“[T]he push to replace physicians with ‘physician extenders’ could end up increasing costs.”
“As a practicing physician with more than 25 years of experience, and as a former business owner in the health care sector, I’d suggest this new PR campaign is grounded in politics rather than reality.”
As difficult as passing ObamaCare was, implementing the massive health care overhaul, with its countless provisions, will no doubt be even more of a challenge — and with several missed deadlines already, the Obama administration is off to a less than auspicious start.
If Americans want a glimpse into what their future would be like under ObamaCare, they simply need to look north of the border, at Canada’s failing socialized medical system.
The official at the Massachusetts Division of Insurance in charge of monitoring insurer-solvency sent an internal e-mail warning that the state’s government-imposed insurance rate price controls “have no actuarial support” and could lead to “a train wreck.”
The Administration is touting new $250 checks for seniors who hit the Medicare Part D coverage gap. But the State of Vermont is arguing that if the money is to defray drug costs, and not just a political giveaway, then they should be receiving those checks for the seniors who get their drugs paid for by the state Medicaid program. “The dust-up over rebate checks and who should receive them underscores the challenges of the federal-state partnership in health reform’s implementation. While rules and regulations are written within the Beltway, most of the heavy-lifting, in terms of implementation, rests with state governments.”
HHS Secretary Sebelius wrote a letter to Medicare Advantage insurers and threatened the companies not to increase costs or decrease benefits for seniors. Since ObamaCare includes $200 billion in cuts to Medicare Advantage, it will be nearly impossible for insurers not to cut benefits or raise costs for Medicare Advantage beneficiaries, and Democrats are maneuvering to avoid taking the blame.
Foreshadowing the new health IT provisions in ObamaCare, the funding system for electronic medical records in Obama’s $862 billion stimulus bill are frustrating medical providers, “offer[ing] a cautionary tale of what could happen when good intentions meet the reality of America’s fragmented health care system.”
“The New York Times reports President Obama will begin a new media effort Tuesday designed to convince skeptical American voters that Obamacare is a good thing….Kicking off the propaganda push is “a nationally televised question-and-answer session” with seniors where the administration will highlight a $250 Medicare Part D rebate check. Yet relatively few seniors will actually receive the check.”
“Consider the case of nHealth, a relatively new insurance provider based in Richmond, Va. nHealth recently announced it will close its doors due to the combination of stringent new regulations and future uncertainty—both the product of the new health care law.”