Now that we've all survived E-day (what I like to call Exchange Day), maybe we can get back to focusing on real issues.
(Because, again, focusing on the website crashes is a little bit like criticizing the paint job on a Pinto. But I've already covered that…)
It's starting to gain a little more traction, but one of the issues Republicans would have done well to focus on as this week drew closer — and something they should certainly pounce all over in the midterms next year — is the lingering doctor shortage. Hell, once the mandates (finally) kick in, I wouldn't be surprised to see waiting rooms fill up faster than the federal exchange servers, leaving Depression-era bread lines trailing around the block.
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We're a nation already suffering an historic doctor shortage. Add to that strain a government shutdown and massive influx of newly insured (and mostly sick) consumers, and you can almost hear the pylons groaning.
Or, as Association of American Medical Colleges President and CEO Darrell G. Kirch, said in a statement following the federal government shutdown:
"While the nation's teaching hospitals and their medical school physicians will continue care for all patients who need their services, physicians conducting medical research and training the next generation of doctors will begin to feel the impact of a shutdown almost immediately.
"As the primary federal agency responsible for supporting medical research, the ability of the National Institutes of Health to provide funding will be disrupted, slowing progress and in some instances stopping active research that improves health and the quality of life through new treatments and cures. Payments for physician training at children's hospitals also will stop, placing further strain on the nation's capacity to train the workforce needed as the nation heads toward a critical shortage of more than 90,000 doctors by 2020."
Add to that mix an aging doctor population — all the reports indicate that more than half the nation's doctors are over 50 — and an expansion of Medicaid, which pays doctors, what, something like 60 cents on the dollar, and you've got a bureaucratic recipe for disaster.
And is if all of this weren't bad enough, some experts have argued that it's too late now anyway. That we're so far behind on trained doctors, with an ailing and underfunded farm system, that even if we started churning them out tomorrow, it wouldn't stem the coming shortfall in time.
Come to think of it, maybe I should look into our company's wellness plan…
In other news, the numbers are still coming in — at least from the states where people can get online and sign up for health insurance — and while it's still too early to tell (as one broker scoffed at me this morning), people are jumping into the system, according to Associated Press reporting:
- Hawaii, my home state, drew 500 apps.
- Vermont, another state-run exchange, signed up more than 300 on day one.
- Connecticut? A little more than half that.
- California, of course, drew heavy interest, but had no hard numbers available. But, again, it was the first day of an extended six-month enrollment period. Stay tuned…
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