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| Counties shaded in black have no doctors; dark gray means no pediatrician and no OB/GYN; light gray means no pediatrician or no OB/GYN. (AJC map) |
Like many other states, rural Georgia is facing a doctor shortage: nine of its 159 counties have no doctor, 64 have no pediatricians, and 79 have no obstetrician-gynecologists. "That makes Georgia worse than the national average for needy areas short of primary health care providers, according to federal data assembled by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Health outcomes for Georgia patients lag accordingly, with the state ranked among the worst 10 states for most measures," Ariel Hart reports for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Lack of a nearby doctor means some of Georgia's 2.4 million rural residents don't have the time, money, or transportation to access medical care in a neighboring county.
Though state legislators have ordered health care study committees and passed some laws, the shortage is still a problem. One cause: rural medical providers often struggle because Medicare and Medicaid (which many rural residents are on) reimburse at lower rates than private insurance. The state's Republican-led legislature did not expand Medicaid under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act because they did not believe the state could afford it in the long-term. Some Republican legislators have said they would consider Medicaid expansion with a work requirement, Hart reports.
Daniel Singleton, a rural doctor from Buena Vista in southwestern Georgia, told Hart that there would be more rural doctors if they were decently paid. But State Rep. Terry England, a Republican who chairs the House Appropriations Committee and leads and two-year task force on rural development, said the state doesn't have the money to raise the Medicaid and Medicare reimbursement rates so that doctors don't lose money when they take such patients.
The money isn't the only problem, according to Singleton. Working in a rural area may not appeal to doctors who didn't grow up in rural areas. "Medicine is an elite profession," he told Hart. "Unless you’re a country boy from South Georgia, it’s very very difficult to motivate someone to come back and live in a place like this."
from The Rural Blog https://ift.tt/2MJ3jw2 Rural Georgia faces doctor shortage; state legislature considers ideas but won't increase Medicaid reimbursement - Entrepreneur Generations
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