Send this STAT to Pete Stark

More signs that physicians are again calling his bluff:

“When I moved down here, I thought the only difficulty would be in finding good ones,” she said. “But it turned out that I would call a place and say, ‘I have Med — ‘ and they wouldn’t even let me finish.”

Since I started writing this column, I have heard from other readers who have had problems finding doctors who would accept them as new Medicare patients. I ran into the same problem when my mother moved up here from Texas. When I tried to schedule an appointment for her with my longtime general practitioner, his staff was unequivocal: no new Medicare patients . . .

. . . The most recent survey for the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, an independent congressional agency, found that 29 percent of Medicare beneficiaries had problems finding a primary care doctor, compared with 17 percent of younger patients who were privately insured.

Your move, Mr. Stark.

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