The Boston Globe, chief cheerleader of the Massachusetts health reform plan, finally acknowledges that there are not enough primary care doctors to care for the newly insured patients:
Senate President Therese Murray, who championed the legislation, said that many of the roughly 439,000 people who obtained health coverage under the 2006 insurance law are struggling to find a doctor.
As mentioned here repeatedly, this was entirely foreseeable.
Some patients have resorted to drastic measures:
“There were so many people waiting to get in, it was like opening the floodgates,” Atkinson said. “Most of these patients hadn’t seen the doctor in a long time so they had a lot of complicated problems.” She closed her practice to new patients again six weeks later. “We literally have 10 calls a day from patients crying and begging,” she said.
The state is responding with token measures that may or may not work. Expanding medical school class sizes will definitely fail. Without addressing the fundamental unattractiveness of primary care, more medical students will simply mean more specialists.
Repaying debt in underserved areas is fine, but the effects will be felt long-term in the years to come. If the state was serious about attracting primary care, it should simply pay off all debt, regardless of where the doctor practices.
If you’re not willing to wait 100 days for an appointment, and don’t want to beg and plead for an opening, you can come and see me instead.
I practice primary care in Nashua, NH, across the border. You’ll be seen within a week, and in many cases, the same day. Refreshing isn’t it?
