On the road to healthcare reform, let’s not forget the basics: Americans still need affordable, fast access to doctors. By steamrolling too much change at one time, the risk is that basic needs will go unmet amid reforms that aren’t widely understood and that ultimately will result in patient care determined by government-approved treatment plans.
It is important that average Americans be aware of what’s happening, and what’s at stake, while there is still time to preserve stability in our current healthcare system as it transitions to high technology.
A major problem is that too much of healthcare reform is being planned and executed in a vacuum – apart from important considerations such as thepotential for mass retirements of aging doctors, potentially leading to severe shortages and longer wait times for patients, all at a time of increased demand on the system due to aging baby boomers. Curiously, doctors must focus now on entering patient data into electronic devices, when by the federal government’s own timetable, the necessary technology to accomplish healthcare reform won’t be in place until 2024.
