I guess it’s buried with the lede….wait, here it is:

…”or face a stiff fine for not having insurance coverage.”

If Jay Heflin’s editor were using OSoft’s Special Editor software intead of a red pen, that pesky “either” would have been automagically removed along with the “or”.

but I digress…..Hear about the one-armed fisherman, when asked how the fishing was, replied that it was great…”I caught one this long”, he said, holding out one hand.

maybe the university fo phoenix will…maybe quality will go down….maybe there will be a version of nurse practitioner who willl….

I mean even before HCD, there ere all sorts of emergency room alternatives opening up…ones who were actually offering innovation and price transparency, like those solar clinics in walmarts,a dn some 24hour doc shops which were cheaper than emergency room bills….trust the markets….

If there are people out there who can pay for a service, chances are someone will fill tht service over time….maybe some doctor who thinks quantity over quality and pushes patients through in a no frills 2 minute deal to cash the $30 check the insurance gives…

Maybe it’ll be doctors who only passed their MD exam on the 3rd time around with exactly 1 point over failing grades the whole way around….

I mean, I was pretty sure a large swath of the uninsured who could pay out of pocket for basic care would have service available to them as well, because the market fills most demands. Of course those with no means and no intention of paying, they were somehow “being denied service”…”service” they never inteded to pay for…sort of like mean store owners who were denying people from stealing from their store….

Or maybe it will be immigration restrictions for all medical professionals…seen it in Canda, seen it in Germany….in Germany you got czech, polish and turkish doctors doing all the lower paying stuff…..fact is, america is still a nicer place to live than anywhere else in the world, and given a chance tonnes of people would take the lowest level of life in america over what they could expect in their country….and what would be a pittance for an american doctor might be seen as a golden opportunity by a bangladeshi or slovak MD.

Should be “If you are NOT established…” Darn I wish there was an Edit button LOL.

Primary care providers will fill the void. It starts with PCP’s requiring an “administrative fee” for all the uncompensated work they do – filling your prior auths, TARs, electric scooter, FMLA and disabillity forms. Then most doctors (if they’re not working under salary for a non-profit Kaiser type foundation model), will require a yearly or monthly fee. A retainer simply to see the doctor.

Similarly to how you pay your monthly cell phone, cable or water bill… you will pay a monthly doctor bill. This will not be an unreasonable amount. Think $300-1500/yr. But then with that fee, we would only need to see 400-600 patients instead of the 1500-2000. It’s happening already with companies like MDVIP. This is a good thing.

As doctors transition into this new type of medical practice, coupled with the 32 million new patients in the system, wait times will increase for outpatient visits as well as emergency room wait times.

It will be difficult for a few years, but as PCPs start to make more money with less patient load, less rushed visits and a better quality of life, more medical students will choose the cognitive specialties over the procedural ones. This will lead to more PCPs over the long run.

It’ll take time, but it will happen.

But yes, get your PCP now. Please don’t be offended when they ask an enrollment fee or yearly premium. They are a scare but valuable resource.