Medicare Shuns Seniors

Medicare has become a scary word to the doctors at the largest private group practice in Kansas City, Mo.

It's so scary that most physicians at Kansas City Internal Medicine, with 65% of its nearly 70,000 active patients age 65 or older, have stopped accepting walk-in Medicare enrollees, said Dr. David Wilt, an internist at the group.

Wilt and his colleagues say they are shunning the area's growing senior population because they believe Medicare doesn't reimburse physicians enough to cover the cost of care.

This outcome is inevitable under government provided health insurance. As health technology improves, expenditure on insured health care grows rapidly. Governments respond by limiting payments, lest deficits mushroom.

This problem is going to get worse, with or without Obamacare. Thus the only consistent position for those who oppose Obamacare is to also oppose Medicare and Medicaid.