<p>influx of new patients</p>
<p>Uhhh…those people who were uninsured have always been there, have always been getting sick, and always been using medical resources. The health care bill is just going to push them to finding care sooner, seeing medical professions when they are less sick and more easily treated, easing strain on ER’s and being less likely to be admitted to the hospital. </p>
<p>If anything, if fewer people are using the ER and are less critically ill, and are more likely to be seeing SOMEONE to manage their longterm chronic medical conditions (Diabetes, hypertension, cholesterol, COPD, Asthma) then there should be a DECREASE in mortality.</p>
<p>Now in pediatrics - most kids are already insured. Trust me, through SCHIP and Medicaid coverage, both of which are generally expanding for kids (although Arizona was notable for trying to cut their SCHIP program). Depending on your state, insurance rates for children are over 95%. </p>
<p>Further, whoever said infants weren’t a profit sector is wrong. First off, NICU’s at most hospitals are generally one of the biggest money makers. Even hospitals that are running in the red everywhere else will have profitable NICU’s, in large part because this care always gets paid for. Second, if you’re a general pediatrician, there are visits at birth, 2 months, 4 months, 6 months, 9 months and a year of age that are universal and are paid for by nearly all insurance companies and medicaid. Medicaid will even pay for an additional visit at 1 month of age. That’s 7 visits…If you’re building a practice it’s far more effective to recruit newborns than any other age group, and for the most part (and I can speak from experience in my continuity clinic) these are straight forward visits that when you’re experienced can be compressed to fit in 15 minutes pretty easily. Trust me, compared to my ADHD visits for the 6 and 7 year olds, it’s much easier and quicker to do a 4 month old healthcare supervision exam…</p>