Where Will We Get The Doctors? (middle east, health care, solutions, insurance)
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First off, let me say up front that I would like to see Universal Health Care in this country but I'll settle for health care reform as proposed in the house and senate bills. This year my Primary Care Doctor of 12 years decided to charge 1500 per year and limit his practice to 600 patients effectively dumping 2200 patients. This 1500 is paid by the patient in addition to whatever health insurance and patient co pays. At my last consultation with my PCP I was given a list of 6 Drs. I had to call 5 of them before I found one who was accepting new patients. I currently have good health insurance. BCBS administers the plan but my company pays the bills directly. Still, 5 doctors refused to take me due to current patient load.
My question is, with the insurance mandate for health care and bringing in 47 million more people into the system, where are we gonna find the Drs. to meet the increased patient load?
Not looking for a partisan fight but would like to know if anyone has any honest answers as this directly affects me with the health problems I have. This new Dr. spent 10 minutes with me and admitted he did not have my medical history yet. He spent most the time trying to sign me up for a shingles vaccination.
If we can't get enough doctors in this country: H1B visa.
I had a feeling that we would be importing a lot of them from India. At least until we get more through the medical school pipeline. This might work for hospitals and institutions but I'm not sure about general practitioners.
Maybe we need more medical schools? Actually I think what we really need is just more emphasis on training primary care physicians. There are too many specialists and not enough family doctors and pediatricians. We can also staff some clinics with Nurse Practitioners and Physician Assistants. If compensation for primary care doctors is an issue under UHC, we'll need to take a look at that too. It can always be raised if it is too low.
Nationalize Health care and make Doctors Government Employees
That would be the ideal, IMO but I'm talking about the current bills that are working their way through the legislative process. I see no mention of plugging the gap in GPs and PCPs nor any mention of where the Drs. are going to come from. I think it's a big issue that nobody is addressing. I know I was shocked when I couldn't find a new PCP that easily.
Maybe we need more medical schools? Actually I think what we really need is just more emphasis on training primary care physicians. There are too many specialists and not enough family doctors and pediatricians. We can also staff some clinics with Nurse Practitioners and Physician Assistants. If compensation for primary care doctors is an issue under UHC, we'll need to take a look at that too. It can always be raised if it is too low.
I know there are long term solutions that can and will be impemented but one day we're all gonna wake up and these health care reform bills will be law and there will be many more people on the rolls. How do we solve the immediate problem of a GP/PCP shortage?
The government will bring in thousands of cheap doctors -- just like everything else -- they flat out told us we would have to compete with the third world and so we are.
He spent most the time trying to sign me up for a shingles vaccination.
If you are in the appropriate age group and have had chicken pox, you most likely should have gotten that vaccination.
As for the "more doctors" question, we will certainly over the short run be importing them both from Asia and the Caribbean/Central America. At the same time, we will be shifting many minor and routine exams and procedures to other trained medical professionals such as physician's assistants and even pharmacists. Your local CVS or Walgreen's will turn into a neighborhood mini-clinic. If this sounds frightening, keep in mind that almost none of those heroic EMT's and paramedics who show up and provide emergency care when you call an ambulance has any sort of actual medical degree at all. An Associates Degree from a community college and passage of a certification exam is all that's typically required. In the long run, keep in mind that a nation like France with its UHC system has both more doctors and more hospital beds per capita than we do. We will catch up, of course...once we get started...
Location: Jonquil City (aka Smyrna) Georgia- by Atlanta
16,259 posts, read 24,769,842 times
Reputation: 3587
Quote:
Originally Posted by mohawkx
First off, let me say up front that I would like to see Universal Health Care in this country but I'll settle for health care reform as proposed in the house and senate bills. This year my Primary Care Doctor of 12 years decided to charge 1500 per year and limit his practice to 600 patients effectively dumping 2200 patients. This 1500 is paid by the patient in addition to whatever health insurance and patient co pays. At my last consultation with my PCP I was given a list of 6 Drs. I had to call 5 of them before I found one who was accepting new patients. I currently have good health insurance. BCBS administers the plan but my company pays the bills directly. Still, 5 doctors refused to take me due to current patient load.
My question is, with the insurance mandate for health care and bringing in 47 million more people into the system, where are we gonna find the Drs. to meet the increased patient load?
Not looking for a partisan fight but would like to know if anyone has any honest answers as this directly affects me with the health problems I have. This new Dr. spent 10 minutes with me and admitted he did not have my medical history yet. He spent most the time trying to sign me up for a shingles vaccination.
The USA needs to build and open more medical schools. We have needed for for a long time. Here in Georgia we just have 2 medical schools to serve a population of millions. And when they try to open up another one, the doctors whine about it because they don't want the competition. We should open 100 new medical schools in the next 10 years.
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