[quote=SD Realtor] . . . It is very simple, at some point the sheer numbers do not get supported given cost parameters, and the number of those contributing. The result is a ever lower bar that is the common denominator.[/quote]
This is my greatest fear. Having lost four immediate family members from illness, I fear losing access and choice. For example, I feel that if I wish to be treated for cancer at a program offered by the Mayo Clinic, MD Anderson or Johns Hopkins and am willing to travel, I should have that option. I didn’t take care of myself all these years and pay my own premiums to wait 1-hour plus in waiting rooms with tons of patients (some of them sick) with their strollers in tow because they didn’t get baby sitters, only to be seen for five minutes max by an overburdened provider who hasn’t taken a lunch break.
I don’t want to belong to a plan which gives little choice of providers to a multitude of *new* sign-ups in a given locale.
And I don’t want to wait 10 months + for a date to get elective surgery.
Also, I feel most of the best doctors in SD are 60-plus years old. Many of these doctors (a few of whom are my current providers) are undoubtedly going to become incredibly frustrated with all the red tape dealing with the exchange and their *new,* possibly sicker patients going on the plans when they need care and then letting their plans lapse . . . repeatedly. And I fear they will also become disgusted with the low reimbursement rates due to very high administration costs in the state exchange bureaucracy. This will prompt them to throw in the towel and “retire” (because they can!) leaving the newbies and well-oiled medical-office machines (who give 2-3 mins to each patient after a 40+ min wait) to pick up the slack.
I just have a vivid recall of how the old SD Naval Hospital used to run (in Balboa Park) with shower curtains hanging a foot-plus from the floor separating patient rooms and the “pharmacy” set up exactly like a bus stop with a little window outside with a number machine and benches to sit and wait in front. I’ve come a lo-o-o-o-ong way since then and don’t want to relive it :=0
