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A doctor has a license to practice medicine because it is in the public interest. That license gives the doctor the opportunity to make mind-boggling incomes. I see no reason why, as a condition of having an exclusive license to make the money a doctor makes in the united States a doctor shouldn't be expected to accept patients whose health coverage is from Medicare or Medicaid.
Actually no. The license does not make them money. They make as much money as people are willing to pay.
But I guess we should have the government set wages for all licensed professionals, right?
In some ways I do think they should but in most ways I don't. I feel some middle ground could be met such as a certain portion or percentage of their patients can/should be medicare patients. I really don't see the harm from it as they actually will get paid since medicare will pay them so it is not like they are not making any money for providing their services.
ETA: Also most doctors take out extensive federal loans to cover their education. I do feel that foriving them some of that debt in exchange for seeing larger percentages of medicare or medicaid patients would be a good thing as well.
Last edited by residinghere2007; 08-01-2011 at 07:07 AM..
Do private Doctor practices in the UK take patients ''without looking at their wallets first''?
Most Doctors in the UK don't ask ANY patients for a fee. 99% of Doctors in the UK work in the NHS. Some Consultants also have private practices but they must work a minimum of hours in the NHS to be paid by the NHS.
In the UK the Consultants do not ask 4-5-6 times the normal amount of a treatment to the Insurance companies as they do in the USA thus the Insurance company can keep their premiums low. Many of the private patient work in the UK comes from people coming from abroad as most Brit's use the NHS.
When my wife came to the UK from the USA, she insisted on getting health insurance as she had heard in the media here how bad the NHS is. She got platinum health cover.... everything possible covered and she would be given approx $90 per day into her bank account for everyday that she is in a NHS Hospital from the insurance company if she had the treatment in the NHS Hospital. There was also NO copay when using the private health insurance. Having now used the NHS in the UK...My Wife realises what B/S the reports about UHC's are.
As the Health insurance companies in the UK have to compete with the NHS they cannot charge HUGE premiums as patients would not use them... they still earn mega bucks. No poor Doctors in the UK either.
I really don't see the harm from it as they actually will get paid since medicare will pay them so it is not like they are not making any money for providing their services.
Some don't take these patients now because of low fees, the largest part of the deficit reductions in the health care bill is calculated based on reducing payments with the assumption that the medical community will just accept it. The CBO called these reductions "unrealistic".
It is important to note that the estimated savings shown in this memorandum for one category of
Medicare provisions may be unrealistic. The PPACA introduces permanent annual productivity
adjustments to price updates for most providers (such as hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, and
home health agencies), using a 10-year moving average of economy-wide private, non-farm
productivity gains. While such payment update reductions will create a strong incentive for
providers to maximize efficiency, it is doubtful that many will be able to improve their own
productivity to the degree achieved by the economy at large.Over time, a sustained reduction
in payment updates, based on productivity expectations that are difficult to attain, would cause
Medicare payment rates to grow more slowly than, and in a way that was unrelated to, the providers’
costs of furnishing services to beneficiaries. Thus, providers for whom Medicare
constitutes a substantive portion of their business could find it difficult to remain profitable and,
absent legislative intervention, might end their participation in the program (possibly
jeopardizing access to care for beneficiaries). Simulations by the Office of the Actuary suggest
that roughly 15 percent of Part A providers would become unprofitable within the 10-year
projection period as a result of the productivity adjustments. Although this policy could be
monitored over time to avoid such an outcome, changes would likely result in smaller actual
savings than shown here for these provisions.
As it stands even right now most Medicare patients have a difficult time finding Doctors who will accept Medicare and it will only get worse with cuts. These patients are the elderly and are the most vulnerable in our society.
ANY doctor who accepted gov't loans to go to school should have to accept a certain percentage of Medicare patients into their practice. They would never have become a doctor without these loans, so there should be some payback. Many of these loans are forgiven if the Doctor practices in a "needed area" such as a rural environment.
I do hope the doctors I see didn't go through all the training JUST to make the bucks, that they became doctors to heal the sick with care and empathy and not look at me with dollar signs in their eyes.
I have several friends that are doctors and they work long hard hours.
Not a job I would do.
So do nurses technicians etc etc, who are all highly qualified but get nothing like the money the Doctors get... who, by the way, couldn't carry out their jobs without them.
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