Yes, nurse practitioners can do a lot of the primary care tasks that physicians perform. But what is the president’s answer to the nursing shortage? Doctors aren’t the only health professionals that are predicted to be in short supply.
The Aetna study of heart-attack survivors is good research. It shows that consumer-driven health care cannot simply be about high deductibles and co-pays, but needs to take into account patients’ very complex and apparently irrational behavior.
Motivating patients to take their pills likely requires other levers than waiving co-pays. Peer pressure might be one.
We will never know the perfect answer to the challenge of improving adherence to medication. That is why it is critical that private payers, not government, decides how benefits are structured. Obamacare takes us in the opposite direction.
Yes, nurse practitioners can do a lot of the primary care tasks that physicians perform. But what is the president’s answer to the nursing shortage? Doctors aren’t the only health professionals that are predicted to be in short supply.
Sorry, but nurses can’t substitute for all the doctors we are going to need.
The Aetna study of heart-attack survivors is good research. It shows that consumer-driven health care cannot simply be about high deductibles and co-pays, but needs to take into account patients’ very complex and apparently irrational behavior.
Motivating patients to take their pills likely requires other levers than waiving co-pays. Peer pressure might be one.
We will never know the perfect answer to the challenge of improving adherence to medication. That is why it is critical that private payers, not government, decides how benefits are structured. Obamacare takes us in the opposite direction.
More nurses and other low and mid-level healthcare workers means more people to supervise. Fewer doctors means fewer people to do the supervising.
What kind of an increase in misdiagnoses are we going to see down the road as a result?