Over 200,000 Doctors Avoiding Obamacare Plans

Photo Credit: WND The number of physicians nationwide that are declining to accept health plans from Obamacare exchanges is growing, according to a study from the American Action Forum.

As of May 2014, over 214,000 doctors wouldn’t participate in Obamacare plans, and that number may be growing,according to AAF, a free-market think tank in Washington. While some Obamacare kinks have been worked out over the past year, exchange plans remain as unfriendly to doctors as ever.

Obamacare puts physicians — especially the dwindling number of those in private practice — in an especially difficult financial situation, expecting doctors to eat the costs of patients who discontinue coverage and to simply take on more patients to make up for bottom-level reimbursements.

Exchange plans nationwide pay on average significantly less than plans in the private market and even Medicare, according to AAF. While private plans generally pay doctors $1.00 for performing a given service, Medicare averages just $0.80; exchange plans are allowing doctors just $0.60 for the same thing. That puts Obamacare plans more in line with Medicaid reimbursements, AAF reports, and Medicaid’s low reimbursement rates have been driving doctors away for years.

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