Blogging : Page 346 : The Other McCain

The “doc fix” dodge had been going on for some time, but Reid took it to a new level in order to fool the CBO into scoring ObamaCare as deficit-neutral. He submitted the Senate-written bill with the cuts to the CBO while winning AMA endorsement with a separate and temporary suspension of those cuts that the CBO didn’t get to see. That and the “temporary” Medicaid reimbursement rates have kept up the pretense of deficit neutrality ever since while pushing off the day of reckoning … until now.

Would that his embalming fluid were mislaid, so that Harry Reid could dry up and blow away. Do read the whole article as this week will see some major cuts to entitlement funding kick in. The groin.
While reading the Hot Air post aloud to Mrs. Other Smitty, she pointed out the related problem that a lot of these high-speed health plans require a specimen of the increasingly rare Primary Care Physician species:

A survey this year by The Physicians Foundation found that 81 percent of doctors describe themselves as either over-extended or at full capacity, and 44 percent said they planned to cut back on the number of patients they see, retire, work part-time or close their practice to new patients.

At the same time, insurance companies have routinely limited the number of doctors and providers on their plans as a way to cut costs. The result has further restricted some patients’ ability to get appointments quickly.

One purpose of the new health law was connecting patients, many of whom never had insurance before, with primary care doctors to prevent them from landing in the emergency room when they are sicker and their care is more expensive. Yet nearly 1 in 5 Americans lives in a region designated as having a shortage of primary care physicians, and the number of doctors entering the field isn’t expected to keep pace with demand.

The Association of American Medical Colleges projects the shortage will grow to about 66,000 in little more than a decade as fewer residency slots are available and as more medical students choose higher-paying specialty areas.

If only. . .there were some. . .handy location which happened to be chock-a-block with docs that would jump, say, a 90 mile stretch of water just to see some patients. Such a place would have to be crankin’ out the Marcus Welbys to compensate for the U.S. physician shortfall, though: you’d need at least as many as can be found in Cuba.

Certainly, swiping Cuba’s doctors could trigger a crisis for the Castro regime. However, we’re talking about Barack here. Standard operating procedure: someone else’s problem (SOP/SEP). Too, having a bunch of Spanish-speaking doctors, raised in an authoritarian system, treat the rest of your new Executive Amnesty citizens is sure going to help the Libertarian vote, isn’t it?

Anyway, you read it here first: normalizing Cuba relations is just the latest defibrillation effort for BHO’s dying signature legislative abortion.