Medicine at cut rate prices, but not cut rate quality. Sounds catchy, even glib … but, it might as well be a straight up maxim for physicians who continue to see an increase in the numbers of patients struggling to pay their medical bills in time of economic crisis. Fueled by a surge in patient layoffs, employer pay cuts, and the general inability of patients to retain healthcare benefits, physicians’ shrinking operating revenues are forcing them into taking steps to guarantee access for their patient population as they augment their schedules (usually by increasing their daily load) to keep their practice overhead operating in the black.

Whether it is out of a perceived loyalty to their patients, genuine benevolence, or stark necessity for financial survival, many of these physicians see the move to relax payment for services rendered as part of their calling. What’s even more compelling is that these actions are not only occurring within the realm of primary care offices. Medical and surgical subspecialty practices are seeing an upswing in novel approaches to keep struggling patients coming in for their care.

All of this begs the question: is Obama ready for the challenge to fulfill the promise of healthcare for all, allowing for the delivery of that care to be determined by a national “means tested” manner of fairly subsidizing care for the appropriate populations? Or will he favor “smaller” government involvement and the push for healthcare consumerism by embracing tax breaks in all of the expected places? | LINK

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