U.S. doctors are turning away an increasing number of patients, including those with private insurance, according to a study in the Archives of Internal Medicine, Bloomberg reported.

Physicians were willing to accept about 88 percent of patients who had private insurance in 2008, down from 93 percent in 2005, according to the study. Patients in Medicare, the U.S. health insurance program for the elderly and disabled, also had a harder time finding a doctor. About 93 percent were accepted by physicians in 2008, down from 96 percent in 2005.

The drop in doctors willing to take private insurance was caused by low payments for services as well as administrative difficulties, said Tara Bishop, an assistant professor of public health at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York.
“At a moment when the country is poised to achieve near-universal coverage, patients’ access to care could be a casualty of the collision between the medical profession and the insurance industry,” Bishop, the lead author of the study, said in a statement.

The U.S. government is considering its own assessment of access to physicians under a “secret shopper” program that would have surveyors contact doctors’ offices trying to get appointments. Jay Carney, a White House spokesman, said at a briefing with reporters that the plan is still being reviewed and that similar approaches have been used by past administrations.