Obama’s Economic Stimulus Plan – What’s the effect on your medical practice?

One of the keys to Mr. Obama’s proposed economic stimulus plan is to push money into the economy where it can work quickly.  We saw with the financial sector bailout that the money given to the financial sector was used to prop up the banking industry and never made it out into the general circulation.  From an article in Politco, it seems Mr. Obama’s health care restructuring plan is to use Medicaid as a tool to accomplish a number of goals.  

The first goal would be to float and estimated $700 billion into the economy through Medicaid.  These payments would be made to doctors and hospitals based upon the traditional fee for service method we now have in place. 

The second goal would be to aid the states who are now crippled by a Medicaid burden they can no longer sustain.  An influx of federal funds into the state coffer via Medicaid would be a welcome relief to all states.

And lastly, the third goal would be to benefit the general population through improving health.  The Medicaid plan may not be perfect but it’s a good place to start.  Sure, we need to fix this system.  But more importantly, we need to fix the economy.  And heck, why not save a few lives while we’re at it.

So the big question is whether it’ll work.  As a doctor, I’ve contemplated the collapse of the US health care system.  You have to realize that the majority of the health care system is now dominated by publicly held companies.  The share holders of those companies will only stay the course for so long if their investments in health care start to drop.  If we saw a mass exodus from health care by those investors, we’d be seeing the next economic bail out.  That’s right, a bail out of the health care sector.

I’m no economist.  But as a doc, I like Mr. Obama’s proposal.  And yes, I think it will have a positive impact on my practice.

Jeff
Jeffrey A. Oster, DPM
Medical Director
Myfootshop.com