Keep in mind that the system of incentives was designed by the same bodies of politicians that are now clamoring for more authority to fix these problems... that they created.
As the number of doctos increase so does the maximum volume of rendered care. We want the doctors to do a a lot more procedures and whatnot. That's why we have them. Many areas in America are critically short of general practitioners as it is. Let's suppose that the proposed health care bill is 100% successful in gaining coverage for another 46 million Americans that currently has no insurance.
That's a problem. We don't have enough doctors now, and when you add another 46 million people on top of that something has to give. It's less of "a rising tide lifts all boats" and more "I'm going to shorten the stilts on your house to prop up mine, so we all will get soaked."
Add in the expanded Medicare and Medicaid, both of which are in the process of cutting payments to reduce costs, government interference between doctor and patient, and you have a change in health care policy that not only fails to do what it's intended to do, rather it is actually harmful to health care and the economy.
The proposed plan is bad, dangerous, and prohibitively expensive. When it inevitably fails the politicians are simply going to claim that we didn't try hard enough rather than admit that it was poorly conceived to begin with.
Just because you educate more doctors doesn't mean they are going to be where the people in need of care are located. They will respond to the economic incentives that are in place, & they will go where they can make the most money (& why not? It's what we all do.). So you end up with more doctors in the rich suburbs, performing more & more possibly unnecessary procedures on the population that's already receiving health care.
Actually, my whole day yesterday was an adventure in exactly that kind of doctoring. I will try to write it up today.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2009-10-09 02:31 pm (UTC)As the number of doctos increase so does the maximum volume of rendered care. We want the doctors to do a a lot more procedures and whatnot. That's why we have them. Many areas in America are critically short of general practitioners as it is. Let's suppose that the proposed health care bill is 100% successful in gaining coverage for another 46 million Americans that currently has no insurance.
That's a problem. We don't have enough doctors now, and when you add another 46 million people on top of that something has to give. It's less of "a rising tide lifts all boats" and more "I'm going to shorten the stilts on your house to prop up mine, so we all will get soaked."
Add in the expanded Medicare and Medicaid, both of which are in the process of cutting payments to reduce costs, government interference between doctor and patient, and you have a change in health care policy that not only fails to do what it's intended to do, rather it is actually harmful to health care and the economy.
The proposed plan is bad, dangerous, and prohibitively expensive. When it inevitably fails the politicians are simply going to claim that we didn't try hard enough rather than admit that it was poorly conceived to begin with.
no subject
Date: 2009-10-09 04:53 pm (UTC)Actually, my whole day yesterday was an adventure in exactly that kind of doctoring. I will try to write it up today.