I received an email today from a patient who was making an appointment to see a neurologist. She and the secretary were about to schedule the appointment for early next month. At this point, the patient mentioned that she was going to use Medicare to cover the visit. The secretary immediately pushed the appointment back to February 2010.
This is reality, folks. Doctors and their staff are hassled and under-reimbursed by Medicare. This secretary knew it and unfortunately the consequences of government mismanagement were pushed onto this patient who did nothing wrong except turn 65. Expanding the government's hand in healthcare is only going to result in more of the above situations. Fewer doctors will treat government covered patients unless forced, in which case we will end up with fewer doctors in general. Ultimately, patients will be the ones hurt the most. Contact your representatives and encourage them to do the responsible thing and stop any bill that expands government power in in your doctor's office.
I agree entirely!! Well said!! Lots of doctors don't accept Medicare already. What will people do when their doctors don't accept the public option? The government will have to force doctors to accept it and then we will have worse doctor shortages than we already have now.
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