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What hasn’t received much publicity is the fact that over the years, more and more doctors have stopped accepting Medicare patients, and even more turn away Medicaid patients (except in extreme situations).
With this and the experience of what happens in Canada when there are fewer doctors, is that people go without care. Access to medical coverage is not the same as access to medical care.
We’re all talking health care, C-SPAN’s efforts to cover the discussion of same, the underwear bomber being tried in our courts, etc. and our local paper instead chose to pick up an AP article talking about how 0bama has redecorated the Oval Office.
Keep in mind, folks, that this particular Mayo Clinic is only not accepting where they’re losing serious money. They’re still accepting Medicare for many of the specialties… although for many of those there’s probably separate billings from the individual physicians’ groups, and that may become a problem.
BW is absolutely right (that’s the Dr. BW typing, I presume?) about docs having to stop taking new patients. We’re still holding off making such a decision in my group. I don’t like the idea of having a situation in which only those who can afford to pay cash get to use our services while those who can’t get herded into a not-quite-as-good standard of care. Same reason why I try not to look up what insurance individual patients carry before I see them – We treat the person not the wallet.
January 6, 2010 at 9:31 am
Interesting article from the Boston Globe re: the Mayo Clinic’s decision to stop accepting Medicare patients @ one of their facilities in Arizona.
Kudos to Al for making this prediction last year.
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2010/01/06/medicare_and_the_mayo_clinic/
January 6, 2010 at 12:14 pm
Good find, Chip, and kudos to Al!
What hasn’t received much publicity is the fact that over the years, more and more doctors have stopped accepting Medicare patients, and even more turn away Medicaid patients (except in extreme situations).
With this and the experience of what happens in Canada when there are fewer doctors, is that people go without care. Access to medical coverage is not the same as access to medical care.
January 6, 2010 at 1:01 pm
We’re all talking health care, C-SPAN’s efforts to cover the discussion of same, the underwear bomber being tried in our courts, etc. and our local paper instead chose to pick up an AP article talking about how 0bama has redecorated the Oval Office.
I kid you not.
And we wonder why Americans are so clueless?
January 6, 2010 at 3:40 pm
Keep in mind, folks, that this particular Mayo Clinic is only not accepting where they’re losing serious money. They’re still accepting Medicare for many of the specialties… although for many of those there’s probably separate billings from the individual physicians’ groups, and that may become a problem.
BW is absolutely right (that’s the Dr. BW typing, I presume?) about docs having to stop taking new patients. We’re still holding off making such a decision in my group. I don’t like the idea of having a situation in which only those who can afford to pay cash get to use our services while those who can’t get herded into a not-quite-as-good standard of care. Same reason why I try not to look up what insurance individual patients carry before I see them – We treat the person not the wallet.