More docs stop accepting Medicare

As bad as Medicare is, it's about to get a whole lot worse.

New numbers show thousands of doctors fleeing the almost-bankrupt system... just as millions of aging boomers get ready to join the Medicare ranks.

I pointed this out a few weeks ago... and I take no pleasure in being proven so dramatically right so soon. But you can't ignore the numbers, and the latest shocker comes courtesy of USA Today -- as mainstream a paper as you'll find.

The American Medical Association says 31 percent of its primary care physicians have stopped accepting Medicare. In New York alone, 1,100 doctors have dropped Medicare -- including the president of the state's Medical Society.

The American Academy of Family Physicians says 13 percent of its members won't touch Medicare -- more than double the percentage from just six years ago -- and the American Osteopathic Association says 15 percent of its members don't participate, and 19 percent won't take new Medicare patients.

Yet some people STILL don't think there's a problem. Just look at the angry email I got last time I wrote about this.

"Give me a break! I live in Florida in a very large retirement community. There is no one complaining about their Medicare," wrote Pidge. "Most of the primary care doctors accept it."

Thank your lucky stars, Pidge, and make sure everyone in your retirement community does the same. I hope it lasts -- but the numbers don't lie. If you're not worried, you should be.

Here's the problem: Medicare already pays much less than other insurance companies, roughly 78 cents on the dollar. Even so, many doctors were willing to accept that reduced rate... but now, that already low rate is being slashed by another 21 percent.

Eventually, they'll ask doctors to work for love and promises -- a nice concept, but it won't pay the bills.

And even the doctors who do accept Medicare may not have anything to accept soon -- the Obama administration said last year that Medicare's hospital insurance trust fund would run out in 2017. Now, they say it may last until 2029.

Who knows how long it will really last. The fact is, our health care system is about to undergo a dangerously expensive experiment that will cost far more than anyone anticipates -- so doomsday could come a whole lot sooner than anyone expects.