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Thursday, June 3, 2010

I thought Obamacare would increase coverage and lower cost....he told me that

Anyone with half a brain knows B Hussein Obama was lying through his teeth when he made that promise that his nationalization of the health care industry would "lower cost and increase coverage". But now the facts are coming out after a quick passage of a 2000+ page bill that Congressmen swear they read in just a few hours...


ObamaCare's Ever-Rising Price Tag
Voters will understand plenty about the hidden costs of the law by

By KARL ROVE

White House Senior Adviser David Axelrod argued earlier this year that health-care reform would become more popular after it passed, boosting Democrats in the midterm elections. "We have to go out and sell it," he told the National Journal, adding in an interview in Newsweek that "people [will] see the benefits that accrue to them."

That's not quite how it has worked out. ObamaCare is becoming more, not less, unpopular. The Rasmussen poll reported the week after health reform's passage in March that 55% of likely voters supported its repeal while 42% did not. A Rasmussen poll last month showed that 56% backed repeal; 39% did not.

...But the real problem is ObamaCare's substantive defects, some only now coming to light. Consider the April 22 analysis by Medicare's chief actuary, Richard Foster, which blasted to smithereens many of Mr. Obama's claims for the bill.

For starters, Mr. Foster estimated Americans would pay $120 billion in fines for not having adequate insurance coverage and that 14 million people would lose their coverage as rising costs led companies to dump it. Those effects are not in keeping with Mr. Obama's promises that if people liked the health insurance they had they could keep it, and that the reforms would provide universal coverage.

Finding it hard to cover costs under the bill's formulas, according to Mr. Foster's analysis, doctors would refuse new patients and one out of every six hospitals and nursing homes could start operating in the red. And while Medicaid would cover 16 million more people, there might not be enough doctors to treat them.


I've often gotten into debates with people on Obamacare. One of my first questions is "Where are you going to get the doctors?" Doctor's generally come from the top of the class seeing the academic program they must follow. Let's see, in the Obamacare world a young man or woman would face this:

- You will take a real though major (biology, chemistry, etc) to prep you for medical school. You will be studying while the other kids are having a great time.

- You will then go to 4 years of medical school. Again, no blow off here. While other graduates are starting their careers and families, you are in a library going hitting the books.

- Then after eight years of hitting the books, you get to spend another four to eleven years in residency working 16 hour days before you can be a doctor on your own.

- Finally, after all the years, efforts, put off relationships and families, Obama and his buddies will tell you where you will go, how much you will make and what you can charge. But don't worry you get to pay your student loans by yourself!

Who wouldn't want that? Many of the best and the brightest. They will go into other tracks. Kinda as an aside, a story in of all things NPR on Canada's medical system. Canada is short of doctors, nurses and hospital beds. One thing it's not short on is veterinarians. They are not controlled by the government and a lot of the same people who would like to practice medicine on humans know they cannot make a living at it in Canada. So they go the four legged route.


Because of new taxes, Mr. Foster rightly claimed that sick people would face "high drug and device prices" and everyone would pay higher premiums—again, exactly the opposite of what Mr. Obama said.

Then in May, the Congressional Budget Office updated its cost projections. It found that the new health legislation would cost $115 billion more than estimated when it was enacted.

That's not the end of the bad news. October will see the first round of Medicare cuts. Up to half of seniors will lose their Medicare Advantage coverage (a program that allows seniors to receive additional services through a private health plan), or at least some of their benefits under this program. Watch for the administration to try to keep companies from notifying their customers of benefit cuts or premium increases before the election. Meanwhile, the Daily Caller website reported yesterday that the administration has missed deadlines for issuing four sets of regulations specified by the bill and lacks a master time-line for the other required regulations.

Drug and medical device companies are already making provisions for the new taxes that kick in next year. This means less investment in plants and equipment and smaller R&D budgets...

...Doctors, nurses and hospital workers impacted by health-care reform's adverse effects will speak more often to more people and with greater passion and credibility than will the president and his allies. ...

Employers will not wait until the last moment to spring changes on their workers. They understand it is in their best interest to fully educate employees about the ramifications of the new health-care bill. Many have already begun helping employees understand why companies are being forced to make inevitable changes.

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