I am glad Senators have good healthcare, but a 10.6% cut isn’t cutting it!
Posted by BMS on Saturday, June 28, 2008 at 1:10 pm
The Senate’s Republicans blocked a vote to avoid a cut in Medicare reimbursement starting next week. I hear part of the problem was that money to pay for avoiding the cut was going to come from funding Medicare Advantage Plans. Basically, this is federally subsidized private health insurance for Medicare elegible people and is generally 10 to almost 20% more expensive for tax payers than traditional Medicare. I see that there a probably some profits from donors to protect…. according to the New York Times, Bush has threatened a veto because
Go figure. Let’s just say the insurance industry has about a 10% profit while my practice’s has been exactly 0.
OK, so many of you may think: doctors make enough money – what is a 11% cut going to do, they can’t buy there second Porsche? No, my friends. I am not clairvoyant, but here are some facts and what (I am pretty sure) will happen:
- Doctors are already working longer hours for less money than a few years ago. Believe it or not, many doctors already provide some free healthcare (maybe not as much as they want you to believe, but my mechanic doesn’t work for free either). While there has been a small increase in average worker’s wages over the past decade, reimbursment of many doctors has dropped by as much as 20% (or even more). Most doctors are dedicated to their patients, but they are also deeply indebted with school loans, and may not want to sell their home or have their kids drop out of college just to be able to do their job. Money is just a reality.
- Doctors offices will reduce costs, which means cutting down on overhead (firing the assistant, the nurse, the receptionist), which means longer waits and worse care.
- Doctors will avoid seeing new Medicare patients – good luck, Baby Boomers (just remember to vote in November!).
- There is already a severe shortage of doctors in poor and rural areas. As these tend to have more people dependent on Medicare and Medicaid, there will be further exodus from these regions – wouldn’t you be at least considering another job if you salary was cut by 10%? There are plenty of opportuities elsewhere.
- Primary Care doctors, already facing probably the lowest reimbursment, may as well be hanging up their coat and go into more lucrative jobs… like at McDonalds…. ever tried to get preventive healthcare from a Dermatologist?
- The education of resident doctors is tied to Medicare, so we’ll see cuts there, and thus in a few years, probably a decline in quality.
In other words, please do not make a screwed up system worse. What we truly need is an overall reform, like Universal Healthcare, not a patchwork of legislation and rules that is so intransparent, I am sure many legislators have no clue what is going on, especially that they live in cities with pelnty of physicians to choose from and their healthare is paid for!
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Category: a day in the life of a practicing physician,healthcare workforce,high quality health care for all
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