Ironic and ridiculous health care situation...

[ilima]

What strikes me as strange are the kinds of patients they *are* accepting. Very odd.

But, there is a growing primary care shortage. Bottom line is there aren't enough docs now, even without everyone being insured. Sadly, being a primary care doc isn't as attractive to med students as specialties. I know the "whys" - it's just something we have to address.

Those are probably patients they can make a lot of $$$ off. Sad, but probably very true.

[Crankin]

Jolt, my son has the Blue Cross plan through the Connector. He goes to a doctor at the Brigham and had quite a choice of providers when he signed up. I think, unfortunately, you will have to shop around and find a pcp from the list they provide, instead of the one you want. I know the benefits he gets are quite good; everything except dental.
He works for a small company with 7 employees, so the state option was great for him. He had been paying for fairly reasonable private insurance, but this is a little cheaper. It is too bad that the practitioner you want to go to only takes the free care option people...
I know some think our state mandated insurance is "bad" or expensive, but for my son, it has only been positive.

[Jolt]

Jolt, my son has the Blue Cross plan through the Connector. He goes to a doctor at the Brigham and had quite a choice of providers when he signed up. I think, unfortunately, you will have to shop around and find a pcp from the list they provide, instead of the one you want. I know the benefits he gets are quite good; everything except dental.
He works for a small company with 7 employees, so the state option was great for him. He had been paying for fairly reasonable private insurance, but this is a little cheaper. It is too bad that the practitioner you want to go to only takes the free care option people...
I know some think our state mandated insurance is "bad" or expensive, but for my son, it has only been positive.

The plan itself (I have Neighborhood Health) seems decent enough. I did choose a PCP from the list provided, only to find out today that the large practice she is in is currently not accepting new patients (other than the aforementioned exceptions). Seems to me they need to update their list more often. And I don't get why this practice isn't accepting new insured patients but yet is accepting patients with free care/health safety net. It seems backwards that those with insurance have less access than those who do not. Hopefully I can find another provider within a reasonable distance--with the primary care shortage, who knows? I guess if I can't get in somewhere in time to get a physical for school, I will have to have it done at the free clinic where I volunteer--how awkward!!

[Flur]

Shooting Star - I'm in the US and spent about six months working for a health insurance company, and I can tell you that from what I saw, "healthcare" in the US has nothing to do with health or care. The drug companies have control of the prescription industry and literally determine what the insurance companies will cover, the insurance companies have undue influence on doctors and what tests and treatments they will prescribe, and no one at all is thinking about the impact on the patients, not even the doctors. And all these people will tell you their hands are tied.

So, for me, the short answer is no - I don't think the system can be fixed piece by piece. It'd be nice, but I feel like it's too big of tangled mess for that. I have a feeling that no matter what solution our government comes up with, it's going to make things worse before it makes them better.

[Deborajen]

From the doctors' office side, first, I'll bite my tongue on national healthcare. I don't want to get started!

Jolt, I understand your frustration in not getting a doctor to take you as a new patient. Been there! As far as the practice only accepting financially needy patients, it's quite possible that they have an agreement to accept x number of needy patients and they still haven't met this requirement and they're otherwise full. But I'd definitely mention to your insurance that you were just turned down by a PCP on their list. Since you can't get healthcare without a PCP, you're not getting what you're paying for until you get one so their helping you with this would be the right thing. Good luck!