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October 23, 2009

WSJ on Obama's Doctor Shortage

Topics: Political News and commentaries

Allysia Finley writes that Barack Obama's health-care reform proposal will address the problem of a primary care physician shortage will make it worse, not better:

Mr. Obama wants to provide insurance for an additional 30 million Americans, but recent experience in Massachusetts shows that universal coverage will result in an even greater physician shortage and longer waiting times for patients.

Because Massachusetts' Commonwealth system served as the model for the universal coverage Mr. Obama wants to implement nationwide, a few results of its health-care experiment are worth noting. A 2008 Physician Workforce Study by the Massachusetts Medical Society found that the percentage of residents having difficulty getting care rose to 24% from 16% between 2007 and 2008. Since 2006 when the Commonwealth system was implemented, internal medicine and family practice went from having labor market conditions that were considered "soft" or unstressed to being the only two specialties with labor market conditions classified as "severe" or experiencing the highest possible degree of stress.

Read it all. Finley goes on to point out that Massachusetts provides us just a taste of what the U.S. has to look forward to with ObamaCare, and judging by the points she makes in her piece, it's not something any American wants to experience.

Posted by Richard at October 23, 2009 11:10 AM

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