Political Quotes

“You know, you're in a medical family. I know because I hear it everywhere I go. Physicians all across the country are concerned. They don't know what they're getting into, and they don't know what the world will look like. As a consequence, like anyone else, they are reluctant to make those big decisions, they're reluctant to hire a partner, buy a new piece of equipment, open a branch office. They are like everyone else: they are in that hunker-down mode where so many small businesses have been for the last 4\1/2\ years. But without expanding the provider core, without expanding the health care manpower, you can pretty much predict that there is going to be a price spike because you know you're ratcheting up demand by increasing coverage, and at the same time you're not providing for areas where those people can be seen. What's really unfortunate, by some of the means with which coverage has been expanded, we already know that there are places in this country where it is hard to get a new patient appointment if you're a Medicaid patient. The reimbursement rate is so abysmally low that a provider can't possibly keep their doors open if they accept those levels of payment. As a consequence, they don't. What are those patients going to do? They do what they've always done and go to the emergency room, which is the highest cost point of contact care that you can have.…”