DOCTOR SHORTAGE
Devil's Advocate
PM ET and on Thursday, 11/19/09, on Greta Van Susteren on FOX News at
10:00 PM ET. Thanks!***
DOCTOR SHORTAGE
By DICK MORRIS
Published on TheHill.com on November 17, 2009
Joseph Stubbs, president of the American College of Physicians -- the
second-largest doctors' group in the country -- confirms that "the
supply of doctors just won't be there" for the 30 million new patients
President Barack Obama wants to cover. Noting that the doctor shortage
is "already a catastrophic crisis," Stubbs noted that underserved areas
in the U.S. currently need almost 17,000 new primary care physicians
even before Obama's proposals are enacted.
In the meantime, according to Bloomberg News, a 2009 survey by Merritt
Hawkins & Associates, a recruiting and research firm in Irving, Texas,
found that "the average waiting time to see a family-medicine doctor in
Boston...is 63 days, the most among the 15 cities" surveyed. By
comparison, in Miami, it was only seven days. The study noted that
Boston's longer wait was "driven in part by the healthcare reform
initiative" passed in 2006 in Massachusetts, upon which the Obama
program is modeled. Bloomberg reported that "as many as half of doctors
in the state have closed their practices to new patients, forcing many
of the newly insured to turn to emergency rooms for care."
Alan Goroll, a professor at Harvard Medical School, said that "the
primary lesson of healthcare reform in Massachusetts is that you can't
increase the number of insured unless you have a strong primary-care
base in place to receive them. Without that foundation...Massachusetts
has ended up with higher costs and people going to emergency rooms when
they can't find a doctor."
Additionally, a study by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid
Services, part of the federal government's Health and Human Services
Department, found that expanding insurance coverage to an estimated 32
million people who now lack it would create a demand for medical
services that "could be difficult to meet initially...and could lead to
price increases, cost-shifting and/or changes in providers' willingness
to treat patients with low-reimbursement health coverage."
Indeed, the report found that the Medicare cuts contained in the
House-passed bill are likely to "prove so costly to hospitals and
nursing homes that they could stop taking Medicare altogether."
The dynamic of the healthcare debate is decidedly turning against the
administration. As details of the doctor shortage, Medicare cuts, tax
increases, penalties for no insurance, shallow subsidies and high costs
for the uninsured all leak out, more and more Americans are developing
qualms about the bill.
But within Congress, the momentum is the other way as the bill hurtles
toward December passage in the Senate.
But then it will hit a wall as the chambers try to reconcile their
different versions so as to satisfy the liberal House and Obama's base
on the one hand and the most conservative among the 60 Democratic
senators on the other. This debate will focus on such a broad range of
issues and will be so contentious that it is going to take a long time
to resolve.
Meanwhile, popular angst with the bill will continue to build and
Election Day will approach. More and more members will be anxious about
supporting the bill and both left and right will dig in their heels and
resist compromise.
The healthcare bill may pass both houses, but may not be able to be
enacted into law. The tide of public opinion cannot be resisted.
Economic Crisis Alert: Protect Your Money Now Or Kiss It Goodbye!
http://reports.dickmorris.com/t/2342181/27179057/13859/0/?u=aHR0cDovL2xh
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---
Grand Mal
"Devil's Advocate" <Devil'sAdv...@devils.xxx> wrote in message
news:Xns9CC78D6C5ACFFDe...@216.196.97.142...
> ***Watch Dick on Wednesday, 11/18/09, on O'Reilly on FOX News at 8:00
> PM ET and on Thursday, 11/19/09, on Greta Van Susteren on FOX News at
> 10:00 PM ET. Thanks!***
>
> DOCTOR SHORTAGE
>
> By DICK MORRIS
>
> Published on TheHill.com on November 17, 2009
>
> Joseph Stubbs, president of the American College of Physicians -- the
> second-largest doctors' group in the country -- confirms that "the
> supply of doctors just won't be there" for the 30 million new patients
> President Barack Obama wants to cover. Noting that the doctor shortage
> is "already a catastrophic crisis," Stubbs noted that underserved areas
> in the U.S. currently need almost 17,000 new primary care physicians
> even before Obama's proposals are enacted.
There's more doctors per capita in the US than in Canada, the UK, New
Zealand, Japan, etc. and there's no suffering from lack of medical care in
those countries. In fact, there's a longer life expectancy and less infant
mortality. The US doesn't need more doctors, it needs fewer drive-throughs.
leg@sea
30 million new patients and HOW MANY new doctors are available?
Maybe that's why you witless Canucks come down here for your surgeries.
Maybe that's why you're starting to PRIVATIZE your own health care.
Now fuck off out of here hosehead.