Audits and investigations into the effects of ObamaCare from congressional committees, government auditors, advocacy groups, and others.
“Despite efforts by state and health plan officials to smooth the transition, caregivers and others reported ‘the managed care system … was not prepared’ to care for the population’s specific needs, which include complex cases involving mental illness, homelessness and developmental disabilities, the report said… The report about California’s experience comes as the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is ramping up plans to move many of the nation’s 9 million ‘dual eligibles,’ who qualify for both Medicaid and Medicare, into managed care plans.”
“Two articles over the weekend highlight the continuing effect of Obamacare on the health care industry – particularly how it is accelerating industry consolidation. In both the insurance and hospital industry, players are consolidating to lower costs, gain market share, and defend their bottom lines. The big question, however, is whether these trends will ultimately benefit consumers and the health care system as a whole, through improved quality and lower costs.”
“With a shortage of doctors in the U.S. already and millions of new patients set to gain coverage under President Barack Obama’s health-care overhaul, American medical schools are struggling to close the gap.”
“These problems with the Medicare program predate the passage of Obamacare. For decades, politicians have been wrestling with Medicare’s runaway costs. Conventional fixes, like raising the retirement age, reducing benefits, or raising premiums were considered politically toxic. So instead, Congress sought the path of least resistance: paying doctors and hospitals less to provide the same level of service.”
“Ultimately, what we should want is a Medicare system that pays primary-care physicians without the maddening inconveniences. We should want a way of paying primary-care physicians that no longer puts them at the mercy of the RUC, that eliminates most if not all Medicare-related billing costs for primary care, and renders the SGR moot.”
“These reforms will be gradually implemented leading up to 2014, when the biggest part of the law — the expansion of coverage to an estimated 30 million of the currently uninsured — is set to kick in. If we get it right, more people will have the security of health insurance, the nation can become healthier and spending will be restrained. If things don’t go according to plan, it could disrupt the $4.78 trillion health care economy by squeezing hospitals, health insurance companies and state governments. Waits for doctor visits could get even longer.”
“There’s good reason to believe that in short order, the health plans sold in Obamacare’s heavily regulated, state-based insurance exchanges will degrade into something akin to today’s Medicaid managed care plans. If a lot of consumers who presently get their health coverage at work are dumped into these state exchanges (as many independent analysts predict), then tens of millions of Americans could find that they’re worse off under the new law and that their health benefits have been substantially devalued.”
“The health overhaul law expands health insurance to millions more people without significantly increasing the number of physicians or other providers. And Obamacare has exacerbated the physician shortage because many are considering leaving the practice of medicine altogether rather than practice under the dictates of Washington bureaucracies.”
“In the Inland Empire, an economically depressed region in Southern California, President Obama’s health care law is expected to extend insurance coverage to more than 300,000 people by 2014. But coverage will not necessarily translate into care: Local health experts doubt there will be enough doctors to meet the area’s needs. There are not enough now.”
“It’s all part of health reform (ObamaCare). For the past few months the federal government has been quietly and secretly enrolling millions of elderly and disabled people into ACOs without their knowledge or consent. By quietly I mean that the government isn’t telling you about it and it has no plans to tell you about it. By secretly, I mean the whole procedure is being conducted under the radar screen. I know of no place you can write or call or go online to find out what ACO you’ve been assigned to.”