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Originally Posted by trackrat59
Here's one big problem Obama has not mentioned. There's a major shortage of primary care physicians in this country. As more people gain access to health care the problem will only be compounded.
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That has been mentioned. They will just make more doctors. Med schools have already increased their enrollment. Seats available to be a doctor have always gone in up and down cycles.
When I chose between med school or vet school, all the doctors I knew hated insurance companies. Not practicing medicine, they loved that, but the BS insurance hoops they had to go through, that actively restricted their practice of medicine.
Insurance companies, not doctors, dictate which diagnostic tests and care you get to have for what conditions, etc. - by what they will reimburse for them.
How many new moms have been kicked out of the hospital after 24 hours? And GI surgery patients sent home after 5 days, when 6-7 would have suited them better? Insurance won't pay, off you go. Women with undiagnosed breast cancer, because insurance company would only pay for one mammogram every 5 years. Diabetes undiagnosed because the insurance company wouldn't pay for a blood test annually? Etc.
There are plenty of doctors who have "gone off the grid", and provide basic family practice/internal medicine services without dealing with insurance for the basics (wellness, blood tests, etc) and thus keeping patient costs very low and realistic.
Saying "but we don't have enough doctors" is no reason not to provide healthcare to millions of people. It's easy to make more doctors. You just have to go back and make the profession one of medicine, not subservience to insurance company dictates. One big headache to keeping people from choosing medicine as a career is having to deal with insurance companies. Having to hire multiple people in your office just to deal with the forms, having the insurance company dictate how you practice medicine, what you can do for patients, etc.