Where Have All the Doctors Gone?

[annon123]

You can get health care in this country. Just show up at the emergency room. Paying for it is the issue. People aren't dying here because they can't get in to see a doctor. They are dying because they feel they can't afford to either self-pay or get insurance. The point being made in that prior post is all of those people (Canadians) have insurance (national healthcare), but they can't get in to see a doctor. I have a client who is originally from Canada. Her daughter still lives there. They are now removing primary doctors from people who are deemed "healthy". Now if they get sick, they have to just show up and hope they can get in. Her daughter had a rash on her arm. She got to the doctors office at 7 am. If my memory serves me correctly, she was 70th-80th in line. She didn't get to see the doctor that day. Had to go back the next day.

And prior to ACA, a family of 4 could get a decent insurance plan for $300 per month. Yet, many who didn't have insurance through their job still went without because "they couldn't afford it". Although they had a couple of nice cars, all 4 had cell phones, they ate out 4+ times per week. The list goes on. Now that family of 4, if they don't get a subsidy, has to pay $2k+ per month for health insurance. If they couldn't afford it at $300 per month, they sure as hell aren't affording it at $2k per month. Hell, even if they do get a decent subsidy, they would still pay well in excess of what they would have paid prior to ACA.

In my opinion, ACA really broke the system. It was a feature not a bug. And their answer is national healthcare because of course America can do it better than anybody else. Just like socialism, the only reason it hasn't worked anywhere else is because America hasn't done it yet. I'll pass.

You can not get chemo in the ER. You can not get treated for chronic diseases, etc. in the ER. You can not get surgery that isn't an emergency, but you need it, in the ER. You can't get a knee replacement, etc. in the ER... Plus many medical systems, once you go to collection will sue you and cut off care (yes that doesn't cut off care in the ER but it cuts you off from trying to get treatment for other things in that system whether it be full pay, insurance or with financial aid if you qualified which many don't).

My comment had nothing to do with ACA. And if we had national health care we'd still be killing people. Perhaps though a different set of people. Rather, my comment, was addressing that each way each country does health care creates problems that can kill people. Who they kill will depend on the weaknesses and strengths of the particular system, but some will die due to failure to get the care they need in a timely manner if at all. The reason may vary between countries but some will die due to the "issues" with the particular system that country uses.

 

[axeman462]

 

[annon123]

I lived and worked in Canada at one point and had to use their health care system. It was fine for what I needed it for. Here, in the USA, when I had cancer - yes I was seen about 2 weeks sooner than if I had been in Canada (we were discussing those things on a North American, started by a Canadian, specific to this kind of cancer list). The issue is not the type of insurance, rather they have far fewer doctors per person in Canada than we do in the USA. As a result waits are faster here as the ratio of doctors to patients is far lower. The waits in the USA are shorter for that reason, not because of insurance reasons. If we had universal insurance here, unless we had fewer doctors than we had now our waits would still be shorter.

But I was also left with paying $32-39,000 a year for the health care I needed and had I not been paying my bills I would have had care cut off and been sued. At least in Canada you don't go bankrupt or empty your retirement account over health care bills. The Canadians on the list were shocked at how much we Americans were paying to get the same set of cancers treated with the same meds/treatment plans.

Neither that video made by that right wing company or my personal experience can be taken as how it always is. Also Canadian health care has differences between provinces because your insurance is province specific and you need to get permission to be treated in a different one - which is granted if you can't find the specialist you need (think the Yukon just for instance) or you can be seen sooner elsewhere in Canada.

 

[MedicareMutt]

The average wait for new patients to see a physician is 26 days, and that's for mostly healthy people. In a medical emergency, the situation can become even more frightening: Twenty-two percent of acutely ill patients 65 or older who sought medical attention had to wait six days or more for an appointment

Nearly 70 million Americans on Medicare, many with chronic conditions, can expect longer waiting times for medical care.

Even being an established, well-connected doctor doesn't always help. One colleague of mine, working at a major medical center in the South, recently decided to move with his family to the Northeast. But as the process was underway, his wife was diagnosed with cancer. Even though she'd already received a diagnosis, and even though they were using the same insurance company, the insurer refused to cover her oncology treatment until she got a referral from a new primary care physician.

Despite being a prominent doctor himself, my colleague could not find a single physician willing to take his wife on as a new patient. The family was forced to go back to their previous state so his wife could receive care. Fortunately, she is doing well, but my colleague asks, "How do people do this without the connections we have?"

In reporting this story, I spoke with dozens of physicians, the vast majority of whom vented their frustrations with the current state of medicine. But just as tellingly, almost all of them also refused to talk to me on the record, fearing that speaking out could cost them their jobs.

Part of what's driving this is the growing trend of private equity firms and corporations, such as CVS Health and Amazon, purchasing hospitals and private practices. One major medical group, (that would be UHC/Optum) with about 90,000 doctors in some 2,000 locations across the country, has spent billions of dollars acquiring physician-owned practices, home health centers and surgical centers. This past April, the Physician Advocacy Institute reported that just shy of 80 percent of all doctors were employed by hospitals or corporations, up 200 percent in just over 10 years.

Physicians told me they are burned out. Simply put, they are being asked by the business world that owns their practices to do medicine, at times, in ways they view as not in the patient's best interest. Meanwhile, those who cling to their independent practices are finding it impossible to hold on given the financial pressures on them.

Millions of American workers are currently employed in health care in some capacity, many in government, for insurance companies, or in corporate oversight. But in the end, it is often doctors on the front lines, bearing the blame and anguish when diagnoses are wrong or treatments go badly.

Where Have All The Doctors Gone? | Members Only

America is facing a shortage of physicians. Here’s how you can find the care you need

www.aarp.org

Interesting article that places much of the blame on corporate ownership of provider groups yet neglects to mention UHC/Optum by name . . .

We did have 20 millions come over the last 4 years ..?

 

[MedicareMutt]

Are they in Quebec ... French on the windows ...

 

[somarco]

NextClinic is an AU based company. Do they also work with US based carriers & providers?

FWIW provider lookup databases are never 100% accurate. This is true for carrier lists and especially for CMS databases.

 

[vic120]

What is soo amazing is how the Obama admin slammed anyone who said this is the future if Obamacare is passed

and there is no apologies now