people want access to healthcare! If less people had insurance we wouldnt have this problem!

 

[Polk]

you voted for it, enjoy.

SNIP:'

Comment Now


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Typical scene at a local emergency room
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Obamacare is set to provide some 16 million people with health insurance through Medicaid or the new exchanges next year. Unfortunately, their policies may not be worth much — as they may not be able to actually get care.

America is suffering from a doctor shortage. An influx of millions of new patients into the healthcare system will only exacerbate that shortage — driving up the demand for care without doing anything about its supply. Those who get their coverage through Medicaid or the exchanges may feel the effects of the shortage even more acutely, as many providers are opting not to accept their insurance.

Right now, the United States is short some 20,000 doctors, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges. The shortage could quintuple over the next decade, thanks to the aging of the American population — and the aging and consequent retirement of many physicians. Nearly half of the 800,000-plus doctors in the United States are over the age of 50.

Obamacare is further thinning the doctor corps. A Physicians Foundation survey of 13,000 doctors found that 60 percent of doctors would retire today if they could, up from 45 percent before the law passed.

Doctors are also becoming choosier about whom they’ll see.

all of it here
Thanks To Obamacare, A 20,000 Doctor Shortage Is Set To Quintuple - Forbes

The Affordable Care Act created a problem that existed before the Affordable Care Act existed...

 

[Polk]

A recall that we only have a doctor shortage because the AMA places an artificial limit on the number of doctors that can enter the market each year.

 

[dblack]

A recall that we only have a doctor shortage because the AMA places an artificial limit on the number of doctors that can enter the market each year.

Yep. The regulatory state in action.

 

[Polk]

A recall that we only have a doctor shortage because the AMA places an artificial limit on the number of doctors that can enter the market each year.

Yep. The regulatory state in action.

More of a government-industry axis, but yes. Doctors like keeping the cost of their services high, politicians don't want to have run against statements that they're decreasing the quality of medicine.

 

[JakeStarkey]

So? Ramp up the schools and the overseas visas for qualified professionals.

 

[Ava]

There is a provision in ObamaCare that allows physicians to strike out on their own

Link? Which provision is that?

If you had taken the time to listen to the Dr. in the link I provided above, you would not have had to ask a dumb question!

Fox News - Breaking News Updates | Latest News Headlines | Photos & News Videos

 

[Greenbeard]

A recall that we only have a doctor shortage because the AMA places an artificial limit on the number of doctors that can enter the market each year.

There's a persuasive case to be made that the "shortage" is less an artifact of the size of the workforce than it is of how (poorly and inefficiently) we use that workforce today. Elliot Fisher made it just this week in the Wall Street Journal:

The problem facing health care today isn't that we need more doctors. The problem is that we still get care the old-fashioned way, which makes it appear that we need more doctors.

Yes, it takes days to get an appointment. But all too often the visit leads to a test we don't need, a diagnosis of a disease we shouldn't treat, or a procedure we wouldn't have chosen if we had been better informed. Meanwhile, the health-care payment system, which ensures that each service and test ordered will be reimbursed, keeps clinics full and costs rising.

So, our problem isn't a shortage of physicians, it is a failure to organize care.

Consider that some 20% to 30% of health-care services are unnecessary. That estimate was first identified by Dartmouth research published in the Annals of Internal Medicine in 2003, comparing the quality of care in different regions for patients with hip fracture, heart attack and colon cancer. Other sources have independently conducted studies that come to similar conclusions.

Despite what critics say, the data in the Dartmouth studies were carefully adjusted to take into account differences in the health of the populations studied. But the larger point is this: Our studies have found no evidence of a region having better care for having a greater number of doctors. On the contrary: Doctors in regions with more physicians (and more primary-care physicians) reported greater difficulty making referrals to specialists and coordinating care, compared with doctors in regions with fewer physicians.

Clearly, adding more physicians to the old system isn't the answer.