It's the Health Care, Stupid

In a Pajamas Media article entitled Massachusetts: The Canary in the Coal Mine for ObamaCare, Dr. Paul Hsieh gets to the nugget on health care reform.  As with ObamaCare, health care reform in Massachusetts is all about health insurance, not health care, and the consequences are predictably disastrous.  (My emphasis below.)

The Massachusetts Medical Society recently reported that the state law has resulted in “longer patient wait times [and] continued difficult access to primary care physicians.” The average wait time in Massachusetts to see an internal medicine physician is now 48 days — double the national average. Over half of primary care practices are no longer accepting new patients. Fewer physicians are accepting the state-run Commonwealth Care and Commonwealth Choice insurance plans. So although Massachusetts politicians frequently boast that they have increased “coverage,” many patients cannot find doctors to provide them with actual medical care.

Some of the reasons that Massachusetts patients are having such a hard time finding doctors are outlined in this Pajamas Media article.  In a few short years this can be a nationwide problem.  Just as soon as ObamaCare kicks in.

Comments

[Jane]

Dr. Blake says that of his colleagues who have paid their student loans, 90% will leave the MA health care system.

Who could blame them?

[Tom Bowler]

Jane, 90% seems like an unrealistically high number, but then, what does the good Doctor mean when he says, "leave the MA health care system"?

Can a doctor practice medicine in Massachusetts and not be part of RomneyCare? Or is Dr. Blake hearing the doctors plan to take up medical practice in other states? Or perhaps they'll stop practicing medicine. There's sure to be a boom in insurance jobs if ObamaCare isn't repealed. Doctors can take up reviewing medical claims, though it may not be quite the rewarding career they had in mind when they decided on medical school.

[Jane]

I thought he meant they would not practice medicine at all. I also met a Doc last week who told me a black market for medicine is sprouting all over.

[Tom Bowler]

Sounds like an Econ 101 lesson where a price control (in the reform of low Medicare/Medicaid reimbursement rates) causes shortages and ultimately a black market. Here's a rallying cry: ObamaCare means a return to back alley appendectomies! Hmmm. Not so sure it's going to catch on.