News/Commentary

The article below, from Medpage Today, discusses the many ways in which the financial upheaval may affect you.

Patient and care-giver communications always are challenging because one of the communicators feels unwell, the information may be complicated and there are serious time pressures.

Throw into that mix care-givers who are worried about making the payroll (doctors in small practices) or getting a paycheck (employees in small practices) to your local hospital, in the middle of construction of a new project.

Lines of credit and interest rates are the issues there.

Then, too, physicians—especially those scarce primary care physicians—may be postponing their retirement for five years, until age 70, to give their retirement accounts time to rebuild from last week’s hits.

Future physicians may not be able to borrow money to go to medical school. Those in training, looking at a staggering debt load already, may drop out or feel forced to pick the best-paying specialties just so they can take care of their families.

This is all before we get to one of the hot topics of this election: health care “reform.” Both candidates insist this remains a high priority for them. No doubt, given voters’ concerns, it is.

But where’s the money going to come from?

Although health policy hardly is relaxing reading, please read this article carefully so that you can understand why your care-givers may be acting or taking actions that seem unlike them.

Medpage Today

Source: Medpage Today, October 10, 2008