In the first post of this series, I explained the basics of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), and how individuals can go about getting health insurance through three means: Purchasing insurance though one's company, purchasing insurance at the new health insurance exchange, or enrolling in the expanded Medicaid program. You can do this all at: www.healthcare.gov. There is an insurance option for everyone, and the ACA only ensures that more people will be covered by health insurance. In this post, I'll quickly cover the reasons that having insurance is good for the individual as well as healthcare system and how PAs are positioned to be valuable in this evolving system.
More people insured (as required by the ACA) means more money for hospitals.
Remember the patient who has no insurance at all, is hit by a bus, and has a multi-thousand dollar workup? There is no way an uninsured individual can afford a massive hospital bill, such as the one just incurred. The hospital did the right thing by providing care, but spent a large amount of money doing so, and the individual is unable to help pay for the care they received. That's no good.
Consider if everyone had at least catastrophic coverage: People who have serious injuries and who live to tell about them are covered by limited insurance, pay what is required, and then insurance takes care of the rest. It's a win-win for the patient and hospital; the patient gets high-quality care, and the hospital actually gets some sort of reimbursement for the care given. After all, seeing a patient with some insurance results in at least some payment instead of no payment at all if they didn't have insurance.
More people insured means more patients to be seen.
At this time, about 17 million people now have health insurance who did not have health insurance previously. Remember, the ACA is three parts: Purchasing insurance though your company, purchasing insurance at the new health insurance exchange, or enrolling in the expanded Medicaid program. Not including companies' health insurance enrollment numbers, 8 million have signed up for insurance through the new health insurance exchange, and 7 million more have signed up for Medicaid. In addition, 2 million more have been able to stay on their parent's plans. That's a lot of new patients that will be actively seeking medical care now that they have some sort of help paying for it.
There's only one problem: there are not enough doctors to see these new patients.
US medical schools are able to produce about 17,000 graduates per year. And, unfortunately, about 1,000 of these students do not match to a residency every year, meaning that they cannot practice medicine. And, there is already a physician shortage which is growing significantly. By 2020, there will be about 90,000 too few doctors, half of which are in primary care; this will grow to about 130,000 by 2025.
That's where PAs come in.
US PA schools are able to produce 7,000 graduates per year. And, this number is expected to increase by 70% over the next 15 years. That means there will be about 127,000 PAs practicing by 2025. So, there will be about 130,000 too few physicians for the general population, but there will be about 127,000 PAs that will more than ready and willing to take on the job with the help and support of physician colleagues.
Doesn't sound so bad anymore, does it?
Finally, open enrollment into the health insurance exchange and Medicare starts again on November 15th, 2014. Spread the word. Enroll: www.healthcare.gov.
