Hi everybody Cheryl Atkinson

Cheryl Atkinson here welcome to another edition of full measure after hours

today what's behind the long wait times to see the doctor?

I'll bet a whole lot of you listening have experienced what we're talking about today.

Excruitingly long wait time. have experienced what we're talking about today,

excruciatingly long wait times to see the doctor for

maybe a basic checkup, maybe to establish a new doctor,

or even for important surgery. what exactly is going on?

After Obamacare, we were promised everything with our health care system would be better.

And while it's true that more people now have insurance

coverage as a result, America's total health bill has skyrocketed. We are

paying more in premiums, but also through invisible costs such as taxpayers paying

for all the people getting subsidized on insurance. Yes, some of them are paying

a reduced amount but we're all picking up the slack. We also have to pay more for

Medicare and Medicaid that's insurance for the poor and the elderly. So it may seem like things are somewhat affordable in the moment because

when you pay out of pocket that amount may not seem too bad but we're getting hit in a way that's

bigger than ever when you're talking about total costs that we're covering in other ways.

And in the meantime, with more people having insurance and us paying more than ever,

people are getting sicker and sicker with all kinds of chronic disorders.

More people are trying to see the doctor and finding they can't get a timely appointment.

It's reached crisis proportions in some cities. Here are a few stats

according to surveys. The average wait time for new patient appointments in 2004,

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