He's 26 years old but still sees a pediatrician: Why some young adults don't move on

[Demovictory9]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/hes-26-years-old-but-still-sees-a-pediatrician-why-some-young-adults-dont-move-on/2019/08/16/2bcbbe4e-b92f-11e9-a091-6a96e67d9cce_story.html

When Joann Alfonzo, a pediatrician in Freehold, N.J., walked into her office recently she mentally rolled her eyes when she saw her next patient: a 26-year-old car salesman in a suit and tie.

“That’s no longer a kid. That’s a man,” she recalls thinking.

Yet, Alfonzo wasn’t that surprised. In the past five years, she has seen the age of her patients rise, as more young adults remain at home and, thanks to the Affordable Care Act, on their parents’ health insurance until age 26.

“First it was 21, then 23 and now 26,” Alfonzo says. “A lot of them can’t afford to live on their own and get their own insurance, or even afford the co-pay. And if insurance is offered at work, there’s generally a cost share involved, if insurance is provided at all.”

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But these days that’s pretty realistic, Alfonzo says. “We have people who have had children, and they still see us, so we’re seeing the parents and their children, concurrently,” she says.

So when is it time to leave your pediatrician? Talon Manfredini, 22, says he only left his pediatrician, who is a woman, this year because he moved from his family home in New Jersey to begin a new job in Miami.

But he didn’t think twice about continuing to see her, even though he’d finished college. “She just felt like a regular doctor,” he says. “It didn’t feel odd at all or different or weird or anything like that.”

Debbie Weinberger DeFrancesco, 41, a regional sales manager for Tyson from Marlboro, N.J., says she continued to see her pediatrician until she was about 27.

[greyl]

1. Why many doctors retain paying patients/customers. nt

[tirebiter]

2. The primary reason a lot of GP's are becoming specialists

There are not currently enough docs to go around. No law can change that.

[Sgent]

3. Maybe I'm missing something

The reality is it probably doesn't matter -- there isn't that much that's going to go wrong in a 25yo that doesn't go wrong in a 15yo. That said, most pediatricians don't have all that much training in reproductive health, sports medicine, OB/GYN, etc. unless they have focused on it outside of residency -- that said they are at least as well trained in those as a GP was 50 years ago. A family medicine doc or internal medicine would probably be better.

[LisaL]

6. To be fair, most general doctors are going to send their patients to specialists such as OB/GYN

should these patients need one. Don't see any reason why a pediatrician couldn't do the same thing.

[mwooldri]

4. Our doctor is a family doctor.

I had a bad experience in finding a paediatrician for my eldest son, who was born with a rare congenital birth "defect". So I asked my doctor about finding a paediatrician and he then advised us he was a family doctor. So our entire family sees him.

Having grown up under the NHS, it was usual for families to have a GP. So for us to see a family doctor as our primary care physician made perfect sense.

[tanyev]

5. If she's mentally rolling her eyes for older patients, why doesn't she hand them a list of doctors

she recommends and tell them it's time to move on?

[RobinA]

7. Why Is This Doctor

rolling her eyes at a patient who apparently feels comfortable enough and trusting of her enough to continue to see her. Why does EVERYTHING have to be measured and judged.

As she even tried to find a doctor these days? It's literally like throwing darts at a list of names and hoping for the best.

[Bettie]

8. What's funny is that if you live in anything but a large

urban area, there are no pediatricians.

To see an actual doctor, we'd have to drive 40 minutes, minimum. Our clinic (and those in other nearby towns) tend to share a pool of NPs and PAs.

My kids haven't seen an actual MD since they were born.