How Bad Is Medicaid?
…30% of office-based physicians do not accept new Medicaid patients, and in some specialties, the rate of nonacceptance is much higher ― for example, 40% in orthopedics, 44% in general internal medicine, 45% in dermatology, and 56% in psychiatry. Physicians practicing in higher-income areas are less likely to accept new Medicaid patients. Physicians who do accept new Medicaid patients may use various techniques to severely limit their number ― for example, one study of 289 pediatric specialty clinics showed that in the 34% of these clinics that accepted new Medicaid patients, the average waiting time for an appointment was 22 days longer for children on Medicaid than for privately insured children. (NEJM)
Most of these people would be losing money by accepting Medicaid patients (either directly or, more likely, by foregoing treatments of non-Medicaid patients).
Im sure the doctors are so happy about this
The Feds will end up forcing doctors to provide treatment because Medicaid recipients will see a precipitous decline in health outcomes.
And we think that Medicaid is going to save people? This is ridiculous. The next few years will be a mayhem.
I’m afraid the mayhem might stick around longer than a few years…
“Would it be reasonable to ask all physicians to commit to providing care for enough Medicaid enrollees so that at least 5% of each physician’s practice consisted of Medicaid patients (assuming sufficient demand)?” (NEJM)
Seems like a reasonable plan.
Why not create a tax incentive for doctors to provide services to Medicaid patients?
That’s a good idea. Even more effective if the doctor could use it to help his personal income taxation.
propose it
That would cost a lot of money. It really isn’t any different than raising reimbursement rates.
Depends on what is meant by “ask all physicians”. My suspicion is that this wasn’t meant to be voluntary.
“The average waiting time for an appointment was 22 days longer for children on Medicaid than for privately insured children.”
This isn’t such a bad thing in my eyes…
? How so?
And the president just wants to expand this program!