Reimbursement and Politics
Once again political agendas are heating up as we enter a Presidential election year. Many of these issues such as Medicare reimbursement, illegal immigrant health care cost, and Universal Health Care will impact future reimbursement for Emergency Physicians. Health care premiums continue to rise much faster than most of us expect; therefore, the debate over Universal Health Care is at the forefront. Several of the candidates have spoken about Universal Health Care; however, what is the realistic chance of passage and how will it impact our reimbursement?
The answer at this point is that we really don't know. To date, plan ideas for Universal Health Care have not been clearly defined; however, speculation on plan ideas and content run rampant. My perspective is fairly simple. I doubt very seriously that a true Universal Health Care Plan will pass any time soon due to funding and control concerns. To date, the government has not been capable of producing solutions for the Medicare solvency issue or illegal immigration; therefore, many doubt their ability to run an effective universal health care program. I can foresee a scenario where we have one health care system for those that can afford to purchase it in the open market and one system with one payor for those that can't afford to purchase in the open market.