Though the Medicare Chief Actuary for the Obama administration reports that ObamaCare would cut $130 billion from Medicare Advantage, and that Medicare cuts would jeopardize seniors’ access to hospitals, these facts are blatantly misrepresented in a taxpayer-financed brochure that the Obama administration recently mailed out to millions of seniors.
With private websites like eHealth.com already offering services to assist those looking to purchase health insurance, ObamaCare’s Health Benefit Exchanges would simply be a waste of taxpayer dollars.
By nominating Dr. Donald Berwick to head Medicare and Medicaid under ObamaCare, President Obama telegraphs that — in Dr. Berwick’s words — he intends to lead us out of “the darkness of private enterprise” and into the ‘light’ of government control and third-world medicine.
As a doctor writes, government-run health care means less freedom for doctors and fewer procedures approved for patients — and it makes even insurance-based private care seem comparatively patient-centered, generous, and flexible.
For the third time this year, Democrats are attempting to pass a temporary “doc fix” to avoid cuts to Medicare reimbursements for doctors. They are currently debating a 6 month fix that will be paid for with a gimmick that raises revenue in the next 10 years and lowers it afterwards, outside the budgeting range.
The Obama Administration has made big promises about lowering premium costs for families and businesses, so they are making a variety of arguments to pretend ObamaCare will save money. But claims that the law will produce large reductions in the “hidden tax” Americans pay for uncompensated care for the uninsured are significantly overblown.
Get ready to have $2,800 taken out of your paycheck each year to pay for ObamaCare’s CLASS Act — a “public option” for long-term care insurance in which you’ll automatically be enrolled, and which will be financed with what even ObamaCare-supporting Senator Kent Conrad has called “a Ponzi scheme of the first order.”
“The president and his team understood early on that they could not pass a sweeping health care bill without promising those with good insurance that, at a minimum, their coverage wouldn’t be harmed and their costs would not go up. Despite the relentless sales pitch, there was always a lot of skepticism among voters that such a government-heavy plan would leave them alone and be cost-free. Now, of course, their skepticism is being validated. Yes, the bill has passed. But a price will be paid for muscling it through to passage based on promises that are being broken just a few months after enactment.”
“Experts say the new regulations make holding costs down even more of a Sisyphean challenge for small businesses: If they make changes in their current plans to save money, they risk losing their grandfathered status and will be forced to comply with new mandates that are expected to increase costs.”
The first draft of ObamaCare included a $250 billion increase in payments to doctors who treat Medicare payments, the so-called “doc fix.” It’s intended to fix the fact that current law includes substantial cuts in reimbursements to doctors, so large increases are needed just to keep reimbursement levels constant. Democrats removed the doc fix funding from later versions of ObamaCare because it added so much to the price tag as to be politically unpalatable. But this was just a gimmick, because the intention was always just to spend the doc fix billions and break the budget after ObamaCare was the law of the land.