They are the first state to tackle the insurance problem, but if you can't find a primary MD, what good does this do? The average wait for those who can get an appointment with their primary MD is 7 weeks! BD
But it takes a lot more than an insurance card to see a doctor in this state.
"Good thing I never snipped one of these off," Ms. Lewis jokes, wiggling 10 fingers. Earlier this month, she signed up for state-subsidized insurance under a new Massachusetts law that aspires to universal coverage. The plan costs her $80 a month.
On the day Ms. Lewis signed up, she said she called more than two dozen primary-care doctors approved by her insurer looking for a checkup. All of them turned her away. For those residents who can get an appointment with their primary-care doctor, the average wait is more than seven weeks, according to the medical society, a 57% leap from last year's survey.
As it happens, primary-care doctors, including internists, family physicians, and pediatricians, are in short supply across the country. Their numbers dropped 6% relative to the general population from 2001 to 2005, according to the Center for Studying Health System Change in Washington. The proportion of third-year internal medicine residents choosing to practice primary care fell to 20% in 2005, from 54% in 1998.
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