Health Care Reform: Where will the newly insured seek health care?
January 19, 2010 | Lee
If Congress passes a health care reform bill 30 million more Americans may end up with a health insurance card in their pocket. That’s a big step towards covering the total uninsured count, estimated at 46 million. But what will that mean for community health centers like Erie? If so many more people have insurance, will the need for safety-net care providers vanish?
Unless we increase our health care system’s capacity to provide primary care services, adding 30 million more health care consumers into the system will be like cramming crowds of primary-care-seeking subway passengers onto an already packed health care train. There’s not enough primary care capacity to satisfy the new demand.
For one thing there is a projected 10% shortage of primary care doctors by 2020. Some are predicting a perfect storm whereby the supply of pediatricians is good but the supply of other primary care doctors, such as family physicians and internal medicine doctors, is bad; this will create a care provider shortage for adults, just as more adults become insured.
For another, there are 1,200 community health centers nationwide with 7,000 service locations caring for 20 million patients. Most of the newly insured under health care reform will be low and middle income individuals. In addition to the patients we care for today, add dad, mom, sister and brother, cousin, aunt or uncle.
Many more adults will seek health care, and they will seek it in the very communities in which they live – neighborhoods, towns, locations where community health centers exist. Research at George Washington University has suggested that health centers could double their capacity by 2019 in a cost-effective manner. This is largely due to the fact that health centers will see less uninsured patients and more with Medicaid coverage. Medicaid pays community health centers well in most states. Of the 30 million newly insured, 15 million will be new Medicaid recipients.
Expanding community health centers is a cost-effective and sensible part of the solution to the primary care shortage. Why? A health insurance card alone will not solve all of the determinants of poor health. Public health experts say that poor health status is tightly linked to low family income, education level, and literacy, among other things. These are our patients, the ones we are experts in serving. I doubt they will be willing or able to travel far outside the community to seek health care. The conditions are ripe for community health centers to double their capacities nation-wide over the next decade so new consumers of health care can receive culturally competent care close to home.
We stand ready to do more.
Tags: community health, Erie, health care reform, insurance
January 19th, 2010
I have the answer for this question “Why the doctor wont see you know”. The nurse probably told him I don’t have insurance. That was easy, give me a hard question to answer.
January 19th, 2010
Country needs more primary care physicians and mid-level practitioners!
Low popularity of the primary care field is tied to the low reimbursement rates for the services provided compare to other specialties. HealthCare “reformers” should invest some efforts into making the primary care field compatible.