Thursday, October 3, 2013
Doctor shortage, increased demand could crash health care system
Obamacare is expected to increase patient demand for medical services. Combine that with a worsening shortage of doctors, and next year you may have to wait a little longer to get a doctor’s appointment. And the crowded emergency room may become even more so.
There are approximately 48 million uninsured people in the United States. When the mandatory insurance rules of Obamacare kick in next year, and a couple dozen states expand who is eligible for Medicaid, you can bet more people are going to want to use their health benefits.
In fact, so many people were anxious to get access to health insurance — many for the first time — when the insurance marketplaces opened Tuesday, more than a dozen of the websites experienced technical glitches.
Dr. Ryan A. Stanton is worried that this coming flood of newly insured patients may crash the U.S. health care system as well. Stanton works at the emergency room at the busy Georgetown Community Hospital right outside of Lexington, Kentucky.
While he sees trauma cases often, a good number of the patients he sees don’t involve trauma. They’re the uninsured who can’t afford to pay for a regular doctor’s visit — so they use the emergency room instead.
“People turn to the ER because they have no other place to go after hours or they don’t have access to a level of appropriate primary care,” Stanton said. “The ER has become the safety net of our health care system. We can’t turn anyone away like a doctor’s office could. … I worry though with (Obamacare) this will significantly increase patient volume.”
There is already a national shortage of doctors, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges. We’re down about 20,000 now, and the number is expected to get worse as nearly half the nation’s physicians are over age 50 — meaning many are at or near retirement age. And it’s not just doctors who are in short supply; we also need more nurses, according to the American Medical Association.
Full article: http://www.cnn.com/2 … are-doctor-shortage/
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