he area around Bend in Central Oregon is a popular retirement destination for Portlanders and others. She has several clients who retired there but have to make the 4½-hour drive back to Portland for medical appointments because they could not find doctors in Bend who accepted new Medicare patients.

It's not just public, but also private insurance that has this very problem.

Ours is BCBS of SC for state employees through my husband's job. I coudn't find a doctor in NYC that accepted it when I was there for a year and a half to babysit for my grandson.

In addition, I twice lost my primary care doc when my employer changed to a plan to which my doc didn't belong.

If a doctor won;t take Medicare/Medicaid patients, I think they should be forced to reimburse the govt for all the subsidies they've accepted...training facilities/salaries for interns & residents, guaranteed low-interest loans for med school, etc.