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All items for February, 2016

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President Obama Somehow Finds The Money

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People Are Not Stupid

Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP, MACE

The next time I hear that people are stupid I am going to scream.

The next time I hear Bernie Sanders saying college education should be free, and medical care should be free I am going to scream.

The next time I here that the healthcare insurance industry is losing money I am going to scream.

How can the healthcare insurance industry be losing money when insurance executives receive these salaries?

Does the healthcare insurance industry think we are stupid?

Salaries exec

The healthcare insurance industry loads premiums with all kinds of expenses.

There are hundreds of insurance executives making a million dollars or more a year reporting to each one of the above chief executives in each company.

There are hundreds of empty office buildings owned by the healthcare insurance industry. These buildings pay rent to the subsidiaries of each insurance company.

Those rents are an expense and are used to justify to state and federal regulators the reason for increasing insurance premiums yearly. Claims adjustors who previously occupied those buildings have been replaced by computer software.

Those buildings are empty but are still considered an expense by state and federal regulators.

The more money the taxpayers are forced to pay for healthcare premiums the more the healthcare system uses in its inefficient bureaucracy.

It is estimated that the healthcare insurance industry takes 40% out of every healthcare premium dollar for expenses. Many expenses are paid to subsidiaries of each company. Each subsidiary generates a profit that helps pay the executives’ inflated salaries.

The insurance company’s actual profit is not the 3% that is claimed.

This behavior by the healthcare insurance industry and state and federal regulators is enough to make a guy like Bernie Sander mad as hell.

In turn he has made all of his Democratic followers mad as hell. Something should to be done about this healthcare insurance industry rip off.

What is Bernie Sanders going to replace the present system with? Bernie Sanders will tell us healthcare coverage is going to be free as he replaces the present healthcare system with a healthcare system that will provide more money to insurance companies in order to provide the administrative services.

He is propagating a lie and he knows it.

Healthcare coverage will never be free.

Nothing is free. Taxes will increase to unbearable levels as beauracratic inefficiencies increase.

The taxpayers get it. All they have to do is look at the VA healthcare System.

The government cannot provide the administrative services in a universal healthcare system. The government will have to outsource the administrative services to the healthcare insurance industry.

The government will provide an increased opportunity for these companies to abuse the taxpayer even further.

I always hear that Medicare for all is the answer. That it is a single party system that works. Yes, it works for the beneficiaries. However, it is unsustainable. Most experts agree that is unsustainable for the government and the taxpayer.

It is an irrational thought that Medicare work for all at an affordable cost for everyone. Bernie Sanders should be smart enough to know it. The taxpayers are smart enough to know it.

Taxpayers are demanding that our politicians stop trying to feed us Kool-Aid.

The only way to fix the system is to replace it with a system that demands that the people are responsible for their health and their healthcare dollars.

On the other side, big governments entitlement programs are out of control. People can play our entitlement system so hard that it does not pay to look for work. The article below is unbelievable.  

New American Way

America has come to an interesting juncture. Both the right and the left take advantage of the systems provided by big government.

There is massive abuse on both the right and the left. The abuse is so great that it has proliferated so that the ethic of everyone working hard at a job is evaporating.

The loser is the middle class hard working taxpayer who is paying for all the abuse in the unsustainable systems that have been created.

The Obama administration either does not know what to do or doesn’t want to do anything. Once we experience economic collapse the government can take over.

I believe it knows exactly what it is doing. The Obama administration is changing America as promised. The administration is pushing us on to the Road to Serfdom.

For this reason alone we have to throw the bums out and elect new people who will help us get back to economic growth and the American hard work ethic.

The opinions expressed in the blog “Repairing The Healthcare System” are, mine and mine alone.

 All Rights Reserved © 2006 – 2016 “Repairing The Healthcare System” Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP,MACE

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Thought You Could Win?

Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP,MACE

There are lots of healthcare systems that think they can win by supporting Obamacare.

It has always been clear to me that hospital systems cannot win by participating in the present rules of the Affordable Care Act.

Major hospital systems are finding that fact out slowly but surely.

“HealthSpan is the insurance arm of Catholic hospital system (Mercy Health).”

The Catholic Healthcare System is one of the top ten rapidly growing hospital systems with a network of 387 acute care hospitals.

The governance of the Catholic Healthcare System thought it could profit from Obamacare, its federal Health Insurance Exchanges and the formation of an Accountable Care Organization.

Mercy Health believed it could profit by setting up an insurance arm for its network and selling insurance in the Obamacare Health Insurance Exchanges.

In order to form an ACO it bought an existing integrated physicians group.

Mercy Health, a 23-hospital system, formerly known as Catholic Health Partners, bought Kaiser’s Ohio business in 2013.

Mercy Health tried hard to make the strategy work for its financially.

I have stated previously that it is very difficult to set up ACOs. The business model is destined to fail because of faulty premises and inadequate cultural and financial incentives.

Patients should be responsible for their healthcare dollars. Healthcare insurance companies should be responsible for financial risk and financial reward by providing the insurance coverage.

“HealthSpan, the insurance arm of Catholic Healthcare System Mercy Health, is getting rid of its medical group (Kaiser) and halting sales of Affordable Care Act policies just two years after acquiring Kaiser Permanente’s Ohio subsidiary.”

The move represents a failure of one health system trying to replicate the much-heralded Kaiser model of healthcare which integrates the payment and delivery sides.

HealthSpan has been a failure financially. Mercy Health’s managers realized that the two new programs became a financial disaster for the entire healthcare system.

The reality is in contrast to the optimistic statement made by CEO Michael Connelly two years ago. His announcement was not dissimilar for the many other statements by hospital systems that are on the road to failure. It almost sounds like they had the same consultant.

In announcing its agreement with Kaiser Permanente, Catholic Health Partners president and CEO Michael D. Connelly said in the joint release, “This opportunity interests us because it preserves a values-based, patient-centered care model that we can expand throughout the region. Additionally, it enables us to focus on enhancing quality, improving access to health care, and effectively managing costs.”

No one ever asks practicing physicians what system will work to Repairing the Healthcare System.

No one every talks about the patients’ responsibility in preventing chronic diseases or once a chronic disease occurs, what is their responsibility in managing the disease.

Until a healthcare system is built around patients’ responsibility along with ways to prevent insurance company, hospital system and physician abuse, a healthcare system will not be built that is cost efficient with increased quality of care.

 

The opinions expressed in the blog “Repairing The Healthcare System” are, mine and mine alone

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Stop Confusing Me With Misleading Facts

Stanley Feld M.D. FACP, MACE

The truth is derived from facts. In social sciences such as politics and economics isolated facts can lead to conclusions that are far from the truth. It is also possible to manipulate statistics that lead to false conclusions.

Misleading facts can lead to false conclusions and inaccurate opinions.

The Obama administration has mastered the art of picking isolated facts and manipulating statistics. It has used that skill and the traditional mainstream media to mold public opinion.

Government agencies are supposed to be politically neutral. The Obama administration uses isolated reported facts out of context to mold favorable public opinion using the traditional media.

This methodology has been pervasive in misinforming and transforming America. This phenomenon is especially true as it relates to the healthcare system.

Healthcare.gov’s enrollment supposedly ended for 2016 on January 31, 2016. Enrollment has been abysmal for 2016. It is no higher that the enrollment reported in 2014.

The only real increase has been the increase in Medicaid enrollment.

“As announced yesterday, the official QHP selection number ended up coming in right in the middle of this: 12.7 million nationally (9.6 million via HC.gov).

Nevertheless, Secretary Burwell announced that enrollment surpassed expectations.

In mid-December President Obama announced as proof of the success of Obamacare;

Nearly 6 million Americans so far have enrolled in insurance for 2016 through HealthCare.gov, President Obama announced on Friday, touting a big increase over last year that he said shows the Affordable Care Act is succeeding.”

 

The truth is Obamacare is a failure. State healthcare exchanges are failing. Many states have closed down their state healthcare exchanges. Yet, President Obama’s message is that his signature legislation, the Affordable Care Act, is succeeding.

The administration never addresses the reason Obamacare is failing. However, people who know the facts know it is failing and why it is failing. Obamacare simply does not meet the needs of the middle class consumers.

“It’s time to look at the major reasons for the shortfall.

Some of these are well-documented criticisms: Premiums and/or deductibles are simply too damned high for many policies/regions in general.”

There are many additional reasons for the poor enrollment but that is not the point of this article.

The point of this article is the Obama administration deceiving the public .

There are other areas of consumer (public) deception by the Obama administration.

One outstanding example is the administration’s conclusion that there is no inflation in America, which is hard to believe. Every time we go into a grocery store the price of food seems to increase. Every time we buy clothing, an appliance, a car or a restaurant meal the price seems to increase.

Few people know that food and fuel are not included in the Consumer Price Index (CPI). The CPI is a measure used in determining the inflation rate.

The article that stimulated me to write this blog was last week’s announcement that the unemployment rate has just decreased to below 5%.

President Obama, who expressed frustration that he has not received the credit he feels he deserves for the country’s improving economy, said the jobs numbers were further signs of progress.

“After reaching 10 percent in 2009, the unemployment rate has now fallen to 4.9 percent even as more Americans joined the job market last month,” he told reporters at a White House briefing in Washington. “Americans are working.”

The New York Times reported that the Obama administration has used this figure to brag about how well the economy is doing under his administration.

 

A non-traditional media publication, PJ media, has reported, in detail, the interpretation of the real numbers using the government’s own statistics. It is worthwhile reading the entire article and forming your own opinion about the unemployment rate.

“Every so often a monthly employment report is full of so many irregularities that it pays to discount the report. This might be one of those times.

We’ve commented several times over the years about the BLS cooking the books on jobs.  James Pethokoukis lists some other stats that tell far more of the real story about the employment picture than the bare-bones numbers highlighted by the media:

Not everything was great: job gains far short of 185,000 expectations (though averaging 231,000 the past three months), U-6 unemployment-underemployment rate unchanged at 9.9%, long-term unemployment worsened, labor force participation and employment rate still way below pre-recession levels, wages gains short of what you would expect to see in a full-throttle economy. Particularly vexing for Barclays was job weakness in the service sector.

 The unemployment rate figure is a fact used to mold public opinion. The mainstream media is the message. The problem is the Obama administration’s message is an absolute lie.

“In other words, the job situation in America still sucks, and the president is blowing smoke by touting the numbers as good news.”

One commenter wrote, using the government raw data;

empiresentry  1st Boomer • 15 hours ago

Yeah that 30% was a ‘laugh’ and the Dims fell for it. Cali and some other Dim states mistakenly were unable to submit their numbers (cough cough)
.
For January 2016:
First time INITIAL jobs claims for unemployment insurance
Jan. 9, 2016 284,000
Jan. 16, 2016 294000
Jan. 23, 2016 277000
Jan. 30, 2016 285000
————-
940,000 human being lost their jobs

Jan. 623,000 “stopped looking for work”.
We did not stop looking for work. The government stopped counting us because our unemployment insurance ran out.

151,000 people found new jobs, most were retail and restaurant part time.”

 

The Obama administration and its agencies have presented distorted facts to us over and over again during the past 7 years. It has distorted the truth and, in turn, public opinion.

If one uses the wrong facts, one will come to the wrong conclusion.

Everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion. They are not entitled to their own facts.

That includes the President of the United States of America and his administration’s agencies.

The opinions expressed in the blog “Repairing The Healthcare System” are, mine and mine alone.

 All Rights Reserved © 2006 – 2016 “Repairing The Healthcare System” Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP,MACE

 

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Here It Comes!

Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP, MACE

The mainstream media has been very quiet about Obamacare lately as the defects in its execution keep rolling along.

You may recall President Obama telling Senator John Kerry and Representative Barney Frank not to worry about including a Public Option in the bill. He told them they would not have to include the Public Option in the Affordable Care Act.

Barney Frank said we would never get a single party payer system unless we have a Public Option in the bill.

President Obama was right. He didn’t need a Public Option because the single party payer system was already embedded in the bill without anyone knowing it.

Medi-Cal is California’s name for its Medicaid program. California is one of the states that have expanded the Medicaid program under Obamacare.

Twenty states have not expanded their Medicaid program for fear of the federal government impinging on states rights while sticking their state with the bill.

The states also feared increases in their budget deficit. States are required to balance their budget. The result would be an increase in state taxes.

The increase in state taxes would render the state unattractive to companies and their business. Less company growth would mean an increase in unemployment and a decrease in state tax revenue. A decrease in tax revenue would result in a decrease in state services.

President Obama said, “Don’t worry.” He promised to fund Medicaid expansion fully for the first 3 years. Federal funding would decrease after the first three years to 50%. The funding percent has changed a few times since that promise. One could not know the present decrease unless one read the Federal Register daily.

Expanding Medicaid was a key part of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). It was also a hidden trap set by President Obama to slip the healthcare system into a single party payer system by default. That is why President Obama insisted we did not need a Public Option.

Obamacare required nearly all Americans, under penalty of law, to have insurance starting in 2014.

Though a surprise, the high Medi-Cal enrollment is generally hailed as a success. California’s uninsured population has been cut in half since Obamacare, in large part because so many Californians signed up for Medi-Cal, which is free for beneficiaries.

Medi-Cal was opened to all low-income Californians starting two years ago, with the federal government paying for those new enrollments.”

In 2016 one third (1 in 3) or 12.7 million Californians are covered by Medi-Cal.

The total cost of the Medi-Cal explosion is $91 billion dollars, up from $54 billion dollars in 2012. California is responsible for $12 billion dollars. It will increase California’s budget deficit and may result in another tax increase.

The cost per insured is $7,165.35.

“The Medi-Cal program continues to grow at a very substantial rate, which is great. We are very happy that we’re able to provide healthcare to getting close to 13 million Californians,” said Mari Cantwell, chief deputy director at the state Department of Health Care Services, at a hearing in downtown L.A. this month. But, Cantwell added: “Obviously with that comes cost.”

The Medi-Cal is viewed by many state officials as being underfunded.

Medi-Cal patients are struggling to find doctors.

Many patients are receiving low quality of care by government standards.

A psychiatrist in Los Angeles told me that all the private practice internists in L.A. require an upfront concierge fee of at least $2,000 a year at the beginning of the year to be in their panel. If this is true, Internists in L.A. are insulating themselves against the low reimbursement of Medi-Cal. This concierge fee increases the California physician shortage.

The result has been that groups of activists have filed a federal civil rights complaint alleging that Latinos are being denied access to healthcare because the program does not pay doctors enough.

The Affordable Care Act allowed states to open up Medicaid to anyone making less than 138% of the federal poverty level.”

Twenty states did not sign up for the expanded Medicaid because of the fear of federal takeover and the further impingement of state rights.

Pre-Obamacare, states were required to pay 43% of Medicaid’s cost and the federal government paid 57% of the costs. States ran the program and determined reimbursement.

As costs increased reimbursement was decreased and physician participation decreased because of the decreased reimbursement.

As a result of the 20 states resisting Medicaid expansion the federal government will pay 100% of the cost of new expansion enrollees and 93 percent off the cost of expanding Medicaid over the next nine (9) years instead of the next two (2) years.

The present rule looks like a great deal for the states. However with the federal government paying most of the Medicaid bill for the next nine (9) years the federal government will want to control Medicare.

Who needs a Public Option to get to a single party payer?

Who is going to stop the federal government from changing the eligibility for Medicaid to 200 or 400% of the poverty level?

Who is going to force doctors to participate in Medicaid if they want to practice medicine with a federal license?

Where is the government going to get the money without having skyrocketing increases in taxes?

Tax laws and lack of pro-growth tax reforms are inhibiting America’s economic growth.

America has been set up to have the future state of healthcare be a single party payer system. President Obama has done it in a clever way. He has had no regard for being fiscally responsible in the face of a 19 trillion dollar, and rising, debt.

Single party payer systems have failed in England and Canada.

Why should America create another failure?

Can Americans have a future state healthcare system that is not destined to fail?

Yes we can!

The opinions expressed in the blog “Repairing The Healthcare System” are, mine and mine alone.

 All Rights Reserved © 2006 – 2016 “Repairing The Healthcare System” Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP,MACE

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