PEDIATRICS Vol. 93 No. 2 February 1994, pp. A38
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow P3Rs: Submit a response
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when P3Rs are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow E-mail this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My File Cabinet
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via CrossRef
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by L., J. F.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow Articles by L., J. F.

REGIONAL ALLIANCES—WHAT THEY COULD DO

J. F. L. MD

Under the health bill, almost all Americans must buy basic health coverage through the "regional alliance" where they live. Regional alliances are governmentrun monopolies that decide which health plans will be offered, collect premiums from employers and residents, and pay most of the premium money to insurers and HMOs ...

The alliance limits what we can pay our own doctor. The alliance posts a schedule of doctors' fees, and it is illegal for doctors to accept more (pages 131, 231-232). The consequences of price controls are predictable.

In Japan, where similar controls are in place, doctors hurry from examining room to examining room, seeing on average 49 patients a day to compensate for low fees and to make ends meet. American doctors will do the same. In the U.S., when Medicare administrators froze physician reimbursement rates a decade ago, doctors compensated by stretching out treatments over several quick visits, to see patients more often. In a last-ditch effort to make Canadian price controls work, Ontario and Quebec put legal limits on physicians' incomes to eliminate the incentive to see patients more often.