Overloading the Healthcare System

As this New York Times article illustrates:

In pockets of the United States, rural and urban, a confluence of market and medical forces has been widening the gap between the supply of primary care physicians and the demand for their services. Modest pay, medical school debt, an aging population and the prevalence of chronic disease have each played a role.

Now in Massachusetts, in an unintended consequence of universal coverage, the imbalance is being exacerbated by the state’s new law requiring residents to have health insurance.

Since last year, when the landmark law took effect, about 340,000 of Massachusetts’ estimated 600,000 uninsured have gained coverage. Many are now searching for doctors and scheduling appointments for long-deferred care.

Here in western Massachusetts, Dr. Atkinson’s bustling 3,000-patient practice, which was closed to new patients for several years, has taken on 50 newcomers since she hired a part-time nurse practitioner in November. About a third were newly insured, Dr. Atkinson said. Just north of here in Athol, the doctors at North Quabbin Family Physicians are now seeing four to six new patients a day, up from one or two a year ago.

the problem I’ve been complaining about, the need for basic reform in the way healthcare is delivered, is more than just hypothetical. Regardless of what your objectives are, whether reducing costs, giving American businesses a helping hand in selling against overseas competitors, or extending quality healthcare to everybody, changing how healthcare is delivered is a prerequisite for serious healthcare reform. It is a prerequisite because you simply can’t achieve the stated objected, at least not in a way consistent with public health, without such reform.

Unless, of course, you’re merely interested in raising hell or partisan advantage. In that case carry on.

BTW there’s at least one blooper in the cited article:

Whether there is a national shortage of primary care providers is a matter of considerable debate. Some researchers contend the United States has too many doctors, driving overutilization of the system.

Shall we list the fallacies in just those two sentences. First, there’s the ever-popular “appeal to unnamed authorities”. If you don’t have the time, energy, or interest to do actual research, just say it’s your opinion. Don’t make things up. Second, this is a prime example of “raising the bar” AKA “moving the goalposts”. The first sentence points to a shortage of primary care providers (true). The second sentence notes that “some researchers” believe that the U. S. has too many doctors (also true although I disagree). But not all doctors are primary care providers and I don’t know of a single researcher who claims that the U. S. has too many primary care providers. What researchers say that we have too many primary care providers? Youth wants to know!

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