Doctor pro-bono bill can help Medicaid pressures
Nearly 4 million people in Florida access health care coverage through the state’s Medicaid program. That’s nearly one in every five residents, yet some state lawmakers argue for expanded coverage. Combined federal and state spending for Florida’s Medicaid program is $23 billion annually with the federal government offsetting 61 percent of the program.
There are better solutions to provide affordable health care to low-income families. Florida’s Rep. Daniel Webster has introduced legislation in Washington, backed by fellow Floridian Rep. Greg Steube and other cosponsors.
The “Physician Pro Bono Care Act” is designed to incentivize doctors to offer pro-bono health care services to low income patients. Physicians who render free medical services would be permitted to deduct some costs from their taxes. Present tax law only allows physicians to deduct pro-bono services they render to a 501(c)(3) charitable services institution. They are not allowed to deduct medical services provided in clinics and offices to low-income individuals who don’t have insurance. The Physician Pro Bono Care Act is a simple measure that corrects this gap.
Federal and state governments could save millions in Medicaid costs. For example, $6.6 billion could be saved a year in national Medicaid disbursements for emergency room visits alone, according to an estimate by the Association of Mature American Citizens. That figure is based on a scenario in which the seven million Medicaid patients who visited an emergency room once in 2016 at the average Medicaid payout cost of $1,100 would have instead received pro-bono treatment from a doctor at the cost of a deduction of roughly $50.
While the measure is not a panacea for the hundreds of billions of dollars spent on Medicaid each year, it’s an important step. For Florida, it would help relieve some budgetary pressures of a bloated Medicaid program.
Aside from pure dollars-andcents benefits, the bill encourages lower-income people to form patient-doctor relationships that contribute to better quality of life. Such relationships can foster preventative care visits before conditions become acute. Without access to primary care physicians, many patients avoid medical care until their ailments become so serious that they have to visit the emergency room. Emergency room care can be 20 times as expensive as primary physician office visits.
In an era in which some doctors are no longer accepting Medicaid patients because of convoluted, time-consuming requirements of the program, the Physician Pro Bono Care Act offers doctors an opportunity to treat lower-income patients while avoiding the bureaucracy and endless red tape of the present Medicaid program.
This bill relies not on any ideology but on a creative solution to help ensure our most vulnerable Americans have access to the healthcare they need, from a doctor they choose. Floridians deserve strong support from their congressional delegation around this bipartisan bill and Rep. Daniel Webster and Greg Steube are to be commended for sponsoring and backing this important legislation.
Dan Weber is the president and founder of the 1.9 million-member Association of Mature American Citizens.