With its expansion of Medicaid eligibility, the Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. Obamacare) was supposed to go a long way towards providing healthcare coverage to millions of uninsured Americans. That accomplishment was dealt a large blow by the Supreme Court, when it forbade the federal government from requiring states to expand Medicaid coverage. Nevertheless, many states plan to offer Medicaid to anyone with incomes at or below 138% of the Federal Poverty Limit (FPL). And more states might follow suit over time, under pressure from the healthcare industry, which likes its customers to be paying customers.
However, even if Medicaid coverage expands under Obamacare, a big potential problem remains—many physicians will be unwilling to care for Medicaid patients. But how many physicians and which ones?
A July study in Health Affairs estimated the percent of physicians from a wide range of specialties who were unwilling to take on new Medicaid patients in 2011 and 2012. What specialty would you guess was least likely to accept new Medicaid patients? …(Read more and view comments at Forbes)
