First wave of Obamacare destroys single practice doctors

[Casino67]

Examiner

 

Perhaps nothing is any more deeply embedded into the American experience and the collective unconscious than the single-practice family doctor. But now, due to the provisions of Obamacare, or the so-called Affordable Care Act, the single-practice doctor is quickly becoming obsolete.

 

A three-page report at U-T San Diego indicates that Obamacare is destroying single practice doctors. These physicians are being driven out of medicine directly due to unreasonable records requirements and lower reimbursement rates from the Medicare and Medicaid programs, all of which are mandated by the Affordable Care Act.

 

The fact that Obamacare is dealing a death blow to doctors should come as no surprise to anyone. Conservatives and rational-minded moderates have screamed from the beginning that one of the ways the program will destroy the American system of healthcare is by driving doctors out of medicine. The American people were warned. Yet they sent many of the very same politicians who support medical practice homicide right back into office. Obama was reelected as well.

 

In 2009 I was invited to be one of the speakers at a doctors' tea party gathering in Raleigh, N.C. The physicians who spoke painted a doomsday scenario in which America would would plummet to the equivalent of a third-world healthcare system. They stated that no competent physician could operate under the conditions and terms mandated by Obamacare and that most of them would either leave medicine altogether, or if they were old enough, retire early.

 

[righteousmomma]

Casino, true about all that was in the article. I got so side tracked though reading about the "Human Barbie" that is at the bottom of the article. Speaking of needing a Dr. - preferably a Shrink ! WOW! She does look like a plastic Barbie.

“Space Barbie.” The Real live Barbie Valeria Lukyanova has taken the internet and Youtube by storm for being able to transform herself into the American famous toy. She is unapologetically all girl and not just another pretty face. “I like everything beautiful, feminine and refined, and it just do happens that is what dolls are based on,” says Lukyanova.

 

http://www.examiner.com/article/human-barbie-doll-subject-of-new-documentary?cid=taboola_inbound

[Valin]

Ellison Barber: Obamacare Still Unpopular in Latest Polling
Washington Free Beacon Staff
April 29, 2014

 

A new poll found that 46 percent of Americans have an unfavorable view of Obamacare, while only 38 percent favor it.

 

The result comes as a shock to those anticipating a higher approval number, Barber explained. She said, “If there is a time where the approval of the Affordable Care Act should be high, it seems like it should be right now.”

 

“Obamacare has not been popular for the past four years, so while it is hard to predict if it will be a success, it’s poor track record maybe a decent indicator,” Barber told Scott.

 

(Snip)

 

[Valin]

New Obamacare Thread

 

Old Thread

[Valin]

A Doctor's Declaration of Independence

It's time to defy health-care mandates issued by bureaucrats not in the healing profession.

Daniel F. Craviotto Jr.

April 28, 2014

 

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?

 

(Snip)

[Valin]

Uh oh: House committee claims only two-thirds of federal ObamaCare enrollees paid first premium by April 15
Allahpundit
April 30, 2014

And you know what that means: No money, no coverage, which means the widely touted figure of eight million enrollments that Barack “Mission Accomplished” Obama’s been pushing lately is flatly bogus. Anyone who hasn’t paid by the end of the grace period offered by their insurer — and some of those grace periods were undoubtedly extended beyond April 15th, the cut-off date for this analysis — will be tossed from the rolls.

The figure that’s been cited for months on payment rates is 80 percent. The Energy and Commerce Committee claims it’s actually significantly lower, at least when it comes to enrollees on the federal exchange, i.e. Healthcare.gov. As you read, focus on the following question. Why couldn’t HHS have calculated this?

(Snip)

One big caveat here: Because they’re only looking at states that use the federal exchange, they’re missing the numbers from states that run their own exchanges — which include hugely populous behemoths like California and New York. If those states are seeing higher rates of payment, for whatever reason, then the payment rate nationally is actually higher than this. We’ll need to wait and see. If the payment rate in those states isn’t higher then the number of true, paid enrollments nationally is something on the order of 5.36 million, more than two and a half million less than the number Obama’s been waving around. As for the age breakdown among those who paid:

(Snip)

Update: Pretty much, yeah.

WH won’t release enrollment data, tells GOP to ask insurers. GOP asks insurers, WH disputes data. GOP asks WH for data, WH won’t release.

— Andrew Stiles (@AndrewStilesUSA) April 30, 2014

[Valin]

The Coming Two-Tier Health System

ObamaCare is already creating one class of care for the poor and middle class and another for the affluent.

Scott W. Atlas

April 30, 2014

 

With the unveiling of the Affordable Care Act's website, the public experienced a painful reminder of the consequences of the government's new authority over health care. While millions signed up for insurance, millions of others abruptly lost their existing coverage and access to their doctors because that coverage didn't fit new ObamaCare definitions.

 

The health-care law was generated by an administration promoting government as the solution to inequality, yet the greatest irony of ObamaCare is what will undoubtedly follow as a long-term, unintended consequence of the law: a decidedly unequal, two-tiered health system. One will be for the poor and middle class, and a separate system will be for those with the money or power to circumvent ObamaCare.

 

With the Affordable Care Act, the government has dramatically expanded its authority as final arbiter over health insurance and consequently over access to medical care. After the law's Medicaid expansion and with the population aging into Medicare eligibility, the 107 million under Medicaid or Medicare in 2013 will skyrocket to 135 million five years later, growing far faster than the ranks of the privately insured.

 

(Snip)

[Valin]

Health Spending Hits All-Time High
May 1 2014

 

It’s official: we are now spending more on health care than ever before. Not too long ago liberal wonks were touting the role the ACA was playing in a health care spending slowdown. Matt Yglesias, for instance, argued that the ACA was bending the cost curve downward. But a new government report shows health care spending rising to unprecedented levels in Q1. The slowdown is over. Business Insider has the basic facts:

 

(Snip)

 

The reactions to this news have been mixed. Some have claimed it at as a sign that the the ACA is working, because the newly insured can finally access care and are making up for lost time. Others predict that the spike is only temporary. Obamacare supporter Jonathan Cohn makes that case here with characteristic lucidity. The theory is that expanding insurance will release a lot of pent-up demand which will quickly subside. There are a lot of assumptions embedded in that prediction. Cohn, for example, links to an old Ezra Klein piece on this spike, which contains this line “in other words, 2014 is a one-time increase in spending level as we get 30 million new people covered.” Of course, only 8 million have been insured so far (and only a subset of that 8 were previously uninsured). If the administration is still aiming for 30 million over the next few years, the spike may last more than one year. And there’s good evidence that a more widely insured population has a general, lasting inflationary effect on spending.

 

Whether the spike is temporary, medium-term, or here to stay, claims that the ACA was already bending the cost curve down were misleading. The ACA was about expanding access and very little else; the more often its supporters claim more for it than that, the more likely the facts are to show them up.

[Valin]

What weve got here

Scott Johnson

5/5/14

 

John McCormack highlights this paragraph from the latest USA Today/Pew poll of registered voters:

 

 

 

Views of ACA Little Changed. As other recent national polls have shown, including the April health care tracking survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation, the recent surge in signups for the new health care exchanges has had little impact on public opinion about the Affordable Care Act. In fact, the share disapproving of the law (55%) is as high as it ever has been in the four-year history of the law. Just 41% approve of the 2010 health care law.

The USA Today/Pew poll reflects the views of registered voters. Sentiment among likely voters would probably be even grimmer for Democrats than this summary summary provided by McCormack:

 

Back in October, before the national health care law was implemented and during the government shutdown, Pew found that Democrats held a big 6-point lead on the generic congressional ballot (49 percent to 43 percent). Republicans now have a strong 4-point lead over Democrats on the generic ballot (47 percent to 43 percent)the best the GOP has performed in 20 years at this point in an election cycle in a Pew surge

(Snip)

 

 

[Valin]

Another Obamacare Exchange Bites the Dust
Patrick Brennan
May 5, 2014

Massachusetts, cradle of Obamacare (and liberty), is shutting down its state-run health-insurance exchange, the second state to do so. Oregon dropped its state exchange, which never enrolled a single person electronically, a couple weeks ago, and decided to use the federal one, HealthCare.gov. Massachusetts is planning to use an off-the-shelf product that other states have used, but is considering the federal exchange if it fails.

 

Only 16 states tried to launch Obamacare on exchanges that they built, so two complete failures is nothing to scoff at — nor is the hundreds of millions of dollars states spent in their own money and federal grants to set them all up. (Oregon’s cost $305 million.)

 

Massachusetts’s system was such a disaster that, when applicants for subsidized health insurance couldn’t sign up using the exchange, they were placed in temporary insurance arrangements through the state’s Medicaid program. Perhaps most absurdly, Massachusetts had a working health-care exchange, Health Connector, that had helped cover almost all of the state’s uninsured residents after Romneycare passed......(Snip)

[Valin]

What we learned about Obamacare April 29-May 5, 2014

Natalie Scholl

May 5, 2014

 

 

1,) Obamacare youth sign-ups at or below 25% in 15 states, notes Philip Klein:

 

(Snip)

 

2.) Scott Atlas in WSJ says ObamaCare is already creating one class of care for the poor and middle class and another for the affluent:

 

(Snip)

 

3.) Here are the latest findings from Pew Research on Obamacare. Below is the first of several graphs scattered throughout this post:

 

(Snip)

[Valin]

http://youtu.be/UnCEucNxxUw

[Valin]

HUGE MAJOR UNBELIEVABLE SHOCKING NEWS!

Insurance Companies Testify: Obamacare Website Still Not Fixed
DANIEL HALPER
12:09 PM, May 7, 2014

Six health insurance executives testified on Capitol Hill today. And all six, each representing a different company, unanimously agreed: The Obamacare website is still not entirely fixed.

The witnesses included Frank Coyne of Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, Mark Pratt of Americas Health Insurance Plans, Paul Wingle of Aetna, Brian Evanko of Cigna, J. Darren Rodgers of Health Care Service Corporation, and Dennis Matheis of Wellpoint, Inc.

(Snip)

[Valin]

PMSNBC Spin

 

 

BTW Everything is just fine with ACA...ignore anything those racists Tea party loving Republicans say...they are very very bad people and want to see you die.

[Valin]

[clearvision]

The part about actually paying the insurance companies is still broken I guess.

 

My understanding is also the part that allows you to make any change (new child, death, MOVE, etc.) is not working.

[Valin]

Obamacare Insurer Subsidies in Action: The Case of Humana

Jay Cost

5/6/14

 

(Snip)

 

Three major takeaways from this. First, the talk about premium increases for 2015 usually revolves around discussions about the risk pools. The conventional claim is that, the healthier the pool, the less premiums will have to increase. Sure, but the Humana call suggests that there is much more to the story. Humana is not the first to suggest that the drawdown of federal subsidies is hugely important in 2015 pricing, either. Ken Goulet of Wellpoint created a bit of a firestorm last month when he suggested rates could doubleless commented upon was his reason why: the decline of reinsurance. So, while a better than expected risk pool might help keep rates low, ceteris paribus, this years premiums were priced artificially low because of temporary subsidies to the insurers. Take that away and you create upward pressure on rates.

 

Second, the insurers participating on the exchanges are best understood not as private entities but as clients of the state, at least as long as the Three Rs are filling such an enormous hole in their budgets. The funds flowing to them via the Three R's might seem trivial in the context of the trillions spent every year by Uncle Sam. However, from the perspective of the insurers balance sheets they are enormous, inoculating them from the vicissitudes of market forces on the exchanges. Indeed, a recent study by Milliman found that, given a balanced risk pool, the Three R's have such an enormous effect on insurer incentives that it would actually be in their interest to get the oldest and sickest customers available. That point bears repeating: The Three Rs offer so much money to insurers that there is no such thing as failure (except, perhaps, success). Little wonder that insurers are warning of dire consequences if Republican measures to limit the potentially limit federal funds they have access to. Clients of the state always scream bloody murder at the faintest suggestion that their benefits will be reduced.

 

Third, we can debate the policy merits of the Three Rs. However, what we cannot do is call this a "market" in any meaningful sense of the word. A real market, albeit a heavily regulated one, will only appear in 2017 when the insurer subsidies disappear as now planned (if they do). At that point, prices will have to reflect costs, as there will be no more outside reinsurance or risk corridor money to lower rates artificially. Obamacares advocates believe that, at that point, the risk pool will be balanced enough to sustain reasonable premiums without the government subsidies. Whether it will remains to be seen.

 

(Snip)

[Valin]

All Is Well!...All Is Well!...All Is Well!...All Is Well!...All Is Well!...All Is Well!...All Is Well!...All Is Well!...All Is Well!...All Is Well!...

 

[Valin]

[Valin]

Obamacare Exchanges Price Tag: $4.9 Billion
Katie Pavlich
May 12, 2014

 

When the federal health exchanges launched and crashed last fall through Healthcare.gov, half-a-million dollars went to waste as government officials continued to throw money at the problem. At the state level, the numbers are just as bad, if not worse. According to numbers published by POLITICO and put out by the non-partisan Kaiser Family Foundation, failing state exchanges have already cost taxpayers $454 million and in the end will cost as much as $4.9 billion.

 

(Snip)

 

 

 

 

[Casino67]

White House: Obamacare Made This Mother's Day 'Particularly Special'. From the Weekly Standard http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/white-house-obamacare-made-mothers-day-particularly-special_791276.html?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed

 

"Rahm Emanuel famously declared early in the Obama administration that "you never want a serious crisis to go to waste." Apparently the White House feels the same about holidays. On Sunday, a blog post appeared on the official White House website entitled "Happy Mother's Day, from the ACA":

 

"This Mother's Day is particularly special for millions of families this year.

 

"More than 8 million Americans have signed up for coverage through HealthCare.gov. And for families across America, that's making a difference – providing peace of mind for parents and kids alike."

 

After several examples of children and mothers who benefited from coverage under the Affordable Care Act, readers are invited to click on a link to answer the question, "What has getting covered meant for your family this Mother's Day?"

[Valin]

@Casino67

 

I understand politics and making the President look good is really important to the WH...no matter who is President....But Really....I mean GIVE ME A BREAK!

 

 

[Valin]

McKinsey: 74 percent of Obamacare Enrollees Were Previously Insured
Guy Benson
May 12, 2014

 

Why do conservatives continue to harp on Obamacare's enrollment figures? Because the administration has placed such a heavy emphasis on them as a key metric of quantifying the law's "success," and some in the media have dutifully taken that cue, laboring to construct a "winning streak" narrative for Obamacare. In a post about the law's stubborn unpopularity among the American people, a Washington Post analyst puzzled over how public polling has failed to reflect the supposedly positive developments of last month. Perhaps the reason is that people are suspicious of the White House's numbers -- which, even if they were accurate, fail to neutralize the core flaws of the law. The Obamacare defenders can't proclaim 'mission accomplished' over bending the cost curve down, or reducing premiums, or honoring promises about preferred plans and doctors. They aren't likely to brag over its effects on employment and economic growth either; nor will they talk much about its overall price tag, compared to the figure they waved around in 2010. Several polls have shown that for every one individual whose family has benefited from Obamacare, two say they've been negatively impacted. And the ranks of the aggrieved may swell as more cancellations, significant rate hikes, and access shock continues to take hold. That's a dreadful track record for a law that was sold to the public as a veritable legislative panacea, blessedly free of trade-offs or losers. With that mirage razed, the White House is relying heavily on ostentatious back-slapping over eight! million! enrollments! as the dubious basis for declaring victory.

 

(Snip)

[Valin]

The States Where Obamacare Could Still Go Badly[/irl]

Several states are in danger of seeing big premium increases.

Sam Baker

5/12/14

 

 

 

Despite Obamacare's strong national enrollment numbers, several states are at risk for big premium hikes.

 

Each state is its own insurance market, and they had wildly different experiences during Obamacare's first open-enrollment window. So although nationwide statistics are important for judging the law's political success, the substantive tests for the law's future mostly lie with the statesand some of them aren't looking so hot.

 

Predicting premium increases is an inexact science to say the least, but health care experts see a troubling number of red flags in certain states. Perhaps the most vulnerable is West Virginiathe home state of Sylvia Mathews Burwell, who's awaiting confirmation as the next Health and Human Services secretary.

 

 

(Snip)

 

 

 

____________________________________________________________________________________

 

[clearvision]

74% already had insurance! So we've f'd up our entire healthcare system and spent 5B on setting up exchanges for 1.5 to 2 million uninsured...

 

Also we are now paying for at least 1/2 of those getting insurance in subsidies I suppose.