Forcing Doctors to Take Medicare Patients

Rick wrote:

archer wrote: I'm hoping that OTN meant we should utilize more medical professionals like physicians assistants, nurses, and paramedics for routine medical care freeing up doctors for the more serious medical issues patients face. I have used many PAs and Nurse Practitioners who I thought were not only as competent as a doctor for routine care, but in many ways better.

But even those people need to be licensed in some way don't they? As a car dealer I needed a license, and my sales guys did too. That's just selling a car not performing medical proceedures or doing anything that would effect one's health.

Absolutely they do....they not only have to be licensed but they get tested every couple years on their skills and have required courses to take....but their license and their bills cost far less than doctors. Surely OTN didn't really intend to do away with licensing....

No I am not a fan of any kind of govt license, it messes with real value and encourages people to trust people without taking the responsibility themselves. I don't care what nickname or what 3rd, 4th or 5th party gave meaningless approvals as they were trying to better their lives. I think people should do research and check references. Things that are done less as a result of licensing.

Note that licensing bodies never take liability for their heavy required referrals, but if we are really as dependent on them as you think, they most certainly should. Then perhaps you could even start to depend on their evaluations.

People literally make doctor's appointments with firms and don't even know which doctor they are going to see. I could understand this is you were getting your car repaired, but even for this, most of us actually know the guy turning the wrench.

To just walk forward blindly would overlook the fact that the name we call the last guy to get his license or the last guy to get his certification is the same as the name we call the top dog.

Life is far from pass fail. There are many grades and fluffed govt officials could care less about you and your medical care. Medical licensing is self regulation to keep the competetion out. Keep the competitoin out and lower the quality of the product relative to it price. EXACTLY what has happened.

You don't get what you want out of licensing, unless what you want is more systems, worse care, high prices and dumbed down consumers. I fail to see who is winning from licenses, except doctors and their wives. We don't have the uneducated population and abuse of licensing we had when the came up with the concept.

Well I can see your point if a license is just a piece of paper that didn't have to be earned through education, training, and enough good experience, but without some sort of certification, I don't see how you could set a base standard in any technical profession. If I was going to trust my health with an unlicensed doctor I would need more than just references... and how did the doctor get patients before he ever got a reference? At some point he/she had to pass some sort of training after years of education. To me a license is just a minimum proof of compitency. Is it also unneccesary for an airline pilot to have a license? Same difference imo.

A series of systems where Doctors get an education, get grades, earn credentials and more occurs and can occur outside of the govt license. People get degrees in all kinds of things and we recognize their increased knowledge, then they practice and we assume they get more experience, we ask those that have worked with them in many professions.

Now if you would like to have this information available for you to review, if it was otherwise hidden, I certainly respect that. You should be able to evaluate the doctor and his skills/history etc. just like any other person you want to hire...and if you don't find info on them, you should retain the right not to hire them.

Now forcing me to only hire these folks and not enter into the market myself, sewing up wounds less than 1/2" or sharing my advice on how to beat a cold, is another thing all together. Please do not muddy the water by confusing credentials with govt licenses. Everyone has credentials, everyone can or can not share them and once you require a license, you force everyone to use your licensed professional even if they were willing to take a risk.

Should Americans have the right to seek medicine oversees if the person they would get care from was not licensed here? Should Americans have the right to purchase goods that were manufactured in a plant that pays less than min wage? These high and moral issues break down simply by moving the person or the good, our rights and responsibilities change just by moving something a few miles in space?

A doctor can apprentice (they usually do anyway), they can offer discounted services, they can offer basic services and show they do them well and move their way up, they can market their education, they can offer their first references as their educational instructors...you know, all the normal things people do in non govt protected careers.

In addition, most young doctors are not selling to patents directly, in fact most doctors are not selling to patients directly. They are part of the same walmartization of the country where they all work for mega medical facilities. They just need to get their first job just like any other young over-educated sap. The person hiring them is likely more focused on their own career, so little things will get overlooked. These institutions have long term profit models that require hiring young people at a discount and training them. Esp since profit is the goal and most of the dumbed down public (with their fancy license radars) are willing to pay the mega medical firm the same price for the young newbe doctor as the older wiser doctor, but the young doctor is much much cheaper. The only negative repercussion of this is one little comment you make, something like, "are you sure you are old enough to be a doctor, you look younger than my son and he is just guiding rafts". The kid doc just looks at you, gives a confident smile and you know you are all set, he is licensed. Your insurance is paying anyway. Don;t forget they also get deep discounts on foreign doctor labor, sounding familiar yet?

Again, everything you think you gain, which you actually do not gain, costs us a significant % of the economy, our choice and it will only lead to the next central planning take over. You likely went to some older wiser small practice doctor growing up and now always seem to see a kid in a larger facility, unless you are a really sick and then the experience will cost you and your insurance dearly.

Adults simply need to bone up and do more research vs. spreading the costs of their laziness or ignorance around. This literally takes away the incentives for people to be productive and knowledgeable....and its working. The problems the ACA are failing to address were put in place by design and by the attitude that the whole thing will fall apart without the good old boys club.