2009/12/1
Even with health reform, access to care to get worse, not better: “The American Medical Association estimates the country will be short 85,000 doctors in primary care, cardiology, oncology and general surgery by 2020.”
Going to an urgent care center or a doc-in-the-box to avoid higher-priced hospital emergency care? Surprise: You may get billed by the hospital anyway.
I believe access to health care is going to get worse. And health reform is going to make it much worse.
Government subsidies will certainly increase demand for “free” health care. But no one in Congress seems to be taking into account the increased demand for health care in their cost & access calculations.
The access point is very important. Insurance does not equal access. Just as lack of insurance does not equal lack of access.
I was surprised to read about what the hospitals are doing. That should be illegal.
Access to primary care will get worse just from 78 million baby boomers reaching old age. However, the Administration is going to exacerbate the problem with unwise policies that make it less rewarding for students to go into medicine as a career. What good is universal coverage when many will be unable to find a doctor willing to see them?
They’re doing it here in Denver. It is so bad that it stimulated a competitive response. A bunch of docs got together and took one evening shift a month to open an urgent care pediatrics group after their patients reported getting ripped off left, right, and center at suburban “urgent care” clinics operated by a major downtown hospital.
When the patients got the bill from the hospital, it was for ER rates. The pediatricians charge normal office rates.
Without competition, people get ripped off.
We had better watch the legislation before Congress carefully. Hospitals have sold out to Obama. They have already got some provision limiting any new specialty hospitals run by physicians. It wouldn’t surprise me if they tried to outlaw independent urgent care clinics as well.