Tag Archives: Obamacare

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MUST-READ: How Obama reduces the supply of medical care

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I had written about the so-called doc-fix before, which is the problem of doctors being underpaid by the government for things like Medicare and Medicaid when they provide services to patients. Obama chose not to “fix” these low reimbursements in his health care bill, in order to hide the true costs of socializing medicine. But he has a plan now to fix the problem of government-run medicine not reimbursing doctors adequately.

And it isn’t what you might think.

From Laura at Pursuing Holiness. (H/T ECM)

Excerpt:

Conservatives were outraged by the chicanery of separating physician payment increases from the health care reform (that’s three lies for the price of one) bill Congress recently rammed through.  The “doc fix” was separate legislation so that physician payments could be increased without adding to the total cost of the main bill, so that Democrats could dishonestly claim the bill reduced the deficit.  Now, however, we are seeing the real “doc fix.”

Some Idaho orthopedists grew weary of the low reimbursement rates the government gave them for caring for worker’s comp patients.  So they got together and agreed not to treat those patients anymore.  They hoped that their boycott would force the Idaho Industrial Commission to increase the fee schedule – their payments.  While they were at it, they decided to stop working with Blue Cross of Idaho – also a notorious underpayer – until a better deal could be negotiated.  Unions behave this way all the time, and it’s often very effective.

In a similar case in Colorado last February, the Federal Trade Commission stepped in and charged the doctors with price-fixing.

Those doctors lost, and if they want to continue to work as physicians, they will do so at the prices set by the government.

Now the Obama administration has stepped it up a notch. The FTC only deals with civil complaints. In order to deal with the Idaho orthopedists, Obama sent in Eric Holder and the Justice Department, which is at liberty to file criminal charges.  You see, those Idaho orthopedists collectively agreeing that they had enough and weren’t going to take it anymore, were actually engaged in two antitrust conspiracies.

Read the rest. This is another first class post by Laura, and a great find by ECM. (Laura also sides with me on women taking responsibility for their own actions, which is why men like her)

So, it sounds like the Obama administration is heading towards Canada’s system where the private practice of medicine is a criminal offense. Doctors will not be able to set prices for their services. A patient giving money directly to a doctor, without government approval of the price (price controls), will become illegal. That’s the way that socialists roll.They love to fix prices.

And do you know what happens when doctors make less money than government clerks but have to work 80 hour weeks? That’s right – you have a shortage of doctors! Just like in Canada! And do you know what happens when there is a shortage of doctors? That’s right – you pay for the privilege of dying on a waiting list. (Unless you want an abortion, IVF or a sex change, I guess – because that’s politically correct in Canada)

This is why there are waiting lists in every country that has tried socialized medicine. Fewer doctors means fewer claims to the government – rationing. It’s the real way that government cuts costs. Well, that and euthanasia. Once government starts to regulate the practice of medicine, and to fix prices, you choke off the supply. And then you have to start killing people to avoid bankrupting the system, without or without their consent.

News

Obama appoints NHS-loving socialist as Medicare and Medicaid Czar

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Story here from CNS News.

Excerpt:

Dr. Donald Berwick, nominated by President Barack Obama to run Medicare and Medicaid, praised the government-owned British National Health Service (NHS) for not letting their health care system “play out in the darkness of private enterprise.”

[…]Berwick, who said that Britain “chose well” in establishing a health care system completely controlled by the government, contrasted the NHS with the American health care system, which he derided as being dominated by private doctors, hospitals, and insurers instead of the government.

The article is filled with alarming quotes from Berwick making it clear that he is a committed socialist. Just like Obama!

In fact, the American Spectator reports that he LOVES the UK health care system. (H/T Not ECM, because he recommends you not read my blog any more just because I like courting more than video games)

Excerpt:

For example, the BBC — hardly a hive of free-market zealots — has run a series exposing routine neglect of elderly patients in a major NHS hospital.

[….]In addition to sheer neglect, NHS patients are often subjected to incredibly unsanitary conditions.

[…]Many British patients never endure such conditions because treatment is denied outright as too expensive.

[…]The NHS is run by health care bureaucrats who, like Donald Berwick, regard the free market as ethically dubious and economically inequitable. Yet the “morally superior” and “fair” medical system they have created for the U.K. produces results that give new meaning to the epithet, “Perfidious Albion. As David Gratzer recently pointed out, “British cancer outcomes don’t just trail U.S. results; they rival those of Eastern European nations.” This isn’t hyperbole. A 2008 study showed that cancer survival rates in the U.K. don’t come close to those of the United States. American men, for example, have an 80 percent better chance of surviving prostate cancer than do their English counterparts. The study revealed similar disparities in comparative survival rates for victims of breast, colon and rectal cancers.

[…]Heart patients subjected to the tender mercies of the NHS also fare poorly. The Telegraph reports that British heart attack victims are much more likely to die after being admitted to a hospital than similar patients in the United States and other developed nations: “Around 6.3 per cent of patients who have suffered a heart attack have passed away within 30 days of entering a British hospital — significantly higher than the 4.3 per cent average.”

I snipped ALL THE HORROR STORIES out of the excerpt. Yes, even the one with the DECOMPOSING RAT IN THE OPERATING ROOM. You better click through and scare yourself silly from ever voting for the Democrats again. And don’t let your friends vote Democrat, either. Would you like to have health care from the DMV or from Amazon.com? In the UK, you get it from the DMV. And that’s where Obama is taking us.

UPDATE: Here’s another NHS horror story. Maybe it came from ECM and maybe it didn’t. I guess we’ll never know.

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News

Did Obamacare really provide a tax cut for small businesses?

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Check out this AP article. (H/T Michele Bachmann)

Excerpt:

When the administration unveiled the small business tax credit earlier this week, officials touted its “broad eligibility” for companies with fewer than 25 workers and average annual wages under $50,000 that provide health coverage.

[…]Lost in the fine print: The credit drops off sharply once a company gets above 10 workers and $25,000 average annual wages.

[…]Consider small businesses: “The idea here is to target the credits to a relatively low number of firms, those who are low-wage and really quite small,” said economist Linda Blumberg of the Urban Institute public policy center.

On paper, the credit seems to be available to companies with fewer than 25 workers and average wages of $50,000. But in practice, a complicated formula that combines the two numbers works against companies that have more than 10 workers and $25,000 in average wages, Blumberg said.

“You can get zero even if you are not hitting the max on both pieces,” Blumberg said.

[…]Hoffman, the furniture store owner whose business missed out on the credit, says he understands that lawmakers writing the health care legislation had a limited amount of money to work with. But his company’s premiums rose 15 percent this year, and it’s a struggle to keep paying.

To get the most out of the new federal credit, Hoffman said he’d have to cut his work force to 10 employees and slash their wages.

“That seems like a strange outcome, given we’ve got 10 percent unemployment,” he said.

So, the government is actually paying businesses to NOT HIRE EMPLOYEES and to NOT RAISE SALARIES. That’s the only way small businesses can get the tax credit.

Michele writes:

Unfortunately, this bill will only discourage small businesses from raising wages and/or hiring more employees.  The business owners and employers in Minnesota I’ve met with all have said one thing: the uncertainty of the newly passed Health Care bill is keeping them from hiring and expanding.

Businesses are run by people who put their own skin in the game by risking capital to try to make a profit. That capital is often borrowed from family, friends or banks. And when business owners see that government is passing laws that take away the decision making power of the business owner and give it to government bureaucrats with no skin in the game, business owners get frightened – they are taking all the risks but the government is making the decisions. And government isn’t as good at making decisions for a business to avoid losses as the business owner is.

So even though Obama spends trillions of dollars, bankrupting the next generation of taxpayers, it can still be the case that unemployment increases. He’s killing the economy with his meddling – just the same way as interventionists like Hoover and FDR did during the Great Depression. When business owners see that the rules are changing under them because of state intervention into the economy, they just don’t have the confidence needed to expand their businesses, hire employees, or raise salaries.

And don’t forget that the money for the “tax credit” is being taken from your children, who will eventually have to pay for all of Obama’s spending.