Healthcare insurance but no healthcare access

California doesn’t have enough doctors to provide healthcare to newly “insured” patients under the UnAffordable Care Act. California state senator Ed Hernandez asks “”What good is it if they [state citizens] are going to have a health insurance card but no access to doctors?” Wait. Health care insurance doesn’t mean that patients will have access to health care? Where have I heard that being said for more than 3 years? The government is going to give patients their medical “insurance,” but access to physicians is limited by government policies, payment cuts, and administrative red tape — which are driving many doctors from the primary care business and are, in effect, rationing care to patients. California’s grand plan is to allow physician assistants, nurse practitioners, optometrists, and pharmacists to provide primary care services. I liked one of the commenters who said that he went to see the doctor, but was referred to the janitor who gave him a bag of medications for $5. These other health professionals and their organizations seem to naively think that the patients they will treat only require management of simple medical problems. In reality, most patients have multiple interrelated chronic medical problems that must be managed together. Take diabetes, for example. Will it really be cost effective to have an optometrist manage a patient’s diabetes and perhaps monitor the patient’s diabetic retinopathy while the patie...
Source: WhiteCoat's Call Room - Category: Emergency Medicine Doctors Authors: Tags: Access to Care Policy Source Type: blogs