Claim: Primary health care physicians are going to be hit the hardest and there will be a shortage of doctors. In result, there may not be enough doctors to see all the people that are covered and the quality of care is slowly going to fall.
Evidence: Due to the health care reform, there are going to be no more incentives for primary care physicians. A lot of physicians turn to specialties to increase pay and be able to pay of school loans. In result to this, primary care physicians will have a heavier work load because there will be a shortage of doctors around. This will make for longer waiting times, less appointment availability, and possibly higher medical costs for consumers. Because of the health care bill we will be adding over 32 million people to the insurance plans. This means more people will be going in for checkups and will be more likely to see a doctor when they usually wouldn't before because they didn't have insurance. This is also going to require more employees needed because of all the jobs becoming available. We need more doctors, nurses, pharmacists, administrative workers and many more as well. This could be a very good thing because so many Americans have been out of jobs for so long. But are we going to be able to handle all of these people wanting health care at one time?
Again, this is alarmist, and I'd like to know how much of this is actually true. Also, how many more doctors would be needed to safely handle the influx of new patients? Is there a way to make general practice more palatable to the new young doctor who wants to specialize in rhinoplasty because that is where all the money is? In any case, this is a good claim with some support, but how much should this impact the issue of health care reform. I think it does, but you need to state it more specifically.
ReplyDeleteDo you think that this could help out the fact that a lot of people dont go to the doctor because it is so expensive and end up getting really sick? It could be a blessing in disguise because now people could catch cancer earlier and have a better survival rate. I do understand what you are saying about the shortage of doctors though. I think that this will cause a big problem when it is manditory for everyone to be on healthcare. Adding an additional 32 million would put a strain on any doctors hours.
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