The Hard Question on Access to Health Care: Will We Have Enough Doctors and Services?

[VickyRN, MSN, DNP, RN]

Nurses can contribute greatly to improving care under any health system reform. Expanding health coverage will strain current services. The newly insured will have pent-up demand, especially for a “medical home,” which provides primary care and can organize referrals—a role often shortchanged as physicians become increasingly specialized. Backed up by doctors and other clinicians, nurse practitioners are well-prepared to help fill today’s frequent service gaps.

Three types of policy change are needed to support such expansion:

• a return to former levels of support for nursing education, especially clinical practice;
  
• a modification of states’ restrictive licensing rules; and
  
• changes in health insurance payment policies to support nurse practitioners.
  

http://www.urban.org/issues/hardquestions/accesstohealthcare.cfm

[SweettartRN]

I think that we will see a large group of doctors move to private pay to get away from having to deal with government run healthcare.

And I think we'll see a lot of people actually pay it.

[SummerGarden, BSN, MSN, RN]

thanks op!

the ana supports an increasing role of nps to fill in the gaps in areas where physicians are lacking in numbers such as rural areas. recent health care reform has nothing to due with the cause! if nps are able to take on more responsibility legally in all states (let's face it, they are trained and educated to do so), then it will help in a huge way!

[ocean waves]

Hello. Regarding your question of "will we have enough doctors and services", I sincerely believe that the professional community of doctors and nurses in the USA will adjust well to patient needs involved in health care reform. After my work as a nurse in an international nursing education program, my appreciation has greatly increased for the good doctor to patient ratio in developed countries, such as the USA, in contrast to the bad ratio in developing countries. For example, some of the studies done in 2007 state that at that time the doctor/patient ratio in the USA was one to 390 and the doctor patient ratio in Rwanda which was one to 20,000. Best wishes!

[GHGoonette, BSN, RN]

Hello. Regarding your question of "will we have enough doctors and services", I sincerely believe that the professional community of doctors and nurses in the USA will adjust well to patient needs involved in health care reform. After my work as a nurse in an international nursing education program, my appreciation has greatly increased for the good doctor to patient ratio in developed countries, such as the USA, in contrast to the bad ratio in developing countries. For example, some of the studies done in 2007 state that at that time the doctor/patient ratio in the USA was one to 390 and the doctor patient ratio in Rwanda which was one to 20,000. Best wishes!

Hi Ocean, some time or another you really will have to lose that formality! We're all friends here, ok?

I'm so glad someone else has brought up the absolutely vital point that, while there may be an excess of medical staff in developed countries, there is most definitely a shortage of such staff in 3rd world countries.

SAMJ: South African Medical Journal - Legislating for nurse/patient ratios 'clumsy and costly': experts

And South Africa is more 2nd world, or at least 2-and-a-bit...:)

[CaregiverGrace]

Much of the Healthcare/Obamacare reform is likely to be repealed over the next couple of years anyway, so I don't think these current changes will have a significant effect on the system. There will be a few minor changes that stick, like pharmaceutical pricing under medicare recipients, but for the most part this bill as-is will not stand.

[Yosemite, RN, ASN, EMT-I]

The future is so hard to predict, but my money is on fewer physicians outside of specialties, nurse practicioners becoming MUCH more in demand especially in primary care and certain specialties such as psychiatry. The fewer physicians that remain will likely be in a supervisory role, administration, consultation to the NP's. RN's will be fewer, becoming more in the role of supervisors to LPT's/LPN's and "medicaiton technicians." As the delivery of health care becomes ever more expensive and the payors fewer, things WILL change in ways that will surprise us, THAT'S for sure.