Texas Healthcare Problems

HOUSTON - While President Obama presses for a health care vote, some senior citizens here in Houston are finding it tough to get into a doctor’s office.

Already, about one-third of doctors won’t take Medicaid patients, who are generally too poor to afford private insurance.

Now, some are also saying “no” to Medicare, the safety net for older Americans.

“I've never felt like I wouldn't get care, ever in my life,” says Sandy Vise, who has been on Medicare for 2 years. “This is just devastating for me.”

As a benefits administrator, Vise spent two decades giving advice on health insurance.

Now, she’s the one asking questions.

After her long-time primary care physician left Texas, Vise got two recommendations from friends.

“I called,” she says. “Neither one of them will take me because I'm a Medicare patient.”

Vise and her employer paid Medicare taxes her whole career.

So she was stunned to learn how Dr. Mina Sinacori views the government health program for senior citizens.

“Medicare is charity care,” says Sinacori. “We love our Medicare patients, we want to provide for our older patients, but physicians simply cannot afford to.”

Sinacori, an OB/GYN, says Medicare’s current reimbursement doesn’t even cover her costs.

And unless Congress acts by April 1, those reimbursements will be cut by 21.2-percent.

“With further reductions in payment,” says Sinacori, “we're going to see fewer and fewer physicians taking Medicare patients.”

This, as 78-million baby boomers hit retirement age starting next year.

Maybe that’s why President Barack Obama mentioned Medicare by name, in his full-court press to pass a health care bill by next Thursday.

“Reining in waste and inefficiencies,” says Obama, “we are going to be able to help ensure Medicare’s solvency for an additional decade.”

Mina Sinacori sees universal coverage as a noble goal but says Uncle Sam’s Medicare is not what the doctor ordered.

“If you think of it as a pilot program for national health care, it has failed, failed miserably.”

Congress keeps postponing that 21.2-percent Medicare pay cut; the latest proposal would put it off until October.

To doctors, that’s a bunch of Bandaids on a policy that requires surgery

For more information contact Senior Solutions at (954) 456-8984 or toll free at 1-800-213-3524