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Obamacare Could Raise Doctor Shortage



A number of health experts are supporting a new study that says Obamacare will only make doctor shortage in this country worse.

A study by The Association of American Medical Colleges estimates that by 2015 the U.S. will have 62,900 fewer doctors than it needs. The association also says they expect that number to double by 2025 as a result of the expansion of insurance coverage under Obamacare.

"The issue really isn't Obamacare per se. There has been a critical shortage of primary care physicians for the past 15 years. The Issue is that the people who are responsible for health care in this country have completely ignored this and have done nothing about it. Now we have anywhere between 9 and 12 million additional people coming into the health care system that will require health care, and this only exacerbates and makes the shortage more critical," said Medical Expert Dr. Mitchell Brooks.

Another concern many U.S. doctors have is the aging of the baby boomer generation.

"With the baby boomers maturing, the Medicare population is going to swell from 52 to 55 some million people to over 75 million people by 2025. If the government goes and cuts Medicare, as President Obama wants to do by $580 Billion dollars, in that there will be a 30% approximate reduction of fees to physicians and hospitals," said Dr. Brooks. "The simple fact of the matter is, the physicians won't be able to afford to see Medicare patients. They will lose money seeing a Medicare patient. So either they'll close their practices to Medicare or they'll close their practices period."

Many health experts say there is little the government can do to help close this shortage by the time The Affordable Care Act begins extending coverage to around 30 million Americans in 2014.

"The end result will likely be legislating physicians to take care of Medicare and Medicaid patients, and that will absolutely be challenged constitutionally," said Dr. Mitchell.

By: Marissa A. Wagner

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