More on the Meaning of “Universal Coverage”
See previous post on the current situation.
Doctors are primary care physicians who accept all or most new Medicaid patients. Calculations assume that Medicaid payments are increased to Medicare levels for primary care services indefinitely, even though the law allows this for only two years. If doctors perceive that the fee schedule increase is only temporary, the physician totals will be much lower. They could be zero or negative.
Source: Peter Cunningham, “State Variation in Primary Care Physician Supply: Implications for Health Reform Medicaid Expansions.”
The government could always force doctors to accept patients who pay below market. I hear that’s working real well in Cuba.
The study suggested the increased physician payments are unlikely to prompt doctors practicing in areas with the greatest shortage to begin accepting new Medicaid patients. The federal government only funds higher Medicaid fees for two years — then it’s the state’s responsibility to maintain the funding levels. In some area, fees are very low compared to what private insures pay. A primary care doctor seeing a Medicaid patient in Manhattan would only get about 29 percent of what a privately insured patient would pay. Low Medicaid fees already function as a rationing device in some states.
How would it be possible for states to maintain the funding levels when budgets are tanking and getting slashed well into the foreseeable future?
If primary care physicians are to be the gatekeepers for Medicaid patients to access specialist care, the waiting lists will be lengthy indeed!
Couldn’t you solve this by just reminding doctors that they ought to be caring for the sick and the suffering?
Hopefully, “reminding” doesn’t become “compelling.”
Is preventive care going to be difficult to maintain without a pcp? That would be bad and I feel like the government should pay doctors more.
Obama Care is going to turn out to be a great con. It has made promises to millions of people that it will never keep.
Agree with Tom. This whole thing is a fraud.
Why aren’t ins. execs held accountable for denysotirg families? WE/RE GOING TO DO THIS AND THAT, THEY ALL SAY. BS! Seeing is believing! Corporations (including insurance companies) own the US gov. Because of recent Sup. Court decision, they NOW decide who will and who will not be in office. This is all a show! Ins. companies goal is to stall as much as possible while the quality of health care and value of the dollar drops. A collapse is eminent as is a global banking system. We are all slaves!