Are The Unintended Consequence’s Of Obamacare Unintended?
Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP,MACE
It is hard to tell whether the unintended
consequences were really intended consequences on the way to destroying the
healthcare system.
Harry Reid and the President have already
admitted that Obamacare is a good first step on the way to a government
controlled single party payer system.
There are several problems with a single
party payer system,
- The
government cannot afford it. - The
government cannot run it. It will have to hire the healthcare insurance
industry to administer it. It costs the government 40% of the healthcare
dollars to have the healthcare insurance industry provide administrative
services for Medicare and Medicaid presently. - Providers
will not have incentive to produce. Reimbursement will be low and salaries will
be low.
Normally if one works for a company, the
company provides healthcare insurance to the family. When Obamacare raised the
mandate limit forcing employers to provide healthcare insurance for employees’
children living at home to 26 years old, companies have been trying to figure
out how to avoid paying the increased premium cost of healthcare insurance.
Most companies have reduced or are reducing
employment to less than 30 hours to avoid the penalty for not providing
healthcare insurance.
Many companies have applied for wavers.
These companies will get waivers if they are the Obama administration’s
friends. Congress got a waiver.
U.P.S. announced it would discontinue
Health Benefits for spouses of some workers. U.P.S. joins the list of other
companies doing the same thing. These include large employers like Xerox and Teva Pharmaceuticals. They
have chosen to impose surcharges on employees for spousal coverage.
Cities like Terre Haute,
Ind., are adopting a spousal carve-out so that working spouses would not be
covered under its health plans even if the healthcare insurance plan of the
spouse’s company is worse than Terra Haute’s healthcare insurance plan.
The University of Virginia
has just announced a similar spousal carve out. It is rumored that the state of
Virginia is next.
“UVA said
this is only one of many “major changes” coming to their health plans as a
result of ObamaCare. The university says the changes are necessary because the
law is projected to add $7.3 million to the cost of the university’s health
plan in 2014 alone.”
Isn’t Obamacare called the
Affordable Care Act? In truth it is not. It will drive these spouses into a
health insurance exchange.
“U.P.S. said, “Limiting plan eligibility is
one way to manage ongoing health care costs, now and into the future, so that
we can continue to provide affordable coverage for our employees.”
— U.P.S. told employees, “Since the Affordable
Care Act requires employers to provide affordable coverage, we believe your
spouse should be covered by their own employer — just as U.P.S. has a
responsibility to offer coverage to you, our employee.”
The
letter stated that the “cost of providing health care to our employees will
increase by nearly $100,000,000 next year.” The letter also states that much of
the increase is due to Obamacare.
It means the airline tickets are going to increase in
price. This will become a burden on businesses who depend on flying to do
business. In turn, products these companies produce will increase in price.
The ordinary consumer will also be affected by rising
airline ticket prices.
U.P.S. said, “Limiting plan
eligibility is one way to manage ongoing health care costs, now and into the
future, so that we can continue to provide affordable coverage for our
employees.”
U.P.S. estimates they cover
33,000 spouses. Fifteen thousand (15,000) spouses can get coverage through
their own employers. It should be added that they can get insurance until the companies
of these15,000 spouses drop their own healthcare coverage.
If U.P.S
cannot lower insurance costs, they will raise shipping prices. Once again the middle
class is the victim. Another option is to drop healthcare insurance for all
employees and let them participate in the health insurance exchanges.
Companies providing executive insurance
of $27,500 or more for employee family coverage or $10,200 for individual
coverage (Cadillac plans) will have to pay an additional 40% Obamacare tax in
2018.
This Cadillac plan tax is
something many companies are thinking about and making plans to discontinue in
the future.
The whole thing stinks.
It might not be an
unintended consequence. It might be an intended consequence.
It might be exactly what President Obama wants
to drive as many people as possible into his health insurance exchanges.
His excuse for the increased
costs is that the American people cannot refuse to pay for something they have
obligated themselves to pay. In reality they have been deceived. They have been
tricked, forced and deceived into this obligation.
The Obama
administration is building a detective squad to target and penalize consumers and
companies that don't follow Obamacare's rules.
The
Department of Health and Human Services has hired 1,814 criminal investigators.
On the day President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law in 2010, HHS received authority
to hire 1,814 investigators to
sleuth out violations of the law.
Congressmen who supported Obamacare find this new police force
confusing.
The Obama administration ordered that employment expansion despite
a government-wide hiring freeze that is in place.
Why doesn’t President Obama
listen to the will of the people?
Everyone is against it. Everyone
has to be more vocal. Everyone has to vote these people out of power.
Otherwise we are on the Road
to Serfdom.
The opinions expressed in the blog “Repairing The Healthcare System” are, mine and mine alone
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