Health care costs out of control: Symptom 1

Here is a symptom of our health care crisis. The U.S. government wants to expand health care coverage with a government program. It will undoubtedly will be similar to Medicare; and Medicare is rife with cost overruns and problems. President Obama's first quick "fix" was to suggest cutting reimbursement amounts to doctors. Gee, that would cut costs, but how many more doctors will stop accepting Medicare patients? At least he is also proposing cuts on procedures, and increase payments to primary care physicians. But cutting payments to specialists will limit access to those specialists

My mother fell when visiting me a couple years ago, and cracked her pelvis. She had Medicare. The hospital did a fine job, and recommended a followup visit with an orthopedic doctor. I had to call around to finally find one that accepted Medicare. I was less than impressed with the doctor. He asked how she was doing, and asked her to move her legs, but that was it. No physical exam, no x-rays taken, and I'm not sure he even looked at the x-rays taken at the hospital. He probably didn't have time. And when the doctor was asking my mom some questions, at one point, she didn't respond. He repeated the question louder; still no response. Again he asked, then she answered. He didn't ask if she had heard him, and didn't ask me if that had happened before. In hindsight, it appears she was having a transient ischemic attack (TIA - a mini-stroke) or maybe an absence seizure. But he was too busy to worry about that!

So the solution to health care is to cut reimbursements to doctors?