There were disturbing statistics in a recent article in the Times Free Press: In Hamilton County, there is one primary-care doctor per 1,057 residents. But just across the state line, in Walker County, Ga., there is only one primary-care physician per 3,420 residents.
Sadly, in many parts of the nation, there is a doctor shortage.
What is more troubling is that the shortage is going to get worse under ObamaCare. The socialized health care “reform” approved this year by Democrats in Congress adds 30 million or more uninsured people to government-run medical care. But the legislation does little to add new physicians to provide care to those tens of millions of people.
In fact, quite a few doctors are retiring early because of the coming bureaucratic hassles of ObamaCare, including penalties against doctors who do not make a costly switch to computerized records.
ObamaCare is supposed to increase access to care for the uninsured. But how will it do that if there are far too few doctors to treat 30 million newly “insured” people?
Many who cannot find a family doctor are likely to wind up in emergency rooms. Earlier this year, the dean of the University of Tennessee College of Medicine in Chattanooga predicted that the “reforms” would mean more emergency room visits.
“There’s no question that emergency department [visits] will go up [under health care reform] … because insurance doesn’t equal access,” Dr. David Seaberg, who is also an emergency physician, told the Times Free Press.
That defeats one of the loudly proclaimed goals of ObamaCare, which was to promote efficiency by reducing emergency room visits for routine care.
We’re afraid that when all is said and done, many promises of ObamaCare will never become reality – but its high costs will.