It’s time to defy health-care mandates issued by bureaucrats not in the healing profession.
By DANIEL F. CRAVIOTTO JR. Updated April 28, 2014 7:34 p.m. ET
In my 23 years as a practicing physician, I’ve learned that the only thing that matters is the doctor-patient relationship. How we interact and treat our patients is the practice of medicine. I acknowledge that there is a problem with the rising cost of health care, but there is also a problem when the individual physician in the trenches does not have a voice in the debate and is being told what to do and how to do it.
As a group, the nearly 880,000 licensed physicians in the U.S. are, for the most part, well-intentioned. We strive to do our best even while we sometimes contend with unrealistic expectations. The demands are great, and many of our families pay a huge price for our not being around. We do the things we do because it is right and our patients expect us to.
So when do we say damn the mandates and requirements from bureaucrats who are not in the healing profession? When do we stand up and say we are not going to take it any more?
Dem Congressman on Obamacare: The Worst Is Yet to Come, It’s ‘Going to Hit the Fan’
By Andrew Johnson April 21, 2014 2:45 PM
Massachusetts representative Stephen Lynch isn’t just worried about the negative impact Obamacare will have on his party’s performance this fall — he also thinks its worst effects on our health-care system are still to come. Lynch, who voted against the Affordable Care Act in 2010, warned that the situation is “going to hit the fan” when the law’s delayed provisions go into effect down the road.
“There are parts of Obamacare, or the Affordable Care Act, that were postponed because they are unpalatable,” he told the Boston Herald. The “Cadillac tax” that goes into effect in a few years and taxes employer health plans over a certain value, he said, will be “the first time in this country’s history that we have actually taxed health care.”
WASHINGTON — Kathleen Sebelius, the health and human services secretary, is resigning, ending a stormy five-year tenure marred by the disastrous rollout of President Obama’s signature legislative achievement, the Affordable Care Act.
Mr. Obama accepted Ms. Sebelius’s resignation this week, and on Friday morning, he will nominate Sylvia Mathews Burwell, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, to replace her, officials said.
The departure comes as the Obama administration tries to move beyond its early stumbles in carrying out the law, convince a still-skeptical public of its lasting benefits, and help Democratic incumbents, who face blistering attack ads after supporting the legislation, survive the midterm elections this fall.
Officials said Ms. Sebelius, 65, made the decision to resign and was not forced out. But the frustration at the White House over her performance had become increasingly clear, as administration aides worried that the crippling problems at HealthCare.gov, the website set up to enroll Americans in insurance exchanges, would result in lasting damage to the president’s legacy.
Survey: US sees sharpest health insurance premium increases in years
Americans have recently been hit with some of the largest premium increases in years, according to a Morgan Stanley survey of insurance brokers.
The investment bank’s April survey of 148 brokers found that this quarter, the average premium increase for customers renewing an insurance plan is 12 percent in the small group market and 11 percent in the individual market, according to Forbes’ Scott Gottlieb.
The hikes — the largest in the past three years, according to Morgan Stanley’s quarterly reports — are “largely due to changes under the [Affordable Care Act],” analysts concluded. Rates have been growing increasingly fast throughout all of 2013, after a period of drops in 2012.
53% Expect Quality of Care To Suffer Under Health Care Law
Monday, April 07, 2014
Unfavorable opinions of the new national health care law are at their highest level in several months, while the number who think the quality of care in this country will get worse is at its highest level in over three years.
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 58% of Likely U.S. Voters have at least a somewhat unfavorable opinion of the health care law, with 43% who view it Very Unfavorably. Just 39% have a favorable view of the law, including 16% with a Very Favorable one. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
Despite the Obama administration’s claim that it has exceeded its March 31 goal of signing up seven million Americans through new health insurance exchanges, overall unfavorables for the health care law are up from 54% two weeks ago. Most voters have had an unfavorable opinion of the law in regular surveys since the beginning of last year. But the latest finding matches the all-time high first reached in mid-November. Favorables fell to a record low of 36% in that same survey.
GOP Backs Minor Change in Obamacare to help small business
Apr 6, 12:10 PM (ET)
By DAVID ESPO
WASHINGTON (AP) – At the prodding of business organizations, House Republicans quietly secured a recent change in President Barack Obama’s health law to expand coverage choices, a striking, one-of-a-kind departure from dozens of high-decibel attempts to repeal or dismember it.
Democrats describe the change involving small-business coverage options as a straightforward improvement of the type they are eager to make, and Obama signed it into law. Republicans are loath to agree, given the strong sentiment among the rank and file that the only fix the law deserves is a burial.
“Maybe you say it helps (Obamacare), but it really helps the small businessman,” said Rep. Phil Roe, R-Tenn., one of several physician-lawmakers among Republicans and an advocate of repeal.
No member of the House GOP leadership has publicly hailed the fix, which was tucked, at Republicans’ request, into legislation preventing a cut in payments to doctors who treat Medicare patients.
It is unclear how many members of the House rank and file knew of it because the legislation was passed by a highly unusual voice vote without debate.
The president tries to put a good face on ObamaCare.
By
PEGGY NOONAN
Updated April 4, 2014 7:44 p.m. ET
Put aside the numbers for a moment, and the daily argument.
“Seven point one million people have signed up!”
“But six million people lost their coverage and were forced onto the exchanges! That’s no triumph, it’s a manipulation. And how many of the 7.1 million have paid?”
“We can’t say, but 7.1 million is a big number and redeems the program.”
“Is it a real number?”
“Your lack of trust betrays a dark and conspiratorial right-wing mindset.”
As I say, put aside the argument, step back and view the thing at a distance. Support it or not, you cannot look at ObamaCare and call it anything but a huge, historic mess. It is also utterly unique in the annals of American lawmaking and government administration.
Its biggest proponent in Congress, the Democratic speaker of the House, literally said—blithely, mindlessly, but in a way forthcomingly—that we have to pass the bill to find out what’s in it. It is a cliché to note this. But really, Nancy Pelosi’s statement was a historic admission that she was fighting hard for something she herself didn’t understand, but she had every confidence regulators and bureaucratic interpreters would tell her in time what she’d done. This is how we make laws now.
Her comments alarmed congressional Republicans but inspired Democrats, who for the next three years would carry on like blithering idiots making believe they’d read the bill and understood its implications. They were later taken aback by complaints from their constituents. The White House, on the other hand, seems to have understood what the bill would do, and lied in a way so specific it showed they knew exactly what to spin and how. “If you like your health-care plan, you can keep your health-care plan, period.” “If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor, period.” That of course was the president, misrepresenting the facts of his signature legislative effort. That was historic, too. If you liked your doctor, your plan, your network, your coverage, your deductible you could not keep it. Your existing policy had to pass muster with the administration, which would fight to the death to ensure that 60-year-old women have pediatric dental coverage.
The leaders of our government have not felt, throughout the process, that they had any responsibility to be honest and forthcoming about the major aspects of the program, from its exact nature to its exact cost. We are not being told the cost of anything—all those ads, all the consultants and computer work, even the cost of the essential program itself.
What the bill declared it would do—insure tens of millions of uninsured Americans—it has not done. There are still tens of millions uninsured Americans. On the other hand, it has terrorized millions who did have insurance and lost it, or who still have insurance and may lose it.
Employers Say Obamacare Will Cost Them $5,000 More Per Employee
Businesses reveal in confidential survey that Obamacare will add up to $200 million in costs
BY: Elizabeth Harrington
April 2, 2014 2:01 pm
Obamacare will cost large companies between $4,800 and $5,900 more per employee and add hundreds of millions to their overhead, according to a newsurvey.
The American Health Policy Institute conducted a confidential survey of 100 large employers—those with 10,000 or more employees—asking what costs they expect to incur from Obamacare over the next decade.
Factoring in the health care law’s added mandates, fees, and regulatory burdens, employers anticipate cost hikes between $163 million and $200 million in 2016, a 4.3 percent increase. By 2023, employers will be paying 8.4 percent more than “what they would otherwise be spending” for their employees’ health care.
In the next 10 years, the total cost of Obamacare to all large American employers is estimated to be from $151 billion to $186 billion, according to the study.
Obama May Want to Put the Cork Back In The Champagne Bottle After He Sees These ObamaCare Numbers
Now that Obama has taken a victory lap and popped the champagne cork over hitting the ObamaCare enrollment goal, it looks as if it might be time to put the cork back in the bottle.
Results of a RAND Corporation study suggest that barely 858,000previously uninsured Americans – nowhere near 7.1 million, as claimed by Obama – had paid for new policies and joined the ranks of the insured by the Monday night deadline. The study also indicates that only one-third of exchange sign-ups were previously uninsured.
Yes, millions of enrollees were previously insured, including those who lost coverage when their existing policies were cancelled because they didn’t meet ObamaCare’s minimum requirements.
Still, Obama claimed that “millions of people who have health insurance would not have it”‘ without ObamaCare. The numbers simply do not support that claim.
Moreover, he couldn’t pass up the opportunity to take a shot at Republicans “who have based their entire political agenda on repealing it.” Obama also thanked Democrats, who passed the “Affordable” Care Act without a single Republican vote.
Some Bay Area Residents Refuse To Sign Up For Insurance, Will Pay Penalty
April 1, 2014 12:02 AM
SAN JOSE (KPIX 5) – Despite an extended deadline tosign up for health care under Covered California, some in the Bay Area are choosing to pay a penalty instead of insurance because of the cost.
Brian Roi has worked as a bartender without insurance for the last two years. He chose not to sign up for health coverage because at the end of the night, he said the math does not add up.
“It doesn’t work for me.” Roi told KPIX 5. “I went to college. I have to pay all these student loans still I’m paying those. I’m paying credit card bills that incurred when I went to college.”
Obamacare ‘Glitch’ on Deadline Day
Amy Payne
March 31, 2014 at 9:26 am
If you rushed to HealthCare.gov this morning, you might have found the site unavailable or been placed in a queue, reports said.
“An administration spokesman told the AP the website is usually offline for maintenance overnight, and was brought down for four extra hours by a technical glitch,” NBC reported.
This probably didn’t take many people by surprise. Obamacare’s technical glitches are well known. But the big problem with Obamacare is that the law’s flaws are more than a glitch. Share our parody video below as the administration frantically urges people to “Get Covered” today.
On eve of Obamacare deadline, law remains a work in progress
BySTEPHANIE CONDONCBS NEWSMarch 30, 2014, 6:00 AM
After six tumultuous months, open enrollment on the new Obamacare marketplaces comes to a close. Once enrollment is over, a look at the marketplaces will give the nation a better picture of how well the Affordable Care Act is functioning. It’s already perfectly clear, though — to voters and lawmakers alike — that the law is a work in progress.
The first few months of open enrollment were disastrous, after HealthCare.gov — the site that serves as the Obamacare portal for 36 states — was launched with major technical problems. Still, the administration says it has largely recovered, with more than 6 million Americans enrolling in private insurance as of Thursday.
The public has noticed the improved enrollment process, according to an Associated Press-GfK poll released Friday. While just 12 percent of Americans said in December that the launch of the new marketplaces has gone well, 26 percent say so now.
A new poll shows that just 26 percent of Americans support Obamacare, but at the same time only 13 percent think the law will be completely repealed.
obama-health-law-fails-gain-support” target=”_blank”>The Associated Press-Gfk survey was completed before the White House announced this week that it had signed up 6 million people for private health plans through the state and federal exchanges under the Affordable Care Act.
The poll showed that 7 in 10 American believe the law will stay on the books with some changes.
The AP noted that support for the law has dropped 13 points since 2010, when 39 percent favored the law. Opposition also has dipped 7 percentage points from 2010, when it stood at 43 percent. The number of people on the fence, the AP reported, has tripled from 10 percent to 30 percent.
Does the Obamacare Deadline Apply to Me?
Amy Payne
March 18, 2014 at 6:30 am
In two weeks, Obamacare’s centerpiece—the individual mandate to purchase government-approved health insurance—kicks in.
Are you “covered,” as the White House keeps asking in its endless advertising? Because if you don’t have health insurance by March 31, you will have to pay a penalty on your income tax form next year.
For 2014, the penalty for not purchasing insurance will be either $95 or 1 percent of your annual income (whichever is greater). But as Heritage expert Alyene Senger explains, “Very few, if any, people will end up paying just $95, because individuals with an annual income of only $9,500 or less would likely qualify for Medicaid or a hardship exemption from the mandate.”
If you don’t make enough income to file a federal tax return, you’re already exempt. Do you think you qualify for a hardship exemption? Check out the application (subject to approval by Health and Human Services) here. For example, did you:
Receive “a shut-off notice from a utility company”?
Recently experience the death of a close family member?
Receive a notice that your health plan was being canceled, and “you consider the other plans available unaffordable”?
At the end of the list, the application form has the catch-all reason “You experienced another hardship in obtaining health insurance.” To prove it? “Please submit documentation if possible.”
Despite all these possible exemptions, The Fiscal Times reports, “A new study by Bankrate.com shows that about one-third of uninsured Americans are going to remain without coverage and opt to pay the penalty.” In fact, more than half of the uninsured are “unaware of the March 31 deadline.”
If you think the penalty is no big deal right now, Heritage’s Senger warns that “The mandate increases drastically in coming years, rising to $325 or 2 percent of income in 2015, and $695 or 2.5 percent of income in 2016—whichever is greater.”
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that from 2015 to 2024, the mandate penalty—which the Supreme Court ruled is essentially a tax—is expected to cost Americans $51 billion.
And that was after President Obama promised not to raise taxes on the middle class.
It’s worth mentioning the official name of this tax—because it just doesn’t get any more Orwellian. Really, it’s the left’s ideal name for all taxes: the “shared responsibility payment.”
Oops Obama: You Might Lose Your Doctor Under Obamacare
9:17 AM, MAR 14, 2014 • BY DANIEL HALPER
You Cant Make this stuff up : President Obama is warning Americans that they might have to change doctors because of Obamacare:
“For the average person, many folks who don’t have health insurance initially, they’re going to have to make some choices. And they might end up having to switch doctors, in part because they’re saving money,” said Obama in an interview with the medical website WebMD.
“But that’s true if your employer suddenly decides we think this network’s going to give a better deal, we think this is going to help keep premiums lower, you’ve got to use this doctor as opposed to that one, this hospital as opposed to that one. The good news is in most states people have more than one option and what they’ll find, I think, is that their doctor or network or hospital that’s conveniently located is probably in one of those networks. Now, you may find out that that network’s more expensive than another network. And then you’ve got to make a choice in terms of what’s right for your family.”
