Medicare Payment Advisory Commission

ObamaCare Declares War on Doctors

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Think anyone will want to go into medicine? And, who will accept Medicare?

Early retirement for physicians and dentists will mean a very real shortage of medical/dental providers.

Go here and sign the petition.

The worst fears about Obamacare are now being realized in a decision on Monday by the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MPAC) established by the law to supervise $500 billion in Medicare cuts.

 MPAC, whose decisions have the force of law, has voted to impose drastic pay cuts on all doctors under Medicare and, by extension, under Medicaid (which tends to follow suit).  The cuts will effectively reduce the real pay for specialists by 50% over the next ten years — including a 25% reduction over the next three years — and cut general practitioners’ pay by one-third over ten years (and that assumes that inflation stays down at 3% a year).

MPAC has ruled that specialists must accept a 6% cut in their fees per year for each of the next three years followed by a seven year freeze in their fees without any adjustment for inflation.  If inflation stays very low — at 3% per year — this cut amounts to an 18% cut in nominal pay and a 50% cut in real pay for specialists.  General practitioners will face a ten year freeze on their pay, reducing their real compensation by one-third assuming ongoing low inflation.  Higher inflation, of course, would make the cuts in real pay even more drastic.
 
The consequences of the MPAC decision will be immediate and drastic:

  • Many physicians, and many more specialists, will refuse to treat Medicare patients.  It will become very, very difficult to see a cardiologist or an oncologist or a gastroenterologist or OB-GYN specialist if you are on Medicare unless you are willing to pay out of pocket or have the kind of health insurance coverage from a private source that would reimburse for their care.
  • More and more medical care will be turned over to nurses or physician assistants, and fewer people will ever get to see a doctor on Medicare.
  • Private health insurers will follow in the footsteps of the Medicare program and likely slash their fees as well.
  • Fewer students will enter medicine, and a major shortage of doctors will reduce the quality of medical care in America drastically.

The MPAC cuts will bring American doctors’ incomes more into line with European doctors who typically earn half or less of what their American counterparts earn — and deliver worse medical care as a result.
 
We have got to stop these MPAC cuts from taking effect.  The very future of Medicare and of our entire health care system is at stake.  If they are allowed to stand, Medicare will become akin to Medicaid or public housing — a program for poor people who cannot afford to pay for medical care from specialists outside the system.

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Medicine

Poll Watch: Southern and Western United States Have Highest Uninsured Rates

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According to the latest Gallup Poll.

Texas residents continue to be the most likely in the United States to lack health coverage, with 27.2% reporting being uninsured in the first half of 2011. At the other end of the spectrum is Massachusetts, where health insurance is required and 5.3% of residents lack coverage. These two states have represented the upper and lower bounds of uninsured rates since Gallup and Healthways started tracking coverage in 2008.

These results are based on 177,237 interviews conducted daily from January through June 2011 as part of the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index. An average of 16.8% of all American adults were uninsured in the first half of 2011, similar to the 16.4% in 2010. This percentage, however, has been edging up each year since 2008, at which time 14.8% of adults were uninsured. The percentage of uninsured residents in all states so far in 2011 is on par with 2010, but in most states remains higher than in 2008.

And, the Southern and Western United States have the highest uninsured rates.

States in the South and West continue to have higher numbers of uninsured adults than do those in the Northeast — consistent with what Gallup found in 2008, 2009, and 2010. Eight of the 10 states with the highest uninsured rates in the country are in the South and the other two — California and Alaska — are in the West.

Texas, California, and Florida — all three of which have an uninsured rate higher than 20% — have disproportionately large Hispanic populations, the demographic group Gallup finds to be the most likely to be uninsured.

Uninsured rates are lower in the Northeast, with 7 of 10 states with the fewest uninsured residents located there, as in past years.

The chart:

So, what does this mean?

President Obama’s Affordable Care Act has had little effect on people being insured or not. With the states struggling with budgets, it is difficult to see how many more people can be provided insurance without affecting the people that already have coverage.

Uninsured rates across states in 2011 appear to be relatively stable so far compared with 2010, but remain higher than in 2008. This could be seen as good news at a time when states are grappling with deep budget cuts and the implementation of new regulations and programs required under the Affordable Care Act. However, more than 10% of adults lack healthcare coverage in almost all states, with more than 15% going uninsured in 29 states. The fate of uninsured rates in America remains precarious as numerous states are challenging the legality of the new healthcare law in court.

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