Medical profession will suffer from more cutbacks

Indianapolis, December 9, 2006 - IndyStar.com Opinion

Never before has the medical profession faced such traumatic conditions as those being created by declining Medicare reimbursements. Payments for medical care of Medicare recipients will decline by 34 percent during the next nine years if Congress does not withdraw its proposed plan.

Meanwhile, physicians are being forced to provide increased non-reimbursable services, not to mention rapidly increasing premiums for malpractice insurance and higher salaries and benefits for their staff. When one considers these issues, along with a debt of minimally $150,000 for the cost of medical school, it is astonishing that the medical profession will be able to continue attracting newcomers to join its noble ranks.

To drive the economics further, our nation will be experiencing the largest growth of Medicare patients ever as baby boomers become Medicare recipients.

As forecasted, these factors will discourage young people from pursuing their interest in the medical profession, thus yielding fewer professionals to treat a growing Medicare population. Based upon the overwhelming economic factors that will impact our health-care system, I implore Congress to withdraw the proposed plan to reduce Medicare reimbursements as currently proposed.

Note: Congress did withdraw the proposed reduction in 2007 Medicare reimbursements.