Elucidating Senator Kay Hagen (D-NC)

I was listening to a radio interview with North Carolina Democratic senator Kay Hagen. To say the least it was amusing. She vacillated on whether she would vote for tax increases to pay for a public option. She vacillated on whether she'd vote for any bill with a public option.

What I found was most annoying was her assertion that the present proposals would cut costs by encouraging people to avoid the emergency room and visit their primary physician.

I can tell you that the opposite will happen - based on my experiences in Canada. Assuming we have a "public option" that will pay like medicare - i.e. below market rates, we will eventually see a doctor shortage as prospective doctors will see the hassles and pay not worth the time to go through the education and training required. In Canada, the provincial governments deliberately created a shortage of doctors - believing that doctors, via their billings, were the prime cost driver of public health care. The provincial governments limited the spots in medical schools and capped billings by doctors.

There are three levels of doctor shortages in Canada. If you're in a major metropolitan area - you have to book your appointment with your G.P. several months in advance. If you're in a minor city (i.e. around 100,000) - you may or may not get a doctor. In my case - I called in a few favours from some school friends to get a doctor. So your rolodex is your friend in socialized medicine.

If you're in a rural era - you're SOL. Some practices have lotteries to see which people will become patients. The rest are stuck with the emergency room.

So what happens down here is that if you force everyone to be paid at Medicare rates under a "public option" - you'll have fewer doctors practicing and those without one will be forced to the emergency room - which will raise costs. Go to an emergency room in Canada - most of the people are there for stuff that a G.P. should do - but they don't have one. Because people don't pay out of pocket - they'll abuse the E.R. You see it here with medicaid recipients clogging the emergency rooms.

So Kay Hagen doesn't know what the heck she's talking about.