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12-13-2010, 06:30 PM
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Let states experiment locally, first!
Speaking of the Massachusetts attempt to get coverage for everyone, here is an aspect of it that's not mentioned nationally:
"But having health insurance doesn't necessarily mean it will be easy to find a doctor. Even before reform, reports projected a shortfall of 40,000 primary care physicians over the next decade. Thirty-two million newly insured Americans, plus the millions of baby boomers entering Medicare age, will only make this shortfall worse.
As a primary care doctor in New Hampshire, I have had the opportunity to observe the effects of health reform in neighboring Massachusetts, which enacted a similar approach to universal coverage in 2006.
To its credit, Massachusetts covers 97 percent of its residents, the highest in the country. But its wholly unprepared primary care system was unable to handle the 500,000 newly insured patients looking for a regular doctor. According to the Massachusetts Medical Society, a primary care internist had an average wait time of 50 days for new patients, with almost half refusing to accept to new patients.
When Amherst, Mass., family physician Kate Atkinson decided to accept newly insured patients, she was forced to close her doors six weeks later. She told the Boston Globe that "there were so many people waiting to get in, it was like opening the floodgates," saying that her office is getting "10 calls a day from patients crying and begging."
And this is a state that already has the highest number of doctors per capita nationwide. It's frightening to imagine how other parts of the country, most of which have significantly fewer primary care doctors, can handle the influx of patients if Massachusetts can't.
By Kevin Pho M.D. (3/30/10)
http://www.aolnews.com/opinion/artic...octor/19419684
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