A big part of our Health Care problem is the lack of Primary Care Physicians, a part the HCR did nothing to address.
The authors note that the primary care shortage will become increasingly problematic in the wake of health care reform. “An estimated 32 million previously uninsured people will gain greater access to care, and will increasingly seek out primary care services, within the next few years,†DeVrieze says. “This increases the urgency with which we need to address the primary care shortage.â€
Of course, if we actually had a free market in health care, the primary care shortage would take care of itself. When demand for primary care exceeded supply at the current price point, primary care physicians would charge more for their services. Higher potential earnings would, eventually (the lag time for producing new doctors being measured in years) lead to more MDs moving to primary care.
Of course, because of the lag in the ability to produce new doctors, the market would probably oscillate above and below the balance point, but it would get there eventually.
Of course, if the .gov tries to limit how much primary care MDs can charge, you’ll never get out of the shortage.
A friend of mine is a doctor. Small-time rural country doctor in a depressed area in southern Oregon, family practice – only doc for quite a ways around. He loses money on Medicare and Medicaid patients, so much so that he’s getting out of the doctoring biz because he can make more money with less hassle or risk as a bee-keeper. Yes, a bee-keeper.