Posts Tagged ‘MediCal’

More concerns about government health care

Monday, March 24th, 2008

I have previously written that I think we will eventually have some sort of government program that provides minimum care for everyone. Several recent articles emphasize some of my concerns about government programs. One , from the National Health Service, discusses a shortage of maternity care. In the US, this sort of thing would be a felony. Another, mentions the government’s deplorable practice of cutting doctor fees when fewer and fewer doctors are willing to care for the poor because the fees are so low now. When I was in practice, I saw MediCal patients, just as many of my colleagues did, but we would not allow our names on the MediCal panel of providers. We would see patients as a favor for other doctors or if they were relatives of other patients. Of course, as director of a Trauma Center, I saw many MediCal patients but we did not advertise our availability.

Then, of course, there are the stories like this. That may sound apocryphal but I have seen similar things many times.

Then there are a few brave souls who speak up and suffer the consequences. In a private system, lawsuits would result but a government system has no such vulnerability.

Anyway, these are cautions for those whose enthusiasm gets beyond the reality of dealing with the government.