I know... with the recession and people losing their jobs everyday... you are going to say I don't have a right to complain. But as an American... I do have right to complain.
CMS (Medicare) is proposing a whopping 21% pay cut in physician reimbursement for this year. TWENTY-ONE PERCENT. Physician reimbursement is already lower than reimbursement levels in 1991. Even by cutting reimbursements to physicians, health care spending by the government is expected to double between 2009 and 2018.
The problem is not what physician's are reimbursed, it is people wanting Medicare or Private Insurance to pay for everything. I will repeat... insurance was never, ever designed to pay for everything. It was designed to keep people from facing economic financial devastation.
I am having to spend $20,000 on my wife's teeth. Do you think this is a financial burden on me? You better believe it is. It is putting a major dent in my lifestyle. But I have choices. To be responsible for my health care which is part of my everyday living, or have our government, which can't run anything efficiently, to provide it for us.
If reimbursements keep diminishing as they are, you are going to be left with inadequate physicians treating major diseases and trauma as those with intelligence and abilities will find other endeavors to pursue.
It should be noted that with the physician cutbacks that health care costs would increase 4.6% in 2009 - 2010. But if Congress averts this paycut proposal, health care costs would only increase 0.8% to 5.4%. Isn't your physician worth 0.8%. I certainly hope so.
"The journey of life is taken one step at a time... none of them should be painful." G.M. Barclay, DPM, AACFAS
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