Denver Post: “Doctors show Medicare patients the door”
April 26th, 2010 | by Brian Schwartz |A Denver Post article from a couple weeks ago shows that having Medicare doesn’t mean you necessarily get the care you need:
Beverly Brodnax just got dumped by her doctor.
The disabled woman is among the many Coloradans on Medicare who say it’s becoming more difficult to find a doctor who will take their government health insurance.
A 21 percent cut in Medicare reimbursements to physicians went into effect April 1, and although the U.S. Senate is poised to stave off the reduction with a last-minute, temporary stopgap this week, it’s too little, too late for some Colorado doctors and their patients.
Brodnax and her husband, David, got the disappointing news a couple of weeks ago. Beverly’s primary-care doctor of five years would no longer see her because she is on Medicare.
“He fired her,” David Brodnax said. “It’s almost impossible to find a physician who will take you as a new patient in Colorado Springs if you have Medicare.”
Keep this in mind when people propose “Medicare for all” as a means to “universal” health care.
(via FIRM)
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tags: coverage is not care, Medicare access
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