Depending on the decision of the Supreme Court this week on the constitutionality of what is commonly refer to as Obamacare. Or as it is officially known as Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
Could this be the salvation for pharmacy and Pharmacists or could we just dropped down a another level or two of the rings of hell?
We have 30-50 million uninsured out there in our society… many with untold number of unmet medical problems.
We have two FP/GP’s retiring for every one coming out of medical school and going into primary care.
We all know that Medicare/Medicaid does not pay the cost of the services provided.. and will Obamacare move our entire healthcare system into a similar/same or parallel program? We know that even though Part D has come in below projected aggregate expenditures that Congress is unhappy with those numbers and wants them lower.
We still have six states still that do not permit collaborative practices for Pharmacists and only one state (MN) recognize RPH’s as practitioners… which means that they can directly bill for services provided.
Is the system going to try and expand the availability of primary care services or just let the wait time to expand to get primary care?
If they try to expand the availability of services… where are we going to get the experienced man power? Sure we can ramp up education and spit out more “educated bodies” but .. those of us who have a fair amount of experience under their belt…knows that when you are fresh out of training.. you are probably barely competent enough not to cause much harm…
Is this where the coming surplus of RPh’s could come into play with our health care system of the future?
Will we have enough equipped office space? Will we need to have 24/7 primary care centers to optimize the existing office space and being cost effective?
Could the nurse-in-a-box now in a lot of community chain pharmacies turn into pharmacist-in-a-box … offering primary care?
If the Supreme Court declares Obamacare unconstitutional… will Congress respond with opening up Medicare to anyone willing to buy-in and provide income based premium supplements… to get some form of universal coverage – national health insurance.
The outcome and the our future could be determined in the next couple of months..
Filed under: General dumb-ass problems
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