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Old 01-18-11, 11:16 PM   #42
tater
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Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: New Mexico, USA
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The biggest problem for the poor in the US is actually the RURAL poor. The problem is not quality of care, but quantity of care. The rural, "flyover" states have a marked shortage of healthcare providers. Both docs, and secondary providers (nurses, nurse practitioners, and PAs).

The only incentive possible is money, but who wants to move to BF noplace, even for a million a year if they have to be on call very day, or every other day? My wife gets headhunter stuff begging her to come to rural areas almost daily for outrageous sums per year. 500k, plus what you earn above that. This in places where a 500k house would be the biggest house in town by a wide margin, likely you'd have to build one, and it would be a mansion. But lifestyle sucks. Rural schools, and virtually constant call. They tend to get high turn over. Get a single dude who wants to zero his 200k in student loans ASAP, who will then bail for civilization as soon as the contract is up.

It's really the specialists that matter, primary care is typically overrated by health policy people as a panacea, and it simply is not. Most primary care "sick" visits are for self-limiting conditions. The vast, overwhelming majority. See the doc and get (unneeded) antibiotics as empirical care, or wait the 10 days you're on the antibiotics and get well anyway. When you need a specialist, that's when you need real healthcare.
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