How will doctors refuse to take Obamacare patients?

[Travis]

I hear a lot in the right wing osphere that doctors will refuse to take Obamacare.

How exactly would that work?

"I'm sorry but I have a hard time believing someone with your chronic conditions would have this private insurance. I'm afraid I'm gonna have to refuse to be your doctor."

 

[plague311]

I hear a lot in the right wing osphere that doctors will refuse to take Obamacare.

How exactly would that work?

"I'm sorry but I have a hard time believing someone with your chronic conditions would have this private insurance. I'm afraid I'm gonna have to refuse to be your doctor."

Wouldn't their oath require that they help them anyway?

 

[Tiktaalik]

I've wondered about that, too. 'Obamacare' is not the insurer. I doubt that insurance cards obtained through the exchange from the same private insurers will look any different. Now, my Blue Cross - Blue Shield Insurance specifies that it's the 'federal option' on the card, so I suppose there could be various marks on the cards defining what plan it is. So perhaps the receptionist would look at the card, see that it was obtained through the exchange through some form of coding, and refuse to pass that person on to the doctor? Although I doubt this is what is going to happen. Seems like once a person chooses a particular plan and provider, that's what's going to be on the card, not whether or not it was obtained after Obamacare occurred.

 

[Rich_C]

You're exactly right. It might be invisible to doctors that you are in a public exchange. My company is switching to a private exchange, and it is a lot like ACA, with gold, silver and bronze plans. I have to choose one of 5 carriers, and that is what the doctor should see, not that I come from an exchange.

 

[ehcks]

Wouldn't their oath require that they help them anyway?

They already have to help people who can't pay at all. What are they gonna do, refuse payment?

 

[Biscuit]

Trick question in the thread title. There won't be any doctors left once the ACA is in full effect. They will all flee to 3rd world countries where they can charge on a supply and demand basis.

 

[Apology]

The only possible thing they can do is to stop accepting all new patients after January 1st. Then it wouldn't matter if a new patient had an ACA plan or not, they wouldn't be able to make an appointment with that doctor. This is perfectly legal in the US; once a doctor has as many patients as they can reasonably handle, they can stop accepting new patients.

It's a far different scenario than refusing treatment to those patients who have bought "Obamacare" policies though. I don't believe there will be any way to tell one policy from another. The cards will give a policy name and number, nothing more.

 

[Upchurch]

It's a far different scenario than refusing treatment to those patients who have bought "Obamacare" policies though. I don't believe there will be any way to tell one policy from another. The cards will give a policy name and number, nothing more.

What does it even mean to be an "Obamacare patient"? You bought your health insurance directly, rather than through your employer? You bought your private health insurance through one of the exchanges?

More to the point, why would they do this? Once the insurance is obtained, who cares how it was obtained? It's not like the money spends differently.

 

[marplots]

It's done now in private practice.

"I'm sorry, your insurance doesn't cover the full amount of this treatment. Do you have a credit card?"

"Our office is not in your network."

"Yes, we take your insurance, but we aren't a preferred provider, so your co-pay will be higher."

"Sorry, we don't take that insurance."

Remember that statement you sign when you fill out that paper work at your doctor's office? The one that says you are personally liable for all costs in case the insurance company doesn't pay, or doesn't pay the amount charged? That.

So does this mean they will avoid "Obamacare?" No. But the consequences will be the same as they are now - not all doctors deal with all insurance companies. It's nothing new. Just try to get that liver transplant using your Guatemalan Health Card.

 

[BenBurch]

Nobody will know that your insurance is insurance you bought under the federal program. It's all the same to doctors. The biggest problem is finding enough Primary physicians for all the people who are now going to be insured.

That's a great problem to have.

 

[Crossbow]

I hear a lot in the right wing osphere that doctors will refuse to take Obamacare.

How exactly would that work?

"I'm sorry but I have a hard time believing someone with your chronic conditions would have this private insurance. I'm afraid I'm gonna have to refuse to be your doctor."

That sounds like the typical crap that is so often spewed from those stupid, idiotic, lying right-wing types.

First, I suppose that a doctor could refuse to accept the insurance offered by the AHCA; but that would entian legal difficulties if the doctor accepted other insurance programs.

Second, if a doctor refused to help someone for any reason, then I expect that doctor would be in serious malpractice difficulties since doctors are supposed to help everyone regardless of their ability to pay.

 

[Apology]

That sounds like the typical crap that is so often spewed from those stupid, idiotic, lying right-wing types.

First, I suppose that a doctor could refuse to accept the insurance offered by the AHCA; but that would entian legal difficulties if the doctor accepted other insurance programs.

Second, if a doctor refused to help someone for any reason, then I expect that doctor would be in serious malpractice difficulties since doctors are supposed to help everyone regardless of their ability to pay.

That's not entirely true; most doctors are NOT required to help everyone regardless of their ability to pay. All EMERGENCY ROOMS are required to provide EMERGENCY SERVICES regardless of the ability to pay. What this means is that the emergency department is required to stitch up your torn-open arm and give you a shot of antibiotics before they boot you out the door; the followup visit and filling the take-away prescription are not required. That's a huge part of the problem here in the US.

People in the US will go to the emergency room when they have the flu, because primary care physicians will not see them without payment. This sends the price of the treatment for this particular case of the flu through the roof compared to an office visit for the same flu. The patient doesn't pay; and the cost of the extremely overpriced visit is passed on to the other paying customers. Many low-cost "welfare clinics" will ask for cash up-front, before a doctor will see you, if you don't provide them with insurance information or a Medicaid card. People who don't qualify for Medicaid and can't afford insurance are literally out in the cold and have no other option than to go to the emergency room for every malady.

On rare occasions there are primary care physicians who will accept cash patients but most of them don't, and they are not legally obligated to do so. In addition, there are very few doctors that accept Medicaid, and not only are they not legally obligated to do so, they are legally obligated to refuse treatment to Medicaid patients---to do otherwise is Medicaid fraud. This limits the Medicaid patients to a very few overworked clinics and physicians, and it can take up to a month to see one's regular doctor to deal with an ongoing problem (although if you are willing to see a nurse practitioner or another doctor, you'll probably be seen within 24 hours).

tl;dr version: Most doctors are NOT legally obligated to give medical care to patients who are uninsured or otherwise unable to pay. This is a myth.

 

[lomiller]

Insurance companies already tell people which doctors they will pay for and doctors already refuse patients whose insurance companies won’t pay them. This is more common with the cheaper policies. The insurance offered under the ACA would be no different.

If you squint hard enough the it’s technically true some doctors will refuse some peoples ACA insurance, but this is a feature of an insurance based healthcare system not Obamacare.

 

[Vorticity]

People here are overthinking things. This belief has nothing to do with insurance.

I hear a lot in the right wing osphere that doctors will refuse to take Obamacare.

The people saying this simply don't know what the ACA is. We have been told for years and from many different directions that Obamacare is "socialist." Some people have taken this at face value and are simply assuming that Obamacare is a single-payer national health system. (Which, unfortunately, it is not.)

 

[fuelair]

They already have to help people who can't pay at all. What are they gonna do, refuse payment?

Emergency rooms and the doctors in them do - individual doctors do not. Individual doctors/group practices are free to take or not take patients - my fave case was one where a woman sued a doctor and found no obstetrician in a 60+ mile radius would accept her as a patient when she became pregnant. I do not know enough about the case (the article was on the growing problem of lawsuits against ob-gyns when a child was born with almost any kind of a problem - though there was no mention of detail showing that was the specific reason for the suit - )and the article was at least 20 years ago but it made the point very clear - plus that the OB's were beginning to refuse patients that had ever sued or might have a condition that could create potential for a suit. Adversarial courts are the reason , by me, for this kind of situation. Need a change.

 

[fuelair]

People here are overthinking things. This belief has nothing to do with insurance.




The people saying this simply don't know what the ACA is. We have been told for years and from many different directions that Obamacare is "socialist." Some people have taken this at face value and are simply assuming that Obamacare is a single-payer national health system. (Which, unfortunately, it is not.)

Green chili trumps socialism!!!!

 

[Vorticity]

Green chili trumps socialism!!!!

True but trivial. What doesn't green chili trump?

 

[ponderingturtle]

Emergency rooms and the doctors in them do - individual doctors do not. Individual doctors/group practices are free to take or not take patients - my fave case was one where a woman sued a doctor and found no obstetrician in a 60+ mile radius would accept her as a patient when she became pregnant. I do not know enough about the case (the article was on the growing problem of lawsuits against ob-gyns when a child was born with almost any kind of a problem - though there was no mention of detail showing that was the specific reason for the suit - )and the article was at least 20 years ago but it made the point very clear - plus that the OB's were beginning to refuse patients that had ever sued or might have a condition that could create potential for a suit. Adversarial courts are the reason , by me, for this kind of situation. Need a change.

Well also the problem is that one kid with a serious medicall condition can be hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. So if the suit is expected to pay for the health care costs it needs to be several million at least.

If the healthcare was provided by society then the high risks would disappear from this with out any legal change.

 

[DGM]

I hear a lot in the right wing osphere that doctors will refuse to take Obamacare.

How exactly would that work?

"I'm sorry but I have a hard time believing someone with your chronic conditions would have this private insurance. I'm afraid I'm gonna have to refuse to be your doctor."

They won't as long as they are on the plan that you selected.

I have BlueCross /BlueShield MA, not all offices accept this. You need to find doctors that accept the insurance you chose.

 

[kookbreaker]

Some doctors are not taking new patients! Partisan bastages!