A suggestion for single-payer advocates

[ccr1138.livejournal.com]

I have a friend who is a pediatrician and a strong advocate for government-run, single-payer health insurance. To her and all her friends who have formed an organization to fight for socialized medicine, I say this:

If you truly believe in single payer, why not set up your practice now so you ONLY take Medicaid patients? This is a serious suggestion; I’m not trying to be snide. Medicaid patients have an extremely difficult time finding doctors because the government doesn’t pay very much for those services. But if we went to single-payer, EVERYBODY would be like a Medicaid patient. If you truly think that’s best, and you’re willing to take lower compensation for your work for the public good, why not start now? You could significantly reduce your paperwork and staff requirements because you wouldn’t have to hassle with all the different providers. It would be a win/win, and it would be ethically consistent with your stance against private insurance.

My doctor in Canada said he received $8 for a patient visit. That’s Canadian dollars, mind you. Do you think that would work for you?

Comments

[penguin42.livejournal.com]

Medicaid pays horribly and has incredibly intrusive and time-consuming paperwork-I don't even accept it.

Interesting. I don't know much about Medicaid, but I notice that the health care bill has a whole big chunk of it with sections named things like "Improving the Quality of Medicaid for Patients and Providers." These aspects of the bill have gotten almost no news coverage and I haven't read up on them myself, but I wonder if they might work to improve some of the problems you're referring to.

[drcruel.livejournal.com]

I wasn't aware of that portion of the bill, but I'm glad. Medicaid is so awful that most private docs don't accept it.

[penguin42.livejournal.com]

Yeah it would be a problem if they don't improve that significantly, since medicaid is supposed to be the catch-all health care for anyone under 133% of the poverty line in the new system.