In six months millions of baby boomers will be joining Medicare. Perfect timing. The number of doctors not accepting Medicare, has more than doubled in the last six years. Now that there is a planned $500 billion dollar cut scheduled for Medicare Complete plans the number of doctors not accepting new Medicare patients is set to skyrocket. If the scheduled cut of 21% that went into effect last Friday isn’t reversed the number of doctors dropping Medicare is estimated to be 40%.
Medicare pays about 78 percent of what private insurers pay for the same services. Doctors are losing money on Medicare patients even before these cuts, and to make up for the losses they must see more patients not on Medicare. https://higginscompanies.com/health-insurance/medicare-supplement/
Since January, 1100 physicians in New York have left Medicare. Even the physician’s society president isn’t taking new Medicare patients.
We will know just how bad things are going to get for the elderly once the doctors in Florida start dropping out of Medicare. There are more Medicare patients in Florida than any other state and most doctors can’t afford to walk away from the program. Cut 21 percent from their pay and they will be forced out of business.
Michael Higgins
602.405.8769
An Arizona health insurance broker.