Unintended Consequences Of Medicare-for-All

There are potential unintended consequences of many of the health insurance proposals being touted. I have personally experienced the difficulty of finding a primary care physician (PCP) willing to accept me as a patient because of my Medicare insurance. I’d be concerned if that were the only option offered.

In my last article, “When Your Primary Care Physician Breaks Up With You,” I lamented that after 23 years, my doctor decided to go full concierge, requiring me to pay $2,000 up front in exchange for greater access and shorter wait times. Finding a local physician willing to accept new Medicare patients was not an easy task when I tried a few years ago. So I wondered whether my doctor was violating the AMA’s Code of Ethics requiring physicians to “assist those patients who leave the practice in finding new physicians” who are local, and ensuring that patients “continue to receive the same quality of care.” What, exactly, does local mean? And more important, what constitutes the same quality of care?