$3 Trillion And Rising

Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP, MACE

The Obama administration is spending money on Obamacare like a drunken sailor. It has no respite for the budget deficit. Paul Krugman even said deficit spending is not a problem.

The deficit could almost be justified if there was a possibility that Obamacare could work.

If Obamacare could provide universal healthcare at an affordable price, increase the efficiency and quality of care, and align all the stakeholders’ interests the increasing deficit caused could almost be justified.

Obamacare can’t work. Its business model is just accelerating the path to the total collapse of the healthcare system.

The dysfunction and inefficiencies didn’t happen overnight. It started when the government set up its bureaucracy for Medicare in 1965 and has gotten worse as progressives tried to adjust to the unintended consequences and rising costs.

Obamacare has accelerated the path toward total collapse of the healthcare system. It has caused more rules and regulations. The increase in bureaucracy leads to more inefficiency and increasing adjustments by providers to make the defective business model work for their vested interests rather than the patients’ vested interests..

Little tweaks to fix the healthcare system have lead to unintended consequences, greater dysfunction and higher costs.

In 2010 with the passage of Obamacare, bureaucracy increased. Businesses have invested great deals of money to adjust to new regulations imposed by Obamacare.

David Brooks said on the PBS News Hour on January 8, 2016 that Obamacare cannot be repealed because it was embedded in the business model of too many healthcare businesses.

I thought healthcare reform was dedicated to the proposition of providing universal healthcare and improved healthcare at an affordable price to patients.

In the last two years there has not been an increase in the number of new patients insured in the Federal Health Exchanges.

There has been an increase in the number of Medicaid patients insured. However, Medicaid provides such poor insurance reimbursement that few physicians participate.

The few physicians who do participate have to see many patients a day using many physician assistants. “These Medicaid Physicians” are frequently accused of running “Medicaid Mills.”

The physicians are accused of corruption and gaming the system. Then they come under federal investigation. Some of these physicians are corrupt but most aren’t.

David Brooks is drinking the Kool Add of the progressives and President Obama. He stated that Obamacare is now embedded in the fabric of our culture.

None of the stakeholders are having any fun. I believe everyone would jump at being given a viable alternative. The viable alterative is not a single party payer system.

Countries which have a single party payer system are working hard to avoid bankruptcy.

All one has to do is read Canada’s Fraser Institute Report.

Obamacare is an entitlement. It does not promote consumer responsibility for their care or healthcare dollars.

There is a better way. The Republican political establishment just refuses to listen. The Democratic establishment continues to make fun of the Republican establishment for not having an alternative.

Meanwhile all of the stakeholders, including the government, are experiencing increased pain.

Last month government officials announce that healthcare spending in the United States was 3 trillion dollars or an average of $9,500 a person.

A soon as the figure was announced the Obama administration’s spin machine got started with disinformation about the 3 trillion dollars.

The New York Times continues to report that Obamacare is working. The logic used is America has had a lower growth in healthcare spending in the last five years.

The New York Times completely ignores the fact that healthcare taxes have increased yearly over the last five years while Obamacare healthcare coverage has only been in effect for two years since 2014.

The spending curve for every aspect of healthcare experienced a sharp upturn in 2014.

The Obama administration is trying to blame the upturn on drug prices. Drug prices are partly to blame increase in cost. If one digs deeper it will be seen as a small part of the cost increase.

The increase cost is due to the accelerated dysfunction caused by Obamacare.

“Health spending in the United States last year topped $3 trillion — an average of $9,500 a person — as five years of exceptionally slow growth gave way to the Affordable Care Act’s expansion of Medicaid and private insurance coverage, and as prescription drug prices resumed their sharp climbs, the government said Wednesday.”

Only a few of the major provisions in the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) took effect in 2014.

What is going to happen when all of the major provisions of Obamacare take effect?

“Total spending on health care increased 5.3 percent last year(2014), the biggest jump since 2007, and accounted for 17.5 percent of the nation’s economic output, up from 17.3 percent in 2013, the Department of Health and Human Services said in its annual report on spending trends.”

 “By contrast, health spending grew 2.9 percent in 2013, the lowest rate of increase since the federal government began tracking it in 1960.”

2013 was three years into increased Obamacare healthcare taxes that affect all taxpayers including those that make less than $250,000,000 per year.

The people making less than $250,000/year were promised they would not spend one dime more for Obamacare.

I believe many American are aware of the mind games the Obama administration has played on them and are ready for an alternative that is a consumer centered and consumer driven system with them being in control of their health and healthcare dollars.

Republicans should at least offer the public a choice of My Ideal Medical Saving Account.

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

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