Medicaid/ACA – Lack of Doctors May Worsen as Millions Join Medicaid Rolls – NYTimes.com.
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.
If course, “officials” who don’t actually do any of the real work but are experts at “predicting” have a different viewpoint…
California officials say they are confident that access will not be an issue.
You know, you really have to be a stoopid idiot to say that “access will not be an issue”. We have had a lot of stoopid idiots saying stuff that common sense tells us is simply not true. It’s time to start calling these people out. Unfortunately, this California “official” isn’t named.
