I know how frustrating it is for the doctors, I do. I just don't know how some of them live with themselves if they choose not to participate with at least Medicare or Medicaid (if not both), and don't even get me started on the ones who used to take Medicare/Medicaid and then stopped, dumping their neediest patients. I suppose it's possible that they honestly don't realise how few providers people on government health coverage have to choose from, but if and when that's the case it smacks of willful blindness. It's absolutely wrong that these programs offer such low (and, as you point out, ever-decreasing) reimbursement to doctors, but penalising patients is not the solution.
The reason that Medicaid (and probably Medicare) makes providers jump through so many hoops for so little compensation is, of course, nothing to do with fraud prevention or re-evaluation of fair amounts, but rather the same reason they make it so difficult for disabled, elderly and other disadvantaged people to make it through the application process to get approved for, and then repeat the red-tape obstacle course for periodic "recertification" in order to keep, their benefits: the fewer people who can get the benefits they're entitled to, the more money the agency saves.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2005-04-28 11:27 pm (UTC)The reason that Medicaid (and probably Medicare) makes providers jump through so many hoops for so little compensation is, of course, nothing to do with fraud prevention or re-evaluation of fair amounts, but rather the same reason they make it so difficult for disabled, elderly and other disadvantaged people to make it through the application process to get approved for, and then repeat the red-tape obstacle course for periodic "recertification" in order to keep, their benefits: the fewer people who can get the benefits they're entitled to, the more money the agency saves.