It may be the biggest Obamacare lie of all.
Not that you can keep your health care plan if you like your plan.
Not that you can keep your doctor if you like your doctor.
Not all of the phony cost estimates and supposed efficiencies.
The biggest lie of all is that 15-30 million additional people who will be enticed or shoved onto Medicaid will receive quality health care.
In reality, they will receive health care “insurance,” but there will be few doctors willing to see them because the reimbursement rates are so low.
I have mentioned before how, anecdotally, almost every doctor with whom I speak sings that same song, that Medicaid reimbursements are so low they either have to restrict or eliminate Medicaid patients.
It’s not just anecdotal. Even The New York Times notes that the problem will become much worse under Obamacare, Medicaid Growth Could Aggravate Doctor Shortage (h/t @Drudge_Report):
Dr. Ted Mazer is one of the few ear, nose and throat specialists in this region who treat low-income people on Medicaid, so many of his patients travel long distances to see him.But now, as California’s Medicaid program is preparing for a major expansion under President Obama’s health care law, Dr. Mazer says he cannot accept additional patients under the government insurance program for a simple reason: It does not pay enough.
“It’s a bad situation that is likely to be made worse,” he said.
His view is shared by many doctors around the country. Medicaid for years has struggled with a shortage of doctors willing to accept its low reimbursement rates and red tape, forcing many patients to wait for care, particularly from specialists like Dr. Mazer.
Yet in just five weeks, millions of additional Americans will be covered by the program, many of them older people with an array of health problems. The Congressional Budget Office predicts that nine million people will gain coverage through Medicaid next year alone.
As furious as people who have lost their private insurance are now, just wait until those “qualifying” for Medicaid they find out that the seeming freebie means they lost their plan, their doctor, and their health care.
The result of all this will be a targeting of doctors. Forcing doctors to accept Medicaid patients will be the inevitable solution.
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