Let the AMA open the door for foreign medical students and physicians to work in primary care today.

The affordable care act today created a stimulus package for creating new primary care physicians, physician’s assistance, nurse practitioners, and nurses. A new generation of health professional to help in the shortage of primary care doctors as projected by the AMA.

So by the year of 2016, we will have an influx of health professions to serve today’s 47 million uninsured. This is a major step for the future of this nation healthcare but I can’t help to wonder about today.

Today we still need access to healthcare. Hospitals emergency rooms are still the only recourse for the uninsured, and the numbers of uninsured continue to rise. Small businesses continue to offer no benefit or with large deductibles policies. The working individuals continue to take the risk of not buying insurance and depending on the emergency room, since they cannot be turned down.

Yet the AMA continues to make it difficult for foreign medical students and foreign physicians to get into an AMA-approved residence program in the US. The success rate is 25%, if you attend medical school in another country to be able to practice medicine in the US. At a time when the AMA projects a shortage of 21,000 primary care doctors, they have not changed their policy in how they view foreign medical student and physicians. Why not make it easier an open the door for these foreign medical student and physicians to work in a community residency program in the primary care field today.

Each community Dept of Health Services should evaluate alternative in sponsoring a foreign medical student and foreign physician to get AMA to approve and license these Doctors to work to provide care for the uninsured in their own community.

Unlike self-insured, fully-insured employers must decide old vs. new with their current plans

Well the regulations are finally out on the "grandfather plans". Large corporations who are self insured can continue their current plan designs without any fear of CHANGE. They can change administrator, reinsurers, and other vendor they choose. So to be self insured under the Affordable Care Act on March 23, 2010 is where all large corporations should have been to have the greatest flexibility of choice. Just keep your present benefit design, modify the plan document and negotiate, negotiate, and negotiate with every vendor to lower cost or change them.
The large corporations who are fully insured are not so fortunate. The modifications of the plan, to keep in compliance with the Affordable Care Act will create increase in the premium with very little negotiating power, flexibility or choice. They are at the mercy of the insurance carrier, only able to negotiate premium. If they elect to change to another carrier, this automatically makes them lose the grandfather status. Fully -insured companies must decide to stay or not stay with their current plan. The renewal rate of the current plan vs. the new rate of the new plan will tell the story. This also applies to midsize and small companies as well.