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Yea! Yippee! Obamacare is here!! Step right up folks, register today! Don't get me wrong, I am all for Obamacare. I think it doesn't go far enough. I think we need universal health care. My problem with it: Who in the blue hell is going to take care of all of these new people? 30-40 million of them? Its funny, no one has talked about that. They talk about how all the shiny new insurance cards will allow the uninsured to do preventive care, blah blah blah. The question is, who are they going to do preventive care with? People WITH insurance now can't get appointments.
There is always talk that the uninsured don't go to the doctor for things because they can't afford it.
Then they get really sick and end up in the ER and the hospital, costing lots and lots of money with a condition that maybe could have been prevented. So now all those people have the golden ticket to prevent that. Except the golden ticket won't get them in anywhere. So where do you think they are going to head? Why, to the emergency room of course. Just like all the other people with insurance. Its where you head when you can't get in to see the doctor.
ERs are crowded now. Its a daily struggle to find inpatient beds. A lot more people who should be in the hospital will be sent home because there is no room at the inn. You are going to have to be dying to get into the hospital.
You all probably think I'm being the boogeyman. It won't be that bad. The system will handle it. The system is chaos NOW, it won't handle it. If anything, its going to be entertaining to see what happens. The fact that it starts January 1st, right in the middle of the flu/pneumonia/the crud season makes it all the more fun.
If we truly have a system that REQUIRES a significant percentage of our citizens to never access any health care in order for the system to work, well, that's the fault of having the worst health care system in the developed world. You can't blame the ACA for the "preexisting condition" of insufficient doctors in the system or lack of hospital beds. Maybe now that people can actually pay their medical bills, hospitals will be able to afford to meet the needs of all patients.
ReplyDeleteIf the AMA didn't limit the amount of students accepted to med schools in order to keep their supply down and demand up, we might not have the primary care provider shortage we have now. Not to mention the big bucks specialists make which lure med students into high paying specialties. In 2012, almost 12,000 APRNs were graduated and that will increase this year. Nurses will become the primary care providers for all these newly insured.
ReplyDeleteI have to admit, I'm pretty excited to be entering the field as a PCP right now.
ReplyDeleteΑn imρreѕsive shaгe! Ӏ've just forwarded this onto a friend who has been doing a little homework on this.
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