One third say they will now cut back on Medicaid and insurance programs they currently accept
Washington, DC, June 28, 2012 – In an MDLinx (www.mdlinx.com) survey of U.S. primary care physicians taken today following the Supreme Court’s upholding of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) ruling, 64 percent said that they did not believe the law could achieve its objective of 100 percent healthcare coverage for Americans. MDLinx, a web property of M3 USA (http://usa.m3.com) is the nation’s leading specialty physician portal. The poll, conducted in the hours following the ruling, surveyed 243 double-verified U.S primary care physicians.
“The survey showed a surprisingly high level of skepticism among primary care physicians,” said Stephen Smith, Chief Marketing Officer for MDLinx. “Only 22 percent felt that the larger patient population backers promised would have an extremely positive impact on their medical practice, while 45.7 percent felt they would suffer an extremely negative impact.” Some survey participants expressed support for the ACA concept, but feared the resources were simply not available. “It is the ethical thing to do to provide care to the poor,” said one physician. “But I am scared that there will not be sufficient numbers of primary care providers to meet the increased demand.”
Many survey respondents on Thursday expressed doubt that the private insurance market would be an option for many. “People will always choose food for families before insurance. You can’t make some people sign up,” said one doctor who responded to the survey. Others doubted that the true costs of the law had been considered. “We can’t print money in large enough quantities,” said one doctor. “It will bankrupt the country,” said another. Yesterday, MDLinx released a poll of physician owners and partners in small practices that showed 26.4 percent that said they could foresee closing their practices within the next year given the current financial environment.
Source: MDLinx
