Florida's Coming Medical Disaster

In 2015, just a few years from now, Florida will be in deep trouble.

Who wants the dubious notoriety of "last in the nation?"

Last in education. Last in life expectancy. Last in new business. Last in quality and quantity of doctors per population.

It seems unbelievable, but last-place rankings will be an unintended consequence of decisions made by today's state and federal lawmakers and today's courts. Those decisions already are pushing us toward the bottom in health care access.

With too few new doctors choosing to come to Florida, it will not be long till our seniors understand their health is at risk. Retirees will stop coming and those here will start to leave.

With fewer retirees and seniors, next the service people will dwindle. As these folks leave, the construction industry will falter as no new housing will be needed in a state with a negative population. They will be followed by all supporting businesses, and on and on.

New doctors are already finding better places to practice. About 60 physicians attended a recent hospital lunch meeting with our U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan. When all those under 40 years old were asked to stand, no one stood up.

Who will be caring for those 60 physicians when there is nobody in the pipeline to replace them? We will all retire, as our seniors already have.

Too few doctors are coming to Florida to replace us because Florida is the most doctor unfriendly state in the union.

When newly trained physicians, with school loans to repay, start to look for their "home" practice, they consider factors including conditions of practice, income potential, and risk of lawsuits. Florida fails in all considerations.

They are going to any state but Florida because we are the only state with "three strikes and you're out." Guilty or not, right or wrong, a physician can permanently lose their license.

In Florida you will only get paid a fraction of what you can make anywhere else in the country. That's because your practice here will be over 75 percent Medicare. Yearly federal cutbacks in funding since 2002 allow only a fraction of reimbursement for the same work as a non-Medicare patient. Medical practices in other states have on average only 20 percent Medicare patients, so the underpayment is less significant.

Florida has one of the highest medical liability insurance costs because of the high number of lawyers suing doctors. It costs almost $100,000 to defend a lawsuit even when over 85 percent of physicians are found not guilty of negligence at trial. Insurance is cost-prohibitive in many areas and many specialties.

My 2015 scenario of last in the nation doesn't need to happen. We're not there yet, but we are near.

We Florida residents must do everything possible to change Florida from the most doctor unfriendly state to a doctor welcoming state.

It will take acts of statesmanship by the governor, state and federal representatives and senators. And it will take acts of common sense by the courts.

I hope everyone gets the message, because if we stay last in doctors, we'll soon be last in everything that matters.