Providing universal care will stretch our already thin primary care resources beyond capacity.
So where will the new doctors come from, given the influx of 50 million or so newly insured patients? Look no further than our neighbors up north.
Analysts are predicting a surge in primary care demand that is “likely to trigger a drain on Canada’s already meager supply of physicians.”
Consider Massachusetts, who went ahead with their universal coverage plans despite a dearth of primary care access. The result is a “greater reliance on doctors from other countries.”
Compound that situation across America, and you’re likely to see the doctor poaching worsen the already dire Canadian generalist shortage.
Related posts:
- Primary care incomes and universal health coverage
- The Obama health care summit, and did the President offer any clues to the upcoming health reform effort?
- Talking health care reform in Congressional Quarterly and WORLD Magazine
- Gawande on health reform: "It is not single-payer"
- My take: Physician salaries, the Massachusetts trap
- "Obama, wake up"
- Can universal health coverage be sustained long-term?
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This assumes that under a socialized system pay will improve for primary care physicians. Recognizing this, I doubt Canada has any need to fear a physician exodus.
Ditto Bad Medicine.
Canadian GPs already receive far higher pay than their U.S. counterparts. The U.S. has high barriers to entry for foreign-trained physicians.
Given these facts, why on earth would Canadian GPs want to come here (other than the weather, of course)?
Same here. Primary care is usually well-compensated in socialized systems. A hundred women with free PAP smears outvote the one woman who had to wait for cancer treatment.
You can easily do a search for General Practitioners Salaries in Canada to identify what they make. On average it’s $25 – $75 a hour which doesn’t include the overhead fees to run their office.
American doctors can make upwards of $50.00 – $300.00 every 15 minutes.
Universal Health Care would demoralize our medical doctors who would leave the practice.
Compare doctors to the Public Education. Out of 20 teachers you might get 2 or 3 really good ones. Do you really want the option of having a bad doctor working on you because the government assigned them to you?
Remeber that old saying, “you get what you pay for”.
Free isn’t always the best option.
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