ThinkTech Hawaii: The Hawaii Physician Shortage (Talking Tax)

How the GET Contributes to the Problem. The hosts for this show are Jay Fidell and Tom Yamachika. The guest is Scott Grosskreutz.

According to a study by the University. of Hawaii School of Medicine, there is a shortage of physicians in Hawaii. The school has forecasted that the gap between supply and demand is now close to 1,000 doctors, and it’s been getting worse over the years. https://bit.ly/3wQWsGP

The GET contributes to the issue because insurers won’t pay it. Medicare, for example, will only reimburse medical work at ‘reasonable charges’ and will not reimburse the doctors for the GET they have to pay. Doctors won’t or can’t surcharge their patients for it, meaning they have to account for yet another expense amidst Hawaii’s high cost of everything.

There may be people out there thinking that, well, doctors are rich fat cats, so why shouldn’t we tax them up the wazoo? The short answer is that they are going to jump on a plane and get the heck out of here – which is backed up by the statistics discussed earlier in this article. Then, of course, they won’t be around when you need them.