Let's not overlook an obvious and easy solution to the San Joaquin Valley's doctor shortage.
California's health care crisis is hitting the Valley especially hard.
Last week, Rep. Dennis Cardoza wrote a column explaining his position of support for The Making Health Care Affordable Act, which passed in the House.
He clearly understands the dire predicament of many of his constituents when it comes to access to health care -- stating that 25 percent "have no insurance" and "hospitals are losing millions of dollars providing services to those who can't afford it."
California's rural and low-income communities are losing doctors as I write because they simply cannot afford to set up or maintain independent practices when a majority of the patients they treat are uninsured or covered by Medi-Cal
The cost to provide care at an office visit is on average more than $50 and doctors are only paid $25 per visit by Medi-Cal. It doesn't take an economics whiz to understand that this just doesn't work. Doctors literally cannot make a living serving the poor and those in many rural areas of our state.
While there are differences in opinion as to whether the various proposed reforms at the federal level will fix our heath care crisis, there should be no question that at the heart of the problem in the Valley is the glaring shortage of doctors now practicing or in the pipeline to treat its residents.
Some might say we just need more doctors. I agree that this is part of the solution, and Cardoza points to a $500 million authorization for funding medical schools in rural areas as a triumph
But what good is it to simply train more doctors when they can't afford to work in poorer and rural communities?
Sure, they can train doctors down the road at a new UC Merced Medical School, but if the graduates can't afford to practice in the Valley, they will need to set up practice in other communities where they can actually make a living -- and the access problem is not solved.
Here's the part of the solution that is missing in the Valley and all medically underserved areas throughout the state: Let hospitals and clinics in medically underserved areas directly employ the physicians they need. Pay them a competitive salary, offer them benefits, and remove the economic barrier that prevents doctors from working in poor and rural communities.
And, how do we do that?
It's simple. Current legislation, SB 726, would expand an exemption to California's archaic "physician hiring ban" (only five other states impose such a regulation, including Texas which has the second worst doctor shortage in the nation after California) and allow hospitals and clinics in medically underserved areas effectively recruit and hire doctors.
Support for this bill is broad and diverse and includes the California Medical Board, AARP, Association of California Healthcare Districts, Dolores Huerta Foundation, California State Association of Counties and California Hospital Association.
And, unlike the myriad health care reforms being presented, it costs California taxpayers nothing.
I urge members of the state Senate who represent constituents in the San Joaquin Valley and other areas throughout the state with large numbers of medically underserved citizens to look closely at this sound, no-cost, practical solution and vote for it's passage when they return to Sacramento in January.
The time is now to lift this archaic statute that is part of the reason 3.6 million Californians don't have adequate access to doctors.
Larry A. Bedard is a physician in Marin County, former president of American College of Emergency Physicians and former chairman of CMA's Corporate Practice of Medicine Advisory Committee.
E-Mail
Print
