The Doctor Will See You Now That He’s Pocketed Your Cash
Concierge medicine is growing by leaps and bounds in the Age of ObamaCare — unexpectedly! Details:
While the number of concierge doctors remains small, it’s growing at a rapid clip. In the U.S., there were about 4,400 private physicians in 2012, a 25% increase from 2011, according to the American Academy of Private Physicians. That’s out of some 600,000 practicing doctors nationwide. At an average of roughly 350 patients per concierge doctor, that means more than 1.5 million Americans are under the care of a physician who provides an additional level of service in exchange for a fee.
Concierge medicine’s perceived advantages will only grow in the coming years, experts say, as the traditional health-care system becomes even more strained. The full implementation of the Affordable Care Act next year is expected to bring more than 20 million formerly uninsured patients into the health-care system through 2022, exacerbating an existing physician shortage.
Nobody is going to take your doctor away from you. Provided you can pony up $1,800 a year extra out of your own pocket to jump the velvet rope.
My GP has a concierge service, but I don’t pay for it. Then again, I haven’t seen my GP in probably 3 years – a Nurse Practitioner can deal with my maintenance medications and semi-annual tests.
Concierge medicine can be regulated or outlawed altogether if it cuts too deeply into the ObamaCare plan to impose single-payer.
All of my financial planning assumes I will pay for my medical care. $1800 seems like a bargain.
Tax us all you like, us rich folk will find a way to get great health care, and it won’t be from the government.
Medicine WILL be regulated by ever more draconian rules imposed by HHS to force all of us not exempted (meaning all non-politicians) from Obamacare to bow down to the level of medical care our political overlords will deign worthwhile for us. Once the complete failure of socialist healthcare really starts banging onto the thick skulls of Obama voters, the politicians will point to concierge physicians as the root cause of the physician shortage problem. Leftists do not care about providing medical care. They care only about hoarding their own political power and benefits for themselves, and will lie, cheat, steal and kill to get it without any moral considerations.
Any idiot who thinks Obamacare is about providing more medical care needs to be asked how hiring 15,000 more IRS agents but absolutely ZERO new doctors will provide more medical care.