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The Right Prescription
The Nation Will Reexamine Obamacare
Looking ahead to November 2014.
The weasels who wrote the Obama health law postponed the pain until after the 2012 presidential election. Popular provisions were put into effect immediately, such as allowing children to stay on their parent’s plan until age 26, offering “free” colonoscopies and mammograms (in truth, forcing you to pay for them in your premium, whether you get them or not), and giving women the thrill of getting contraceptives at the drugstore without paying anything. The White House also granted 1,472 waivers to certain companies and unions exempting them from insurance reforms so they would not drop coverage for employees and members before the presidential contest.
Voters saw through these hijinks. Even on election day 2012, a majority favored repealing the health law. But they cared more about other issues or didn’t care for Mitt Romney. The 2012 election was not a referendum on Obamacare.
November 2014 will be different. By then:
People in their twenties and thirties will be clobbered with 100% or higher premium hikes, insurers report. Nineteen percent of the president’s 2012 voters came from this age group.
Workers in retail, hospitality, and home care will lose on-the- job coverage and, in some cases, their full time status, forecasts the ADP Research Institute. The law mandates that employers with 50 or more full- time workers provide an “essential benefit package” that costs about twice what these industries currently offer. Employers will drop coverage. Even the government’s actuaries admit fewer people will get coverage at work after the employer mandate goes into effect than if the law had not passed.
Employers will be struggling to determine what “affordable” means, how to calculate “full time” workforce, and how to pay the $65 fee for each worker and worker’s dependents.
Seniors needing hospital care will be shocked at cutbacks. Section 3000A of the law awards bonus points to the hospitals that spend the least per senior. Hospitals are even whacked for what Medicare patients consume in the 30 days after discharge, including physical therapy.
Hospital patients of all ages will wait longer for a nurse. Cuts to Medicare pay for over half the law, and this will mean $247 billion less for hospitals over the next decade, forcing them to operate under scarcity.
Consumers directed to a state exchange will worry about handing their Social Security number and 15 pages of financial and family information to exchange “assisters,” temporary workers often from community organizations. Civil rights activists in California are resisting background checks for “assisters” because it would disqualify too many minority men with prior convictions.
In politics, twenty months is an eternity. But barring a transformational event, voters will pull the lever against Obamacare in 2014.
The cards are stacked for Republicans winning control of the U.S. Senate and holding their majority in the House of Representatives. Thirty-three Senate seats will be in play. The 13 held by Republicans are considered safe. But most of the seats currently held by Democrats are in swing states or Republican-leaning states, giving the GOP several election opportunities. Republicans need only six wins to gain control of the Senate. By the way, three of those states — Iowa, Virginia, and Arkansas — will be hit with the highest premium increases in the individual market.
History suggests Republicans will have little trouble holding on to their current House majority. Midterm elections generally produce House losses for the president’s party.
With the GOP in charge of both houses after 2014, entitlement reform will be redefined to mean defunding the huge new entitlements in the Affordable Care Act — the Medicaid expansion and the subsidies to health plan buyers in the exchanges. The best way to reform entitlements is not to fund new ones. It’s a lot easier to take away an entitlement no one is accustomed to. Defunding will reduce federal spending by $1.6 trillion through 2020.
GOP governors who recently announced they will expand Medicaid made a bet against defeating Obamacare, They will get clobbered after 2014. They will be stuck with vastly expanded Medicaid enrollments and no way to pay the tab except burdening their own state taxpayers.
It’s not over till it’s over.
About the Author
Betsy McCaughey is a former Lt. Governor of New York and author of Beating Obamacare.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (103) | Leave a comment
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Appleby| 3.21.13 @ 6:31AM
As we say here in Kanukistan, "If you think health care is expensive now, wait until it's Free!"
alice921| 3.21.13 @ 3:47PM
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Podesta| 3.22.13 @ 4:35AM
For the 30-40 million Americans who had no access to health care insurance before the Affordable Care Act passed, it will be a godsend. Only people who have no empathy or concern for their fellow Americans are hysterical about this reform of American healthcare. Betsy McCaughey is one of those people. But, she has been telling the same whoppers for a couple decades. If they were going to influence public policy they already would have.
Suzyqpie| 3.23.13 @ 2:26PM
The poor are the human shields that government uses to grow government. That is what ObamaCareRobertsTax is mostly about, growing government, side feature of "helping" some while harming others in what used to be known as health care which will now be known as navigating a debris field.
Stan Redmond| 3.25.13 @ 4:11PM
Awww. You're so much more caring than everyone who hates this government intrusion and massive power grab.
If the goal was insuring 40 million people why did that require 2700 pages of a law with tens of thousands of pages of new regulations? Heaven forbid a simple law is passed that ends the state monopoly on health insurance and end mandated coverage for stupid things people don't want? What did nationalizing the student loan industry have to do with health insurance? I am tired of being polite to idiots like you. You are either really really stupid or so blind in your worship of Obama the only light you ever see is when someone else in Obama's colon lights up a cigarette.
Von Mises Jr| 3.21.13 @ 7:30AM
As a Constitutional Historian, I would love to see Betsy McCaughey speak to the issue of the CR funding ObamaCare since a) a Budget has not been passed in four years so that a CR funding ObamaCare is a CR for a non-Budget and b) that the original Bill PPACA was passed as a $900B Appropriation and now the GAO scored ObamaCare at $6.2T or seven times the original estimate http://www.moneynews.com/Newsf...../id/492103 and c) that the Supreme Court ruled that States need not fund the Exchanges or Medicaid Expansion that appears not to be an approved Appropriation for the government to spend over $100B per year on these expenditures.
I asked a local Congressman this question and he danced like Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers on crack. I will be hopefully discussing this with another Congressman shortly, but quite frankly I believe Ms. McCaughey to have a better and unbiased opinion.
I heard Betsy speak a couple years ago and she is brilliant. She quoted section and verse from memory in a 45 minute mind dump without a stutter or pause. I told her then and I will say it again: "You're Awesome" Betsy.
Purp| 3.21.13 @ 8:00AM
"unbiased"? LMFAO ... man are you out of touch.
http://gawker.com/5337724/betsy-mccaughey-liar
She's a bald-faced liar. When Death panels and rationing of healthcare didn't work, she goes onto new lies and distortions.
The Supreme Court, the Congress and the President have all approved Obamacare.
It IS the law of the land and that's the end of it. Now, we should work to improve what isn't working and enhance what is for the American people.
No one likes paying taxes, but what you get in return for those taxes or fees matters to people. And Obamacare will be seen as worthwhile. I'd prefer Medicare for All, but this will do for now.
You can't stop it, so join it and make the best of a new healthcare system - the old one is bankrupting us.
Von Mises Jr| 3.21.13 @ 8:09AM
Attention Please: Watch how I ignore Caliban. It is easy. Just use some self-control.
If you ran into "big foot" in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, would you try to teach him calculus? I rest my case.
CJW| 3.21.13 @ 8:18AM
Von
Betsy is brilliant.
Feel free to use the standard reply to purp/arnie.. Saves time, and shows his stupidity.
Von Mises Jr| 3.21.13 @ 8:36AM
I wonder if ObamaCare pays for his butt plugs?
Purp| 3.21.13 @ 9:18AM
As expected, you cannot argue your point ... and so you obfuscate and twirl in circles...
Nevertheless, I won, you lost, eat it.
Jeff R| 3.21.13 @ 9:54AM
"Nevertheless, I won, you lost, eat it."
-- The Wisdom of Purp.
Let's figure out how old you are? Hmm... sixteen, or do you just have an arrested mind?
What a twit.
TLP| 3.21.13 @ 1:30PM
He does like to use LMAO alot.
And, he's Gay, which probably explains his teenage Girl-like giddiness, when making a fool of himself.
TNcracker | 3.21.13 @ 10:10AM
Thanks, VM. Ignore the fool who links to Gawker.
TLP| 3.21.13 @ 1:31PM
You spelled "VW" wrong.
CJW| 3.21.13 @ 8:17AM
Purpie/arnie the Village Idiot posted:
1. "Hurricane Sandy and Chris Christie was the Lord's way of pressing his thumb on the scale to tilt in the direction of President Obama. It was His punishment of Republicans for their lying and trying to cheat (Voter Suppression) their way to political victory, while espousing faith, freedom and constitutional credentials."
2. purpie believes God killed over 100 persons and destroyed millions of dollars of property to help Obama win.
3. In Sept Purpie wrote that Amassador Stevens was at fault and caused his death.
4. Purpie also wrote that the unborn are biological entities not deserving of protection until God allows them to be born.
5. purpie believes that a 20% cut in the tax rate will INCREASE his 0% rate to 8%.
6. purpie also posted one of the female bloggers here should just lay back and enjoy the rape.
He enjoys calling women here "HONEY"
7. purpie is a racist who posted that "You can't even beat a black man....haha," implying blacks are inferior.
Purpie/arnie is a racist and misogynist.
Purp-arnie represents the Loon Left that should be mocked and ridiculed, and not engaged in debate
Stephie| 3.21.13 @ 8:46AM
What about those who DON'T pay taxes Purpie?
I have asked you before and you "dance around the answer like Fred and Ginger".
Purp| 3.21.13 @ 9:21AM
Oh, my dear, if you prefer to have 40% of the country stealing from you, which, if destitute, they surely will ... it's your choice.
Pay them now, or pay them later...
Educate them, train them, provide them good paying jobs and you won't have a problem.
It is a ReichWinger's fallacy that low income people are lazy or stupid.
It's insulting and wrong ... and that's why you will continue to lose.
George S| 3.21.13 @ 10:07AM
Pay them for what?
TLP| 3.21.13 @ 1:36PM
He doesn't understand you.
He wants More Job Training for Jobs that don't exist in Gay Bathhouse Boy's Amerika, anymore.
Maybe they can be trained to Teach Job Training and Writing Unemployment Checks?
JP| 3.21.13 @ 2:11PM
I couldn't understand a single word he wrote. Purp is obviously in a manic state.
Stan Redmond| 3.25.13 @ 4:13PM
"Provide them" "Pay them" Here's an idea. Have them get off their asses and earn something.
loulou| 3.21.13 @ 10:04AM
Stephie, just ignore the loser. He has nothing of value to say. He's just doing his job by taking up space.
CJW| 3.21.13 @ 10:10AM
loulou/Stephie
If you have to reply to purpie/arnie you can use the standard reply I use
TLP| 3.21.13 @ 1:39PM
He's like a Seat Filler for Arnie, until Arnie's finished at his Psychiatrist's Office.
markenoff| 3.21.13 @ 9:32AM
"It IS the law of the land"
The Dred Scott decision and the Fugitive Slave Law were "the law of the land". Plessy vs. Ferguson was "the law of the land". Prohibition was "the law of the land".
TLP| 3.21.13 @ 1:40PM
The Dollar Menu was The Law of the Land.
Now, everything's $1.29.
Whassup wit dat?
Jeff R| 3.21.13 @ 9:52AM
Purp's a troll. Hard to figure that one out.
And listen, ninny, as a public affairs consultant, I've worked extensively on Medicare issues. I've been hired by health care clients to fight Medicare budget cuts and changes in the law that restrict costs for various procedures. Those changes were decided by congressional committees, bureaucrats, and "experts."
If you don't believe that ObamaCare will bring about death panels and rationing you're more than naive, your a fool and a complete shill for the left.
Free market reforms of health care are what's urgently required. More empowerment for consumers, including seniors, is needed, not highly centralized, top-down decision-making from Washington for 300 million plus Americans.
Get a brain and some life experience before you troll on.
Purp| 3.21.13 @ 7:47AM
"Even the government’s actuaries admit fewer people will get coverage at work after the employer mandate goes into effect than if the law had not passed." - If true, the employer will be more competitive, so that's a win - he can hire more people.
" this will mean $247 billion less for hospitals over the next decade, forcing them to operate under scarcity." - not scarcity, more efficiently, and that's what we want... another win!
"History suggests Republicans will have little trouble holding on to their current House majority." - Possibly true, since they "Gerrymandered" the districts in their favor. But this boxes them into Lily White districts with little opportunity for outreach to the "Other" population.
"The best way to reform entitlements is not to fund new ones. " - And, that, this Bimbo states, is the REAL reason she is against Obamacare.
This Skank has been a shill for the Healthcare industry who are more worried about losing profits than helping people, and that's why you lose the argument.
Mike G| 3.21.13 @ 8:21AM
"" this will mean $247 billion less for hospitals over the next decade, forcing them to operate under scarcity." - not scarcity, more efficiently, and that's what we want... another win!"
Wait, that's a win? I'm not disagreeing with you, I'm just wondering...If reducing revenue forces efficiency, why are the Feds crying wolf over the miniscule reductions in increased spending called the Sequester. According to the logic you used here, it should merely force them to be more efficient, but it shouldn't be armageddon.
Purp| 3.21.13 @ 9:37AM
Because Sequester % is not based on the Entire budget, only the 12% of the budget that is discretionary - the rest of the budget is protected from the Sequester.
So, 12% of roughly 3 Trillion is approx 300 billion. Take 85 Billion away, that is 30% or so... Hardly a pittance, is it?
And, the cuts are arbitrary and hurt kindergartners as much as defense contractors...
Dumb, stupid and horrid cuts - all to placate the obstructionist Republican House of Raperesentatives when they wanted to default on our the debt we owe and their threat to ruin the country's full faith and credit. Idiots.
George S| 3.21.13 @ 10:10AM
Schools are locally funded, mostly by property taxes.
16 million unemployed and underemployed people are doing with a lot less than a 30% cut in their income. If they can do it, so can government. (Isn't that the F-A-I-R thing to do?)
Dumb, stupid and horrid cuts. Only to those who vote for a living.
Mike G| 3.21.13 @ 11:27AM
I see what you're saying. So let's both call our elected representatives and tell them we want to see an across the board 30% reduction in ALL the proposed spending increases for the next decade. And we'll till be spending more every year than we did last year.
Mike G| 3.21.13 @ 11:28AM
Typo.
We'll still be spending more than we did last year.
CJW| 3.21.13 @ 8:29AM
"This Bimbo." "This Skank."
Another example of the lefties/purpie's anti-women war, and misogyny. All part of the lefties war on conservative women like Palin, Bachman, Haley, etc.
Gee, I thought these lefties or progressives were respectful towards women, or is it just the Fluke women?
What's wrong purpie, afraid of women?
Stephie| 3.21.13 @ 8:49AM
The left can't stand women and only use them for political gain. Like all minorities with gays being the newest and latest group to be used as pawns. How sad the majority don't see it.
Jeff R| 3.21.13 @ 10:01AM
Yeah, government does so much so well right now. A $16 trillion debt and counting (oh, gosh, that's Bush's fault). The Post Office drowning in red ink (oh, yeah, Bush's fault, too).
Ever visit a VA and see the quality of care there? Ever have a parent or grandparent on basic Medicare receiving take-a-ticket and wait your turn medical care?
Ever walk the halls of of some of the departments in Washington and see lazy arse bureaucrats loafing about, and acting as if they're making some sort of sacrifice being there?
Ever deal with a federal agency over anything?
You little parrot.
George S| 3.21.13 @ 10:03AM
If $247 billion can be cut from Medicare to make it more efficient under ObamaCare then we have been overspending on Medicare by $494 billion. ObamaCare doubles the number of people on Medicare. Twice as many people for $247 billion less...
... please explain why we do not have a spending problem?
TLP| 3.21.13 @ 1:45PM
We don't have a Spending Problem.
We have a problem Paying for everything we've Spent On.
There's a Huge Difference.
Right, Poop?
Jeff R| 3.21.13 @ 10:09AM
"This Skank has been a shill for the Healthcare industry who are more worried about losing profits than helping people, and that's why you lose the argument."
Purp is just oozing compassion. Cry me a river, you know-nothing.
You honestly think that the politicians, bureaucrats and the special interests that are in with and will develop around ObamaCare are Mother Teresas?
You don't think that your compassionate politicians care nothing about their bank accounts, power, privileges, and influence in the whole ObamaCare health care grab?
You the Bubble Boy or something, Purp? Or just bubble-headed?
TLP| 3.21.13 @ 1:47PM
Actually, he's a Bobblehead Doll.
You just need to pull your pants down, first.
JP| 3.21.13 @ 2:14PM
The CBO calculated that in 2013 alone 7 million families will lose their employer provided health insurance. The HHS website last month admitted that not everyone who lose thier employer provided insurance will "qaulify" for the ObamaCare health exchanges (no ObamaCareBucks for those fools!). In other words, every single polticians who supported and or voted for ObamaCare lied to the voters. It's worse than anyone thinks.
Stan Redmond| 3.25.13 @ 4:17PM
UN-FRICKIN-REAL!!!
Pecos Pete| 3.21.13 @ 7:48AM
In addition to the bureaucratic mess of KingOcare, add the computer requirements which can not be met with adequate security. And that assumes the database connectivity of the various agencies can even be implemented. The hackers are already licking their chops as they foresee disclosure of private medical and financial information of millions of citizens. They'll first be looking for information about celebrities, then they'll come for you.
And then there is the simple fact that many people won't be able to use a computer. Thus arises a new class of government leach: The KingOcare consultant who will help citizens fill out forms, apply for "free" medical care, enroll in the correct insurance plan ... of course these leaches will be paid by the Fecal Government because the needy won't be able to pay them.
KingOcare is going to be filled with pain. Especially for those people who are expecting free medical care.
Gary B| 3.21.13 @ 7:56AM
All brought to us by the careful consideration of Justice Roberts.
Stephie| 3.21.13 @ 8:49AM
Turncoat bastard.
TLP| 3.21.13 @ 1:50PM
Roberts is the Senator in the Godfather II, who gets caught in the Whorehouse with a Dead Hooker.
Period.
They had something on him.
That's the Chicago Way.
Of that, I am Certain.
Gary B| 3.21.13 @ 7:53AM
"The cards are stacked for Republicans winning control of the U.S. Senate and holding their majority in the House of Representatives."
Not to worry... the Republicans will work day and night to snatch defeat from the jaws of vistory, regardless of how the cards are stacked. As part of the ruling class, their role has been to trick voters into thinking we actually have a two-party system.
By the way, how's Issa's investigation into Fast and Furious coming along? Just curious...
Also, aren't you so glad to know Boehner completely trusts Obama?
As a smart poster here said, "What we need is a second party."
Mike G| 3.21.13 @ 8:22AM
I was thinking the same thing.
SUBVET| 3.21.13 @ 10:13AM
Ya I agree with you on the second party but Rove said it will only make the dem's stronger and split the GOP.
and we should believe rove....right
Gary B| 3.21.13 @ 10:32PM
Here's the problem with Rove. He's a ruling class mole. His job is to turn conservatives into useful idiots. To suck money out of them to finance the election of RINOs. With the likes of Paul, Cruz, Rubio, et al, maybe it's changing. Naaaaaaa... they'll get co-opted one way or another. DC is hopeless. Hope.... Less. No hope. Zip. Zero. Nada.
Denver Todd| 3.21.13 @ 8:40AM
Another rude awakening that will come is the true cost of medical care, even when a person has insurance. There is that little thing called the deductible that can set you back thousands before insurance kicks in, and even then you cost-share until you hit your out of pocket for the year, and then it all starts over in the new year. I foresee a situation where the bottom line of healthcare is so expensive that you can't really buy any of it anywhere. And what do you call a mandate to buy something that you can't use? I call it a tax increase.
Before Obamacare was passed, the people who were using emergency rooms because they didn't have insurance, these people were used as the point of compassion by the likes of Pelosi. Then after the passage of Obamacare Pelosi turns on them and says they are freeloaders who must be forced into the insurance market. What is the chance that this group of people will pay their bills once they have that insurance card in their pocket?
bustunloose| 3.21.13 @ 9:01AM
My wife is a nurse in Boston and forced into a union. Short hand, the older nurses with strong contracts are being asked to go. The new nurses will be paid less and lower benefits. And, some how make a life in the ever more expensive greater Boston area. Maternity leave length is to be cut back, holiday pay, pension contributions. The list is long and being an RN is more demanding than ever. One union leader is the typical pasty faced fat Itish broad with a constant scowl. Comes from a union family. My wife and her friends for years have paid no attention to what these menacing operatives have been doing to them. At a social event a year or two back I confronted this union leader saying her union was not a union but a politcal machine for the democrats.
this got me a look of pure hatred from her and a few other union leaders. The hospital is explaining they are forced to cut. They project a 10 year deficeit that must be closed. I point out that the gap is less than half of what obama blew on Solyndra. The union of course endorsed Liz Warren-I asked them if Liz is fighting for you. They sort of get it now. These are educated smart Mass. women-but they have been duped and brainwashed their entire lives. The farce union is always looking for more and more staffing for the various hospitals-always the democrats pols stand with them in one photo op after another-but now all is being cut. How much longer can this farce go.
SUBVET| 3.21.13 @ 10:18AM
I hear the SEIU is supplying Latino's for the jobs.......you know the one's the white folk won't do.
Nursing school............sh*t !
Stephie| 3.21.13 @ 12:44PM
I have heard from a sister in law who is an RN in the Annapolis area that we will many "nurses" from Jamaica and they will be LPNs not RNs.
So guys, get ready to have your backside wiped by a 275lb uneducated gal who will work for 25,000 a year and be damned happy of it.
Kwan| 3.21.13 @ 9:20AM
Prophet and space cadet Nancy Pelosi already informed us that we wouldn't know what was in ObamaCare until we passed it. What a way to run a government. Is this why Homeland Security is preparing for WWIII with all these purchases of ammunition and armored vehicles, so as to provide Homeland Security Einsatzgruppen Forces the necessary firepower to mow down ObamaCare rioters? And is Homeland Security actually just a cover name for Obama's Civilian National Security Force?
markenoff| 3.21.13 @ 10:03AM
And the DREAM Act is just a way to provide a pool of recruits for Obama's Civilian National Security Force who won't hesitate to fire on old Anglos. Or young blacks for that matter.
squalis| 3.21.13 @ 9:47AM
Sadly, I am not buying into any optimism for Nov. 2014. Heard it all before for Nov. 2012. Any perceived issues w/ health care, premiums, gas prices going up, temperatures in the 80's in July, and even fleas on dogs, will be laid at the feet of evil corporations, republicans and conservatives by the most ignorant mass of voters this country has had in its history, when the time comes.
Gary B| 3.21.13 @ 10:38PM
But, as Rove would have it, we can fix it all with one more lesser-of-evils RINO. Aren't they shoving Jeb Bush out on the stage to be the stooge this time around? Lucy and the football every single stinking time.
Stan Redmond| 3.25.13 @ 4:29PM
You forgot the sequester and Bush's fault.
sickofit5| 3.21.13 @ 10:57AM
You have to admit that Pelosi didn't lie. Wouldn't be nice if all laws could be passed the same way. Just vote on the name of the bill and what department that will run it and then after it's passed we will learn what is in the bill. What a mess. Anyone with half a brain, this includes you Purp, can see that the reason the dems don't want to do anything to SS and Medicare is because Sec. 3000a will take care of them for us. That said, Purp, you are clueless. An idiot on the verge of becoming an imbecile yet I will say that you will get your wish of everyone being on medicare. What that will mean is that we will all have equally bad care so I guess that will be fair. My problem with that is the guy that slings dope on the corner and pays nothing will be standing in line to see the same doctor, if he is still practicing, that I have been seeing for the last ten years. Go figure.
Who Knows?| 3.21.13 @ 11:20AM
“Since medical doctors won’t stop their indiscriminant usage of antibiotics, C-diff infections are on the rise. But don’t worry; medical doctors think they have the answer.
They are now taking fecal matter out of supposedly healthy Americans and TRANSPLANTING it into people with C-diff infections. I kid you not!”
Dr. Richard Schulze
Why wait till 2014, people?
Once again into the breach!
There is health, there is health CARE, and there is health care INSURANCE. East is east and west is west, and never shall the twain meet?
It’s the HEALTH, stupid! And, WHO does “health” apply to? You, and you, and you, and---human beings.
Why, an amoeba doesn’t need insurance, and a doctor to care for it---it LIVES or dies, in the health that logically follows from “eating” the appropriate stuff.
All the current concern with Obamacare, indeed all health care insurance, is proof positive that ignorance reigns supreme across the land.
The majority of Americans are sick. That is, compared to the super health they COULD be enjoying, which right diet would lawfully bring, you could say there is a bad-diet epidemic taking place.
It should be all about killing the disease, NOT the symptoms. Obamacare et al are the symptoms!
The disease is in eye-popping view, whenever in public. One obese person at a time, it is seen---so gross!
Who Knows?| 3.21.13 @ 11:21AM
So, yeah, let’s worry about the third order “problem”, the INSURANCE, and maybe, when we get around to it, we’ll closely inspect the second order “problem”, the CARE.
But, by all means, avert your eyes from the lack of actual HEALTH, of each individual person.
It’s cool, though.
Choice is still THE happening.
That is, just like an amoeba transforms its neighborhood into itself, and is successful in doing so, these days humans are unable to escape the laws of physics, and they are also “successful” in bringing about their rearrangement of chemical elements.
It is Absolutely NO accident that anyone’s health is in the state it presently is. Given what has been eaten, how could it be otherwise?
You walk in front of a bus, you get blasted.
You eat crap, you become crap.
What a success!
You’re a winner!
markenoff| 3.21.13 @ 11:39AM
Everyone will have health insurance. The challenge will be getting medical care.
markenoff| 3.21.13 @ 1:25PM
Here is how government health care works: I am on active duty with the Army. Started having some back pain in my lower right back about mid-January. Where I am stationed we are an adjunct to a major Army base so even though there is an Army Troop Medical Clinic (TMC) within 1000 yards of where the office I work in every day is I am assigned to a TMC on main post a 40 minute drive away. When stretching and other tactics did not dissipate the pain I called to make an appointment with my Primary Care Manager (PCM). First available appointment was in three weeks. Back kept hurting and my boss recommended I see a chiropractor. There is a civilian one he had used in the past here in the small town near our portion of the base so I called and was able to get an appointment for the next morning. Went in and the chiro had me move in different ways, diagnosed the issue, worked my back over for about a half hour, I got up feeling better than I had in weeks, paid him $45 (cash) made an appointment for the next Monday, went back on Monday, he worked me over for about 45 minutes, I got up feeling even better than after the last treatment, I paid him $35 cash and was on my way. This is still 11 days before my Army PCM can see me.
markenoff| 3.21.13 @ 1:26PM
Back was OK for the next 11 days, I kept my appointment with my PCM (even though I had to wait over an hour after my appointment time before I could actually see her). Explained the situation to her, she had me move much the same way the chiro had, asked me if I wanted muscle relaxers (turned them down) and entered a referral into the computer for me to see the Army chiro. Told me I should be able to call in 3 days and make the appointment.
markenoff| 3.21.13 @ 1:27PM
My back was feeling OK and I left on TDY for 3 weeks. During that time a few twinges in my back but no major issues. Returned and called to make my appointment with the Army chiro. Found out from the chiro clinic that the referral had been sent back because the chiro wanted my PCM to have X-rays taken of my back. Nobody had called to tell me that. Was told I could walk into the radiology clinic and get them taken. Well two days later I was supposed to drive the 40 minutes to main post for another meeting so I figured I would get the X-rays taken them. Over the next two days for some reason my back got worse. On the appointed day I could barely get out of bed.
markenoff| 3.21.13 @ 1:27PM
Once I was out I could move OK but any time I sat for a while it was a struggle to get back up. So I got in my car and drove the 40 minutes to the radiology clinic. Was told there that no order for X-rays on my back was put in. Called the chiro clinic. They told me my PCM had to order the X-rays. Walked over to the desk where the clerk for my PCM was and explained the situation. She called out the PCM’s nurse who said the PCM was running behind (this is at 0830) and that I should come back in about 40 minutes and she would have the order ready. When and ran the other errands I needed to do on main post and came back in about 80 minutes. Asked the clerk about the order for my X-rays. She checked the computer and no order had been issued. She went ahead and entered all the data in the computer, told me all she needed now was the signature of the PCM, she confirmed my phone number and told me she would call me when the order was signed. I went to get a haircut.
markenoff| 3.21.13 @ 1:28PM
After my haircut I went to lunch. Still no call. Ran another errand to coordinate a meeting for my boss. Still no call. Went back to the clinic. Same clerk looked at me with a puzzled look. “Nobody called you?” she said. She checked the computer. PCM had still not signed order for X-rays. I waited. And waited. And waited some more. Finally about an hour later the order was ready. Keep in mind that every time I get up and down out of my chair they are seeing me struggle and in pain because my back is really hurting at this point. Walk over to radiology and sit down. Tech calls my last 4 numbers of my social, I follow her, strip down to skivvies and put on gown. She leads me to the table I painfully get up on it, she takes an X-ray, I painfully turn on my side and she takes another one. I, obviously in pain, get up off the table, change back into uniform and walk out to the lobby.
markenoff| 3.21.13 @ 1:28PM
Call the chiro clinic to see how soon I can get an appointment. Find out that my PCM has to review the X-rays and make a new referral before I can see the chiro. Go back over to the clerk for my PCM. Get an appointment for 8 days later, earliest one is available. Still in obvious pain but no one ever says, “Why don’t you wait and we’ll get a Dr. to see you.”
markenoff| 3.21.13 @ 1:28PM
The next day I wake up in even greater pain. While putting on my boots I feel excruciating pain and my whole right side goes numb. I called to my wife and tell her I need a ride to the TMC. She dresses, dresses our daughter, helps me to the truck and we drive to the TMC by my office. They refuse to let me see a Dr. there and direct me to my “assigned” TMC 40 minutes away. So I have my wife drive me to the chiro here. Wait for him to get their (0730, he opens at 0800) explain the problem to him, he diagnoses pinched nerve, works me over for about 45 minutes, I pay him $35 and I’m on my way. I go to work and by the afternoon I’m able to ride my bike 6 miles. I am still an appointment with my PCM (which is a week away) and who knows how long before I can see an Army chiro. If I had not spent my own money I would have been laid up in bed at least a day, maybe longer. I will go back to the civilian chiro again tomorrow. So I have spent $115 of my own money and will spend more to get treatment that I should be getting based on the health insurance I have as an active duty member of the US Army. This is what everyone will have to look forward to; having health insurance but not being able to get medical care with it. I just hope the government still allows medical practitioners to take cash.
Pecos Pete| 3.21.13 @ 2:14PM
Mark, but but but but but, you've got insurance!
Thanks for telling your horror tale. I expect your experience to be duplicated multi-million times over.
mike 3/505| 3.21.13 @ 3:07PM
It's going to get worse...because military TRICARE reimburses at the same rate as Medicare. Bottom line, folks who have paid for their medical insurance, either through Medicare payments all of their working lives, or via military service for TRICARE, are receiving a reduced level of service, in order to fund freeloaders. This may sound harsh...but people who do not pay for health care, are NOT entitled to the same level of care as those who do. You don't get to drink champaign if you are on a beer budget.
Kingofthenet| 3.21.13 @ 3:24PM
No you funding freeloaders NOW, they will pay with Obamacare, that's the whole idea of the thing.
mike 3/505| 3.21.13 @ 4:04PM
The ones who were previously "freeloading" will NOT be paying...they are the ones being put onto the expanded medicaid rolls....which cost is going to be paid for by those of us who pay taxes (higher taxes), who already have insurance (higher premiums) and reduced access, because of all the charity cases now being given "access" via the public treasury. I really get tired of explaining simple math to Liberals.
I also get tired of explaining that healthcare is not a "right." It's a business, like any other. Like any other business, the more government interference, the more costly, less efficient and less effective it becomes. Get this through your head...no matter what your personal circumstance, you have no, repeat absolutely no right to take money from me...even if you manage to con a group of politicians to make it "legal."
TLP| 3.21.13 @ 1:56PM
So much for Brevity.
mike 3/505| 3.21.13 @ 2:58PM
Tim,
That was a good post by markenoff. sometimes you gotta go around the rosy to properly explain the point. If you you limit the supply of a scarce resource (doctors) and add to the demand (more people on freecare/obamacare) then the folks who are actually paying for the service get shafted by longer wait times. President Obama is already trying to means test TRICARE for retirees....essentially he is comparing a deferred payment for service (TRICARE), to charity ...Medicaid/Obamacare.
TLP| 3.21.13 @ 4:57PM
Who's markenoff?
Is he the guy that WASN'T at The Contest, last week?
I mean.........besides you.
mike 3/505| 3.21.13 @ 5:05PM
Poopyhead! Contact me offline & I'll give you the update///Two, count 'em TWO great pieces of news yesterday. :-)
Mike
JP| 3.21.13 @ 2:08PM
"The weasels who wrote the Obama health law postponed the pain until after the 2012 presidential election."
And they will do so, again. Obama will sign more Executive Orders putting off the most orneorous sections of the bill until the Nov 2014 Midterms are complete.
Kingofthenet| 3.21.13 @ 3:17PM
So the Republican plan is repeal ACA and do nothing? Where is THEIR plan?
mike 3/505| 3.21.13 @ 4:13PM
I don't know about the Republican plan, but the Conservative plan is to get the federal government totally out of it...except for enforcing contracts across state lines (one of it's constitutional functions).
Let the market work. The market will provide more and better care with increased access and lower cost. Go google LASIK and get back to me.
Thom| 3.21.13 @ 8:07PM
“Insurance - an ingenious modern game of chance in which the player is permitted to enjoy the comfortable conviction that he is beating the man who keeps the table.
Ambrose Bierce “
Because most Americans are “comfortable” with the illusion that that health care is a right they are entitled to without regard to what it actually cost they buy into the game Ambrose speaks to above. Like every commodity government subsidizes, the artificial demand the subsidy produces bids up prices beyond what the market can bear and eventually the Ponzi scheme collapses upon itself in time. The first generation Ponzi benefactors always make out like a bandit because the actual cost of their benefit is always back loaded on future generations. Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are three such Ponzi schemes.
Thom| 3.21.13 @ 8:08PM
Over a 40 year working life my inflation adjusted health care premium cost is around $175,000. My actual health care cost is around $18,000. That includes three trips to the hospital and one to the emergency room. 40 hours in the emergency room/hospital recently undergoing tests cost $7000 when all was said and done (discounts) and $2000 of that was out of my pocket directly. I saw seven different doctors, more nurses and technicians than that in those 40 hours. Haven worked for that Hospital System I happen to know something about it cost structure and where its profits and losses are. A universal truth about our Health Care system is that it is labor intensive and every dime of cost is related to someone’s labor cost.
Hearing people complain about the medical cost of older people, the cost spike in their last 6 months of life is like listening to a professional athlete complain about sweating when they perform with one important difference. The athlete can chose to not perform while none of us can chose to not get old. We have our entire life to prepare for what we know will come. Had my health “insurance” actually worked as insurance rather than pre-paid annual medical benefits for many the money spent on my “premiums” over my 40 year working life to date would be worth several times what the average life time medical cost is. Several times.
Thom| 3.21.13 @ 8:10PM
Therein lies the trap of “insurance” or government subsidized life. Once everyone gets on board with getting the “free” stuff the subsidy effect fades away and the premium cost shared across the population as a whole becomes the actual cost. That’s where we are today with Health “insurance” and adding tens of millions of new “free” or subsidized benefactors will only raise the “premium” cost beyond the reach of even more. Free for many becomes unaffordable for most in time. My employer reported to the IRS that the cost of my plan was about $4300 a year. Of that I pay $1300 of that cost. Someone making 1/3rd what I do with the same plan as I do will report that same figure but pay significantly less because my company practices Marx and subsidizes their premium cost by charging me more for the same insurance. Eventually the illusion or good deal gives way to reality. Naturally the guy making 1/3rd what I do doesn’t want to pay the same premium I do for the same product. It’s only fair I hear.
Look at anything government subsidizes Health care, education, housing, food, etc. and once it does the demand for services and goods goes up and up and up till the subsidized cost is unaffordable for most. Basis supply and demand at work there but not one a Free Market regulates
Thom| 3.21.13 @ 8:11PM
The solution for all these run away subsidized government programs is the same but the political reality is the same as saying to end our drug problem we just prevent the making/importation of drugs. Once people are addicted to other people’s money you have the same situation you have with drug addicts. The withdrawal pain is severe and politicians will be blamed at the ballot box for withdrawing their “drug” of choice.
Using the public treasury as a slush fund to buy votes has brought down every major civilized society from the past that embraced “democracy”. Numerous “democracies” today are under siege by massive debt from promises to pay for some what others have to pay for. It all comes back to what Ambrose said above. Regardless of what you call it, it is an illusion when you promise to lower someone’s cost by stealing from someone else. The math eventually catches up to the Ponzi. King Obamacare is just the latest Ponzi scheme being added to several others that the clock is running out on. I put about as much faith in political predictions as the Global Warming predictions but the Math will catch up at some point and my generation will guarantee it happens within 20 years. Bank on it.
mike 3/505| 3.21.13 @ 8:21PM
All I can say is "+1"
Pecos Pete| 3.21.13 @ 8:25PM
Scotch time for you. Vodka for me.
mike 3/505| 3.21.13 @ 9:22PM
No Matter...Scotch...Vodka...or 3.2 Beer...we are still foxhole buddies.
Pecos Pete| 3.21.13 @ 8:25PM
Agreed!
Vance P. Frickey| 3.21.13 @ 9:30PM
You guys missed ONE thing. It's a big one. COMPANIES won't be paying that $65 Obamacare fee. EMPLOYEES will. That's $65 for EVERY employee and EACH of his or her dependents. The "typical" four-member family will pay $260 a month MORE under the "Affordable Medical Care Act" than in the bad old days before Bush kept the government's greedy mitts off of health care.
Podesta| 3.22.13 @ 4:38AM
The fine for not participating only applies to individuals who refuse to purchase subsidized health care plans at an insurance exchange. It has nothing to do with employers or the already insured.
Vance P. Frickey| 3.22.13 @ 6:41AM
Podesta, why is the government penalizing families who don't want to leave the provider they've been dealing with, whom their employer has already contracted to provide them health care, for not signing on to an exchange.
You're lying through your teeth when you say "It has nothing to do with employers or the already insured." One of my best friends is already insured, has been with this company for years, and is being hit with the surcharge. So one of her colleagues at work, who has three kids, same deal, he's already insured, too.
But thanks for confirming that you are a shill for Barack Obama, and a lying one, too.
Rhoetus| 3.21.13 @ 11:31PM
You were warned about socialized medicine by Reagan and many others for the past 80 years. Progressives are subversives that want to turn the US government into the USSR. We need to purge any Republican that is on board with the Progressive [sic] movement: McCain, Graham and anyone else.
Podesta| 3.22.13 @ 4:29AM
The American Spectator is likely one of the few places that will still publish anything written by McCaughey. She has had a reputation equivalent to Michele Bachmann's for at least two decades. That is because she doesn't just lie. She tells whoppers. For example:
•Medicaid expansion will be paid 100% by the federal government for four years and 90% afterward.
•Savings were taken from Medicare Advantage, 'private' programs that costsmore than they should and payment to providers. Recipients of care do not pay more.
•There's no plot for "minorities" to steal enrollees data. (The racist claim should tell anyone not a fellow traveler what kind of person McCaughey is.)
She surely made the same sort of predictions before the 2012 election. President Obama won decisively, and Democrats gained seats in the Senate and the House. That is not a repudiation of the party or 'Obamacare.'
Vance P. Frickey| 3.22.13 @ 6:43AM
Know what? You just showed us all what a lying dog you are. Given the choice of believing McCaughey or you, yeah, I'd believe her on Obamacare before I took your work the sun was up.
Thom| 3.22.13 @ 6:12PM
Comrade Podesta,
In the real world someone is going to pay for upwards of 30,000,000 free and subsidized medical insurance plans that aren’t now being paid for. There is only one taxpayer and a majority of those that don’t have insurance plans today don’t because they don’t work regularly and pay the taxes that are going to be used to help cover the cost of their free and subsidized plans. The Feds, State and Local governments don’t pay a dime of this cost but the Feds are the one’s promising to pay for the bulk of the cost up front. Who is spending 40% more than in 2008 and borrowing 35 cents on the dollar spent?
If millions are buying something like Medicare Advantage and you cut the subsidy of that service the recipient will either pay more to keep that service or do without out. Either way it is going to cost them more. They will indeed pay more since the whole reason for the program is to cover what Medicare does not. Why else would people on Medicare pay for something they don’t need?
Thom| 3.22.13 @ 6:13PM
Your whole Marxist argument is based upon the false premise that everyone is entitled to what others can buy just because others can. Your beliefs make slaves of others. That is not something you will find coming out of Christ’s teachings so please stop calling this a “god send”. As I said, someone is going to pay for what is a pre-paid medical plan and then wait to see who pays for the increased medical cost that brings across the board for those that actually pay the cost of all this free and subsidized insurance.
Podesta| 3.22.13 @ 7:05PM
Delusional responses notwithstanding, there is NO tax or fee for anyone other than people who lack insurance and refuse to buy a subsidized plan through a health exchange. Claims that people who are already insured have to pay a tax or fee are baying at the moon crazy. The point of the charge is to incentivize people with no health care insurance to buy some.
Nor is the Affordable Care Act, to be administered by the private sector, Marxism. In fact, nothing administered by the private sector is socialism.
Stan Redmond| 3.25.13 @ 4:43PM
UH REALLY??? Medical device TAX. Tanning bed TAX. $63 Obamacare FEE. Capital gains and surTAX on investment income dividends. Medicare Payroll TAX increase. Health insurer TAX (oh right they won't raise costs to cover this tax). On and on and on.
YOU Sir, are a flaming idiot. No wonder Obama is president. He is the pied piper of morons and willfully ignorant fools and you're marching in lock step right behind him.
And this ballooning cost projection that keeps going up and up and up? Who's paying for that? Corporate jet owners?
Suzyqpie| 3.23.13 @ 2:16PM
The poor are the human shields that Government uses to grow government. I read an article about a guy in Knoxville,TN age 30ish who has 30 kids by 11 women. Genatalia ATM is a very lucrative gig. Until we can halt that chavalier behavior, the middle class will continue to lose ground. ObamaCareRobertsTax has grown into 20,000 pages. Shame really that, in the name of helping the poor WDC grows the bureaucracy which benefits WDC.
Ron Ackenberry| 3.24.13 @ 1:24AM
Medicare4All is what WE need.
I came here to find concrete examples of Obamacare weaknesses.
Instead, both the article and comments are a bunch of scatterbrained nonsense.
So this navel fuzz is the best conservatives have to counter OC?
Medicare4All...with BETTER benefits than now. Drive private insurers to the niche markets. Penalize EMPLOYERS who won't cooperate.
Use the government club to beat down pricing by hospitals, doctors and pharma.
But, OK.
What is the so-call conservative plan to replace OC?
(Visualization: A blizzard of lint fuzzies ensues swirling towards a giant belly button.)
Stan Redmond| 3.25.13 @ 4:48PM
Is this sarcasm? If so, it's pretty good. If not, you are a frightening soul. It is astonishing how much power you want the government to wield over you.