One of the main things you should have done as soon as the Democrats started fiddling with health care is lock in a doctor who does only private pay, especially if you’re a boomer or are going to end up caring for one. Medicare does not reimburse doctors at a rate that allows them to make a profit so more and more doctors are closing their doors to new patients. This will mean year long waits for people with doctors who take medicare as thousands of new patients compete for appointments with medicare friendly doctors.
From USA Today:
WASHINGTON — The number of doctors refusing new Medicare patients because of low government payment rates is setting a new high, just six months before millions of Baby Boomers begin enrolling in the government health care program.
Recent surveys by national and state medical societies have found more doctors limiting Medicare patients, partly because Congress has failed to stop an automatic 21% cut in payments that doctors already regard as too low. The cut went into effect Friday, even as the Senate approved a six-month reprieve. The House has approved a different bill.
• The American Academy of Family Physicians says 13% of respondents didn’t participate in Medicare last year, up from 8% in 2008 and 6% in 2004.
• The American Osteopathic Association says 15% of its members don’t participate in Medicare and 19% don’t accept new Medicare patients. If the cut is not reversed, it says, the numbers will double.
• The American Medical Association says 17% of more than 9,000 doctors surveyed restrict the number of Medicare patients in their practice. Among primary care physicians, the rate is 31%.
The federal health insurance program for seniors paid doctors on average 78% of what private insurers paid in 2008.
“Physicians are saying, ‘I can’t afford to keep losing money,’ ” says Lori Heim, president of the family doctors’ group.
Something the left, comprised of generation upon generation of people whose every whim was heavily subsidized by others, doesn’t understand. The article goes on to point out tht New York alone had 1100 doctors start refusing medicare. The AARP isn’t happy, but since they are partly responsible for this mess, I’m unmoved.
Make any health care appointments you need now, before the wait becomes almost European.
Great advice. Most doctors charge lower rates for cash payments away.
To add to this, this is a good time for folks to start taking some responsibility for their own health. The top diseases in our country are often largely preventable through proper diet and exercise, including heart disease, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, etc. We wouldnt have the massive health care costs if people would wake up to the fact that processed foods, sodas, inactivity, sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, insane amounts of salt, MSG, and the entire host of petroleum-based agricultural chemicals that have become systemic in their food supply, are killing us.
I used to work with the mentally and physically disabled. I have no problem with government health care for those who cannot take care of themselves. But both medicare and medicaid are about to go bankrupt. Even though I’ve paid into the system, by the time I’d qualify, it will have already gone belly up.
Indeed. I got 50% off a check up recently because I went private pay.
I too would have no problem with government programs … if they worked. They simply don’t.
Exercise is the best thing everyone can do. We are too sedentary as a society. I love the progress society has made, but it’s too unnatural and it can’t last.