Lurking Conservatives, Please Explain Why U R Against A Public Option

[DiscoMan]

From the today's Boston Herald about Massachusetts universal healthcare. Of course, I expect Remicks to conveniently ignore facts such as these...


As the state’s shortage of primary care doctors grows, people are waiting longer for medical care, according to a new survey by the Massachusetts Medical Society.
“The shortage is getting more severe,” said Dr. Mario Motta, the medical society’s president.
The state’s health care dilemma can serve as a valuable lesson for a nation whose residents are locked in a frenzied debate about health care reform, he added.
This state’s “health reform initiative illustrates that universal coverage doesn’t equate to universal access,” he said.
In its eighth annual Physicians Workforce Survey, the medical society found short supplies of Massachusetts physicians who practice family medicine, internal medicine, obstetrics and gynecology.
And the shortages probably won’t be reversed anytime soon, the survey found.
Massachusetts hospitals are still having trouble recruiting and retaining physicians, because of the state’s high cost of living and its comparatively low pay for doctors.
“We’re in the lowest third in the nation when it comes to physicians’ pay,” Motta said.
This year’s study shows that doctors who practice internal medicine and family medicine have been under intense pressure - because the state’s health care reform law meant health insurance for 440,000 more people.
As a result, some 40 percent of family medicine physicians and 56 percent of internal medicine practitioners no longer accept new patients.
Those are the highest percentages of primary care practices closed to new patients the medical society has ever recorded.
For people who do get in to see a primary care doctor, the average wait time is now 44 days.

[paul]

Well, I've seen this before and some thoughts came to mind. First, I'm not sure if this story isn't an attempt to conflate universal care with a shortage of physicians though at quick glance, one would get that impression.
This could have been a trend that was ongoing before the plan was implemented. It's only been in effect a few years.

Also, the piece mentioned pay and high cost of living as being an issue. Even though the plan says universal care, it's still via private insurance to the best of my knowledge. It's not medicaid or medicare.

Finally, isn't The Herald still owned by Rupert Murdoch?

PS - For the record, this is a republican Mitt Romney plan. It is the model I hear being used by Obama and the dems. It penalizes people who wont buy health insurance. For that and other reasons I hate this plan.

[remicks]

Originally Posted by DiscoMan

From the today's Boston Herald about Massachusetts universal healthcare. Of course, I expect Remicks to conveniently ignore facts such as these...

My first reaction ....
is similar to yours concerning money grubbing lawyers discoman.

Maybe its time to reel in the money grubbing type doctors ....the ones that only participate in medical practices that'll garner them big bucks .



Maybe its time this nation re-prioritizes itself.
Maybe we choose jobs because we like doing certain things.
Maybe we become doctors because we like helping people .



Maybe we stop doing things just for the GD MONEY.

[DiscoMan]

“Maybe we become doctors because we like helping people”

This is still why people have medical careers. I know it first hand.

As I’ve posted before; many surgeons pay in excess of $200,000.00 per year for mal-practice insurance. Ultimately who pays these premiums, of course the patients do. This is why tort reform MUST BE a key component of any healthcare reform package. Tort reform is glaringly missing from the Anointed One’s scheme and all of the others. And until serious and fundamental tort and liability reform is put on the table for consideration and action I am not interested in any “healthcare reform” scheme proposed by anyone; because as far as I’m concerned it’s only so much smoke being blown up our a**ses.

I have no problem with doctors making as much loot from their practices as they can. That’s called profit and profit is good. And it’s basic human nature.

We don’t have enough doctors now because so many are quitting as they are unable to pay their mal-practice insurance premiums and the other costs of independent practice. Docs are exercising their freedom of choice and making a living outside of medicine. Most of those that haven’t been driven out of practicing medicine by the enormous costs forced on them by the slip and fall lawyers and insurance companies are joining group practice plans and/or becoming hospital employees (paid a salary), thereby shifting the burden of those costs to other segments of the healthcare system.

Massachusetts’ healthcare scheme is failing. Tort reform is not part of it, costs have not been controlled or reduced but continue to climb. The plan itself is largely a democrat plan – they overrode all of Gov. Romney’s vetos.

The Great and General Court in Massachusetts is more than 80% democRat, a republican governor has no power; which is why they have all bailed out of the state house before the end of their term – from Bill Weld 20 years ago to Mitt Romney, and without exception.

And then we have the insurance companies and their 40% profit margins…