Fairly balanced piece in the NY Times last Sunday re: the impacts of ObamaCare
Punch line: In 2015 the country will have 62,900 fewer doctors than needed … that number will more than double by 2025, as the expansion of insurance coverage and the aging of baby boomers drive up demand for care.
The problem, in a nutshell …
- There is a shortage of every kind of doctor, except for plastic surgeons and dermatologists
- Primary care doctors make about $200,000 a year. Specialists often make twice as much.
- ObamaCare adds about 30,000 people to insurance rolls … the majority via Medicaid
- Fewer than half of primary care clinicians are accepting new Medicaid patients
- Medicare will surge to 73.2 million in 2025, up 44 percent from 50.7 million this year.
- “Older Americans require significantly more health care,”
- And about a third of the country’s doctors are 55 or older, and nearing retirement.
- Younger doctors are on average working fewer hours than their predecessors.
- It typically takes a decade to train a doctor.
- Medical schools are at capacity and Federal training subsidies have been cut.
While ObamaCare mandates broader insurance coverage, it does little to fundamentally restructure the healthcare delivery … save for government administered rationing.
Part of real answer: more doctors (new and retained), more walk-in clinics (public & private), and more authority to RNs and PAs.
Note: the Times failed to mention that the CBO’s current estimate for ObamaCare’s costs has tripled since the law was passed.
Tags: doctor shortage, medicaid, ObamaCare
The Homa Files 
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