Will you reduce specialist pay to save primary care?
The trials and tribulations of the public health insurance option in Massachusetts should be of particular concern for legislators looking to expand universal healthcare across America. One of the biggest problems with implementing the Massachusetts program has involved the complete lack of primary care physicians, not only in practice but also graduating from medical schools. Our nation needs primary care physicians more than any specialists right now, but the free structure is hardest on primary care workers. Would you be willing to reduce compensation to specialists while raising compensation to primary care workers, in order to attract more people into this failing area?
1 comment
-
eroot20
commented
The mechanisms by which fees are addressed is central to the role(s) of those who would manage the system. Fee structured disincentives to care have ballooned under the managed care guidance since 1993. Medicare/Medicaid have not done better. The facts underlying the question are right, but the question should be suggesting a fee management model along the lines of those developed in France or Japan.