Our future under socialized heath care

We have all heard the predictions about how Obamacare will transform health care in this country. Depending on which side of the issue you are on, it is either a magic bullet to provide health care to everyone while saving money at the same time. Or it is a step down the road to socialism, which will lead to much worse health care. I'm in the latter camp, as you know if you're read this blog for any length of time.

With that in mind, consider this report out of Massachusetts. The Massachusetts Medical Society has done a study of how the new MassHealth program (thank you Mitt Romney, you worthless scumbag, you'll never get my vote) has affected health care in that state. Recall that MassHealth is similar to Obamacare, on a state level and several years into implementation. It is worth examining to see what our future might be under Obamacare.

"Massachusetts Medical Society Releases 2011 Study of Patient Access to Health Care"
http://www.massmed.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=MMS_News_Releases&Template=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&CONTENTID=54338

The summary is succinct: "Longer patient wait times, continued difficult access to primary care physicians, and gaps in physician acceptance of government coverage."

And the first paragraph says a lot: "A 2011 survey about patient access to health care in the Commonwealth shows more than half of primary care practices closed to new patients, longer wait times to get appointments with primary and specialty physicians, and significant variations in physician acceptance of government and government-related insurance products."

Here is a key point, that politicians are too stupid to acknowledge. From the article:
"Alice Coombs, M.D., President of the Massachusetts Medical Society, said the survey results point out a critical characteristic of health care in the Commonwealth, one that physicians have known for some time. 'Massachusetts has made great strides in securing insurance coverage for its citizens,' said Dr. Coombs, 'but insurance coverage doesn’t equal access to care. We still have much work to do to reduce wait times and widen access. This has important implications for health care cost control, as difficulty or delay with routine access to care leads people to seek other options, such as the emergency room, which is much more costly.'"

Hmm, I wonder what else will happen? Another perfectly predictable result:
"Dr. Coombs cited a recent survey released in April by the American College of Emergency Physicians that showed emergency room usage in the state has risen, due in part to physician shortages."


The report goes on and on. More than half of physicians are not accepting new patients, reflecting physician shortages. You can pass any laws you want, but if you don't reward physicians those laws won't do any good.

The report also reports on wait times for new patients.
"The average wait time for an appointment for internal medicine is 48 days, five days shorter than last year, and the average wait time for family medicine is 36 days, up 7 days. Internal medicine was the only specialty reporting a shorter wait time, yet at 48 days it has the longest wait time of any of the seven specialties surveyed."

"Specialty Care All four specialties reported longer wait times: gastroenterologists, 43 days, up from 36 days; obstetricians/gynecologists, 41 days, up from 34 days; orthopedic surgeons, 26 days, up from 17 days; and cardiology, 28 days, up from 26 days."

Here is a fascinating point:
"The gap between primary care physicians accepting Medicare and MassHealth is striking. While most internists (85%) and family physicians (87%) accept Medicare, significantly fewer of both (53% of internists) and (62% of family physicians) accept MassHealth."

Why would they accept Medicare but not MassHealth? Why are wait times rising in Massachusetts? How will these these trends affect YOUR health care in the future? I don't know the answers to these questions, but I see a trend and I don't like it. Even if you would argue that the old system was just as bad, I don't think you can say that mandating universal health coverage solves anything.