by Ken Vincent, Featured Contributor
WELL THE BAD NEWS just keeps coming on this horrid law.
I had occasion to go to a medical specialist this week. I was told that the earliest I could get in was mid-December. Obviously, when one is sick and needs to see a doctor a 7 week wait isn’t the right answer. The nurse told me to either go to the ER or my primary physician. Well my primary physician’s office is now open only 4 days per week and it takes 2 or more weeks to see him, so that is no solution and I wasn’t keen on going the the ER where they didn’t have my history.
With a tenacious wife and the luck of a cancellation, I was able to get in the next day. When I questioned why it would take 7 weeks to see a sick patient I got the scoop. It seems that doctors, under the new ObamaCare rules, are limited as to how many patients they can see in a given time frame. So, when their quota is filled their hands are tied. If they exceed their quota then they don’t get paid. If it happens regularly their medical license can come into question.
Some doctors are now operating their offices only 3 or 4 days per week. Thus their staff is cut to part time, loosing benefits, the doctors income is greatly slashed, and what is the purpose? Well, it seems that while the theory is to force doctors to take more time with each patient, therefor in theory providing better care, that is all eye wash. The purpose is to force doctors out of private practice and into government paid rolls at hospitals. Those hospitals also have new rules as to how and under what conditions they get paid. The point of it all is to give government total control of our medical system.
To compound the problems it is now possible for the drug companies to sell a plan in the Fall window covering specified drugs. Then they can change the formulary of covered drugs in January so they don’t have to pay part of the cost of those same drugs. I don’t take a lot of drugs, but one is going up 100+% and the other two won’t be covered at all, so the cost goes from $40/month to $386/month for each. To be fair, I should point out that my part D premium did go down $4/month.
