Add this to the HCR debate

By FireDogLake's ubetchaiam FDL

I’m a single payer advocate. End of story AFAIC. But I am in the minority and accept that.

What I can’t accept is for all the hoopla -and in spite of the ‘Medicare for All’ idea- is the unwillingness for ‘healthcare reform’ to address a growing phenomenon.

And that is the increasing amount of doctors who are unwilling to accept new Medicare patients because they say doing so loses them money.

And now one of the major players Obama praised as "a national model for efficient health care" is stopping their service to Medicare patients. "More than 3,000 patients eligible for Medicare, the government’s largest health-insurance program, will be forced to pay cash if they want to continue seeing their doctors at a Mayo family clinic in Glendale, northwest of Phoenix, said Michael Yardley, a Mayo spokesman."

"Mayo’s move to drop Medicare patients may be copied by family doctors, some of whom have stopped accepting new patients from the program, said Lori Heim, president of the American Academy of Family Physicians, in a telephone interview yesterday. "

"The Mayo organization had 3,700 staff physicians and scientists and treated 526,000 patients in 2008. It lost $840 million last year on Medicare, the government’s health program for the disabled and those 65 and older, Mayo spokeswoman Lynn Closway said."

From here.

Now someone please tell me how either the House or Senate bill will address these issues.

Because as far as I can tell, only single payer will accomplish such a resolution. And we all know that single payer isn’t a choice for the politicians.