One question that advocates of Medicaid expansion will never answer is: who will the newly-enrolled Medicaid patients see when they are sick?
I recently wrote about the harsh truth about North Carolina’s Medicaid system:
Medicaid rolls in North Carolina have ballooned from about 1 million in 2003 to roughly 2.1 million today. Adding another 630,000 would push the program over 2.7 million enrollees and mark more than 1.7 million new Medicaid patients in just fifteen years.
All this would take place when the number of physicians accepting Medicaid patients is dwindling.
The doctor shortage is especially acute in rural areas, where the concentration of Medicaid enrollees is even heavier, making for even lower doctor to population ratios.
Today from The Insider (subscription required) comes an article discussing the first meeting of North Carolina’s legislative Committee on Access to Healthcare in Rural North Carolina.
The committee didn’t take any formal action Monday but heard a series of presentations on this issue with some eye-catching statistics. North Carolina ranks 29th in the country in the number of active doctors per capita, 32 counties don’t have a psychiatrist, and 20 counties don’t have a pediatrician, according to a report from the Campbell University School of Medicine. Five rural hospitals have closed since 2010, and three counties — Camden, Gates and Tyrrell — have no primary care doctors at all, according to the Sheps Center at UNC-Chapel Hill.
This is not politics or ideology – this is simple math. Medicaid expansion in North Carolina would not provide access to medical care to the new enrollees, it would simply give them a Medicaid card with little to no hope of actually seeing a doctor when they are sick. Medicaid expansion advocates must be confronted with this reality.
Let them eat cake?
Let George pay for the cake.That will put a stop to that.
Simple Math Brian = every country in the Western Industrial world has National Health Care and pays less than 1/2 of what America does on Health Care, and has better results, outcomes, and health.
America should join Western Civilization Brian.
Brian is a con man who is paid by the For-Profit merchants.
This is how well Englands “free” healthcare works.http://www.trcb.com/health-and-fitness/healthcare-systems/englands-health-care-system-2505.htm Never buy what a Communist tells you.
Englands healthcare is failing like all Socialism.https://www.rt.com/news/uk-nhs-health-crisis-049/
This is what has happened to wait times for surgery in Canada.http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/surgery-wait-times-longest-in-18-years-1.1104913 Scott wants you to believe that all these countries have better healthcare than we do.What do you think? As usual Mr.Balfour has it right and our resident whiners have it totally wrong.
Posting links from Russia Today and calling others communists is hysterical.
Not knowing that US companies ration and deny care is understandable because your blinders don’t let you see the truth.
Not being able to answer the FACT that countries in the West ‘pay less, get more, and have better health’ is appropriate when you must carry the mantel of the corrupt crony Corporate State.
And of course you have no personal experience with the Health Systems you comment on.
Virtually every western nation is involved in the slave trade – therefore it MUST be the right thing to do!
Every country should join western civilization, and engage in the slave trade.
Scott from the 16th Century
Scott is still in the sixteen century.He thinks Reuters is Russian.If he had a clue what is going on in the world,which has been all over the news he would know that England is making no excuses for their healthcare.Its in crisis and they aren’t denying it.The Canada wait time speaks for itself.Goofy stories about companies denying healthcare should be in England not here.I have had 2 surgeries lately and had a three day wait.I have talked to many Canadians about their healthcare and I know who is lying.Its the closet boy.Of course,he lies about everything.Ever notice he never backs up anything,it’s just his blabbering nonsense.
Scott,is the BBC Russian,too? Read what they say about you saying how great Englands healthcare is.Bahahaha.http://www.bbc.com/news/health-24537304
RT is Russia Today Larry, not Reuters. Here is an article that exposes your lies.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/aug/25/gp-appointment-waiting-times-in-us-worse-than-nhs
Now, post your lies about every other country (there are over 50) in Western Civilization that have National Health Care.
And of course you have yet to answer the FACT that these countries have BETTER HEALTH and PAY 1/2 of what the U.S. does.
I stand by my comment. Brian Balfour is a con man paid to market what his masters want, and he poses as an academic. SHAMEFUL.
Look, Mommy! I learned how to Google!
Scott
It really Pitiful when somebody argues with a BBC article about how their healthcare is in crisis.Its is extremely Pitiful when the Russians are smart enough to not make a statement that the British healthcare is better than the U.S.System,and a so called teacher makes a statement that ignorant.The guardian is a worldwide joke.The BBC is the largest news company in Britain and one of the premier in the world.I am glad you got out of the closet long enough to learn how to google.Maybe that will help your pimp business.To put an article about our system being slower that Englands is unbelieveable to anyone with a brain and even lower than I thought you would go.I underestimated how low you would go to tell a lie,but I am not surprised at the supermarket rag The Guardian which makes the National Enquier look good.
Scott,even the Communist News Network knows you are lying.http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/25/opinions/single-payer-failure-opinion-atlas/index.html