As Medicare goes, so goes Medicaid. Physicians in Texas are leaving Medicare, according to the Houston Chronicle. In the last two years, about 350 Texas doctors have dropped the program. In 2008, 62 percent of Texas doctors opting out of Medicare were primary care physicians. Something similar is happening with Medicaid, the government health insurance program for low-income individuals and families.
NBC reports that over three million poor and disabled people in the state are covered by Medicaid, and less than 30 percent of the state’s 48,700 practicing physicians accept Medicaid patients, and others place limitations on Medicaid patients they do see. An excerpt:
[The Texas Health and Human Services Commission], which administers the program in Texas, is among the state agencies that state leaders expect to cut spending. Thomas Suehs, the commission’s top executive, said he realizes the bind that physicians find themselves in.
“No one ever wants to cut Medicaid,” commission spokeswoman Stephanie Goodman said. But, she noted, “it’s 75 percent of our budget. So when you start to identify places to reduce our budget, it gets very hard to skip Medicaid.”
Dr. Lou Montanaro, a suburban Dallas obstetrician, said he wanted to stay in the Medicaid program, but low reimbursement levels have prompted him to restrict the Medicaid cases he takes. He accepts pregnant patients, but not women seeking gynecological care.
Montanaro believes that reimbursement levels will continue to decline, which will prompt more doctors to decide to restrict or stop taking Medicaid patients.
One can only imagine the enormity of the problem once the new health care reform law kicks in. Across the country, millions more people will receive coverage under Medicaid.