I am Canadian and we have publicly funded care here - as you may have heard on the anti-Obamacare campaigns lol.
This is the state of PT in Canada:
Basically the government pays for health care, so like any business the government realizes that in order to save $ some things need to be cut from public funding.
So until a few years ago, physical therapy services in Canada were government covered, then the government decided there's no more money and it no longer covers physio, except for the very young and elderly, but not if you have insurance first.
About 8 years ago, I used to go to physio as a teen following a serious sports injury for about 8 months 4x/week. I was covered by my parents insurance, but the gov also paid for PT so it ended up being like $5 per visit. While there I saw many many patients who would also come daily. Since it was so affordable many people just enjoyed going for tune ups, especially the elderly population. I'm now a physical therapist, and we are lucky to see 15 patients a day. People can't afford it. The government won't pay for it. And big corporations also cut coverage for employees. A typical employee in his 30s has coverage for maybe a max of 30 visits a year. Most have between 15-20 visits, or about a month of therapy.
With the gov cutting the coverage, hospital PT has also been drastically cut. 99% of the hospitals in Ontario no longer have outpatient clinics, and the typical inpatient PT is responsible for 25-30 beds. There's typically only enough time to see each patient 3x per week.
Finding a full-time job in a hospital is pretty much nonexistent today. Most of my colleagues are working multiple (2-3 part times) with a mix of private clinic and hospital.
So with the US government wanting to mimic the Canadian system, I think you guys have something bad coming your way, in my eyes at least. I'm all for equal care and equal opportunity for the poor and underserviced to access health care. However, I really am now starting to understand that private industry is what drives innovation and promotes excellence.
So what are your opinions of the Obamacare's impact on Physical Therapy in the US?
This is the state of PT in Canada:
Basically the government pays for health care, so like any business the government realizes that in order to save $ some things need to be cut from public funding.
So until a few years ago, physical therapy services in Canada were government covered, then the government decided there's no more money and it no longer covers physio, except for the very young and elderly, but not if you have insurance first.
About 8 years ago, I used to go to physio as a teen following a serious sports injury for about 8 months 4x/week. I was covered by my parents insurance, but the gov also paid for PT so it ended up being like $5 per visit. While there I saw many many patients who would also come daily. Since it was so affordable many people just enjoyed going for tune ups, especially the elderly population. I'm now a physical therapist, and we are lucky to see 15 patients a day. People can't afford it. The government won't pay for it. And big corporations also cut coverage for employees. A typical employee in his 30s has coverage for maybe a max of 30 visits a year. Most have between 15-20 visits, or about a month of therapy.
With the gov cutting the coverage, hospital PT has also been drastically cut. 99% of the hospitals in Ontario no longer have outpatient clinics, and the typical inpatient PT is responsible for 25-30 beds. There's typically only enough time to see each patient 3x per week.
Finding a full-time job in a hospital is pretty much nonexistent today. Most of my colleagues are working multiple (2-3 part times) with a mix of private clinic and hospital.
So with the US government wanting to mimic the Canadian system, I think you guys have something bad coming your way, in my eyes at least. I'm all for equal care and equal opportunity for the poor and underserviced to access health care. However, I really am now starting to understand that private industry is what drives innovation and promotes excellence.
So what are your opinions of the Obamacare's impact on Physical Therapy in the US?