Health Care Passed

[emayer]

AMoore wrote:

emayer wrote:

A few thoughts on the reform plan:

1. Very few if any docs take Medicaid patients in the office. Aside from the lousy reimbursement, unfortunately the clientele tends to be poorly compliant and more litigious. Even matching Medicare rates will convert few (see #2).

A bit of an overstatement I think. I taught the poor for 12 years before becoming a lawyer. My students had access to Dr. Offices; although I agree that given a choice, a doctor would prefer alternative coverage. Offering loan forgiveness (yes another govt. program) would provide incentive for doctors to work in clinics in poor urban or rural areas. Moreover, not all doctors went to med school in order to become rich.

Not to overtake the thread, I'll pick one item for now:


It's a vast overstatement, preachy, and frankly naive to think that docs are in this profession for wealth alone. I'm sure you don't favor such comments being made about lawyers either. I for one, enjoy my profession foremost and actually provide indigent care on a monthly basis. There are far easier ways to make a dollar than medicine.

The truth is that it boils down to economics within the practice environment. Aside from the extra costs of medical school plus an additional 6 years of residency at sub-minimum wage levels, on a daily basis we have to contend with increasing overhead in the setting of declining reimbursement. Medicaid does not cover basic costs let alone turn a profit. In many areas of the country the same can be said of Medicare. My point about being so overloaded with patients is that given a choice of payors to fill a given office visit, who do you think a practitioner is going to choose? How would you feel if your gross revenue averaged about 40% of billed charges? Think you would be in business long?