Saturday, April 18, 2009

Soon, We Will All Have Health Insurance

... but only some of us will have doctors. Here's what one had to say about the situation.
More and more of my fellow doctors are turning away Medicare patients because of the diminished reimbursements and the growing delay in payments. I've had several new Medicare patients come to my office in the last few months with multiple diseases and long lists of medications simply because their longtime provider -- who they liked -- abruptly stopped taking Medicare. One of the top mammographers in New York City works in my office building, but she no longer accepts Medicare and charges patients more than $300 cash for each procedure.
Controlling costs by limiting payments while increasing the number of people covered leads to ... longer and longer waiting lists. Eventually, the government will have to force doctors to see these patients through some kind of patients' rights legislation. After that, the only way doctors will have of controlling their practices will be to quit.

Who is John Galt?

3 comments:

Jeff Burton said...

Don't worry. The fed will just print more doctors.

Dean said...

What Jeff said. Funny.

You're exactly right, KT. What incentive is there for doctors to continue their practice or for people to go into the fielf of medicine if the conditions continue to grow more onerous?

K T Cat said...

Jeff, that was the comment of the week. I'm still laughing!