While it is true that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) managed to secure health insurance for a lot of people—especially among those previously unable to do so—it may have left the healthcare industry spread too thinly to properly accept and treat all patients.
In California, the ACA enabled the state’s Medi-Cal program to expand its insurance coverage to those aged 19 to 64 who have incomes at or below 138% of the poverty level and have no children. The law also expanded the program’s coverage to non-disabled adults who are serving as parents or legal guardians to children and have an annual income of less than $16,395.
As a result of more Californians being insured through the ACA, “doctors and emergency rooms are as busy or busier than ever . . . [and] patients have to wait longer and drive farther to find the care they need,” suggested a report on the Auburn Journal.
Poor patients, despite their Medi-Cal coverage, have the least number of healthcare options available to them, the report said.
“They didn’t walk the system all the way out,” said Placer People of Faith Together community organizer Lisa Boch. “Medi-Cal was inundated with [new policyholders].”
Officials revealed that while doctors in California are more than willing to take patients with low income, the healthcare professionals cannot afford it—resulting in them reluctantly turning down patients.
Placer County public health officer Dr. Robert Oldham claimed that the rate the state reimburses doctors for treating Medi-Cal patients is one of the lowest in America.
“They want … to take care of poor patients,” Oldham remarked. “It doesn’t pencil out for them.”
Oldham further commented that only a few doctors—particularly specialists—can afford to take in such patients. With so few doctors willing to accept Medi-Cal enrollees, desperate patients have resorted to travelling across the state to seek healthcare experts who will accept them.
And there are a lot of Medi-Cal enrollees.
According to Placer County Health and Human Services division director Linda Patterson, nearly 5,000 residents have enrolled in the program between 2012 and 2015 in the city of Auburn alone.
The number does not include those who have just enrolled this year.
California Department of Health Care Services spokesperson Katharine Weir underlined that according to state guidelines, a doctor should have no more than 2,000 patients and that patients should not have to drive more than 10 miles to see a primary care physician.
It remains to be seen if the system can be fixed to handle the flood of new patients.
