Medicine: Healthcare System

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Accelerating The Destruction Of The Healthcare System

January 18, 2016

inDisinformation and the healthcare system, Medicine: Healthcare System, Stakeholder Abuse of the Healthcare System, Stakeholder Mistrust

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Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP,MACE

Most of you are familiar with my slide of the demise of the healthcare system.

Obamacare is accelerating the total collapse of the healthcare system. Once total collapse has occurred Americans might beg for a complete government taken over of the healthcare system with a single party payer system.

I have pointed out most of Obamacare’s new rules causing the unintended consequences and accelerating the healthcare system’s demise.

An unintended consequence in the Accountable Care Organization leads to a new rule to correct the consequence. Unelected officials then create another rule. The new rule results in other unintended consequences. All of these consequences accelerate the healthcare system’s demise.

Obamacare’s first year in operation was 2014. The Obama administration started taxing everyone in 2010 to support the added expenses Obamacare would generate.

Only the individual insurance portion of Obamacare was initiated.

The following are examples of unintended consequences.

Fourteen million people lost their individual healthcare insurance coverage in 2012 because of Obamacare’s new rules. Insurance coverage premiums increased because of the ACA’s required coverage.

Many workers lost their full time jobs. They were put on part-time employment in order for employers to avoid Obamacare penalties.

CMS reported that 13 million signed up for Obamacare in 2014 despite the healthcare.gov website disaster. The number of enrollees was revised a few of times down to 6.6 million because of counting errors.

The direct and indirect costs of Obamacare were never reported to the public.

Obamacare activated a reinsurance program that was built into the Affordable Care Act. The reinsurance program was a bailout to entice the healthcare insurance industry to participate in the Federal Health Insurance Exchanges without experiencing any loses.

The insurance industry has claims the Obama administration owed it 2.5 billion dollars in 2014. The Obama administration was able to pay only 12%. The law restricted the government’s reinsurance payment to a certain percentage of the premiums paid. The amount owed as promised to the healthcare insurance industry for their participation in Obamacare was $2.2 billion short.

I believe the healthcare insurance industry will be loath to participate in the Federal Health Insurance Exchanges in 2017. UnitedHealth has already threatened to quit participating.

This year (2016) during open enrollment only 8.1 million enrolled in the Federal Health Insurance Exchanges.

It has been difficult to trust CMS’s overall claims for the number of enrollees. It has nothing to do with how many people have paid first premium or the anticipated number who will continue to pay premiums throughout the year.

President Obama stated in his state of the union speech that 18 million previously uninsured have received insurance under Obamacare. This is not true.

For argument’s sake let say his number is correct.

More than half the enrollees received Medicaid. President Obama is urging states to expand Medicaid.

What is going to happen when Medicaid is expanded? More people will get free government supplied healthcare insurance but will not be able to find physicians. Medicaid reimbursement is so poor that few physicians participate.

The healthcare system’s demise is rapidly accelerating. Obamacare’s claiming to increase people being covered but these people cannot obtain healthcare services.

Obamacare does not incentivize these people to be responsible consumers. Obesity continues to increase and the dollars spent for healthcare continues to increase.

The truth is enrollment has been terrible for 2016. President Obama is expanding the enrollment period again this year to try to increase enrollment.

“Eager to maximize coverage under the Affordable Care Act, the Obama administration has allowed large numbers of people to sign up for insurance after the deadlines in the last two years, destabilizing insurance markets and driving up premiums, health insurance companies say.”

“The administration has created more than 30 “special enrollment” categories and sent emails to millions of Americans last year urging them to see if they might be able to sign up after the annual open enrollment deadline.

The Obama administration has done nothing to verify whether these late arrivals are eligible for insurance. They just sign up and are insured.

People have figured out they can wait until they become ill or need medical services to sign up. They then sign up and pay their premiums a few months’ premiums. They stop paying their premiums after they have received their medical services. They figure they do not need insurance any more.

“Individuals enrolled through special enrollment periods are utilizing up to 55 percent more services than their open enrollment counterparts” who sign up in the regular period, the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, whose local member companies operate in every state, told the administration.

The Obama administration has told the healthcare insurance industry that it has heard their concerns. The problem is that CMS has not done anything about the insurance industry’s concerns.

“Many individuals have no incentive to enroll in coverage during open enrollment, but can wait until they are sick or need services before enrolling and drop coverage immediately after receiving services, making the annual open enrollment period meaningless,” Steven B. Kelmar, an executive vice president of Aetna.”

Twenty five percent of Aetna enrollees have signed up during the special extended enrollment periods. It has been reported that last year 950,000 people enrolled during the special enrollment period between February and July 2015.

“Kevin J. Moynihan, the chief executive of the federal insurance marketplace, said it shows the marketplace is working to meet people’s needs. He said certain life changes like losing your coverage, having a child, turning 26, moving or getting married may qualify you for a special enrollment period.”

People who are qualified for insurance do not get verified for insurance. It is easy to understand that this leads to unstable insurance markets and subsequent increases in premium prices.

It is o.k. for progressives if healthcare insurance is considered a right under a single party payer system with the losses taken by the government even if the deficit increases.

It is not o.k. if the Obamacare healthcare system pretends to be developing an efficient free enterprise system with the healthcare insurance industry experiencing the loss under the weight of unidentified risks created by the federal government.

The number of people not continuing to pay their insurance premiums their entire year is enormous. The healthcare insurance industry had no way of anticipating this occurrence.

“On average,” Aetna said, “special enrollment period enrollees stay with us for less than four months, while enrollees who come to us during the annual open enrollment period maintain their coverage on average for eight to nine months.”

The same turnover rate has happened to UnitedHealth. It is one of the many reasons UnitedHealth has threatened to quit participating in Obamacare in 2017.

The result will be even higher insurance premiums next year. Most of the Obamacare insurance rates are unaffordable this year.

“Enroll America, a nonprofit group with close ties to the Obama administration, said the government “should not tighten eligibility or verification standards in ways that could place an undue burden on consumers.”

There is no verification for late enrollment. The last statement by “Enroll America” reflects President Obama’s progressive and irresponsible attitude toward fiscal responsibility.

It is no wonder the national debt has grown to $19.2 trillion dollars.

It is another way to accelerate the collapse of the healthcare system.

I believe President Obama knows exactly what he is doing. His problem is he does not understand or care about the significance of the effect the deficit increase will have on America’s financial stability.

Middle class Americans are getting slaughtered.

Additionally he does not understand that Americans will not accept a government controlled single party payer system.

The Republican Party must get on the stick right now. They must offer a viable alternative to President Obama’s goal of a single party payer system. They should not wait until after the election.

The alternative should work in an efficient way. It should put consumers in charge of their health and healthcare dollars.

It would be a good idea for Republicans to understand and offer as an alternative My Ideal Medical Saving Accounts.

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

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Destroying The Healthcare System

January 6, 2016

inMedicine: Healthcare System, Stakeholder Abuse of the Healthcare System, Stakeholder Mistrust

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Stanley Feld M.D, FACP,MACE

I believe President Obama’s goal is to destroy the healthcare system. The people will then beg the Obama administration to institute a single party payer system with the government being in full control.

The fact is Obamacare is not working despite the Obama administration’s convincing the mainstream media to advertise that it is very successful.

I was shocked at a December 9^th New York Times article stating:

“ A million new customers have signed up for health insurance during the Affordable Care Act’s third open-enrollment season, Obama administration officials said on Wednesday, and call centers have been deluged.”

This statement is an optimistic statement and a distraction from the true. A readers impression would be Obamacare is doing great.

The Obama administration simply ignored last year’s enrollment numbers. Ten million people were supposed to have signed up for healthcare coverage through the Federal Health Insurance Exchanges. Only seven million of those who signed up paid their premiums for the entire year.

The premiums and deductibles were too high even for the poor who received federal subsidies.

Most of the people remaining in the Obamacare in the federal exchanges were people with a pre-existing illness. One diabetic told me her individual premium for Obamacare was $12,500 dollars with a $6,000 dollar deductible. Her bill for last year, being hospitalized one time, was almost $100,000. She felt Obamacare was a very good deal for her.

The insurance company covering these kinds of patients with a pre-existing illness cannot make money for the insurance coverage they are required to provide.

If all the patients have pre-existing illnesses, the only thing the insurance companies can do is raise the premiums or stop selling insurance in this Federal Health Exchange market.

The Obama administration promised it would limit the insurance industry’s loss with its reinsurance program. The Obama administration reneged on its word and only paid 12% of what was due for 2014. The administration did not have the money to pay for it.

In 2014, the first year of coverage, we were told 13 million signed up, but only 7 million had coverage at the end of the year.

The administration provided data to the CBO to predict the number of enrollees Obamacare will have in 2016. The CBO predicted 21 million would be signed up for 2016. The CBO used data provided by the Obama administration to make this calculation.

What happened to the remaining 7 million enrollees for 2015? We are not told how many enrollees automatically re-enrolled.

We only hear that, ‘ A million new customers have signed up for health insurance.”

We can now understand the concerns expressed by UnitedHealth Group and other insurers that say they are losing money in the Obamacare Federal Health Insurance Exchanges.

Open enrollment is due to end January 1, 2015. In mid December CMS announced,

‘We are now seeing a surge of interest as we get closer to the deadline,” “Each day has been bigger than the day before.”

The last two weeks in December had less that 100,000 people sign up. Yet the government published these numbers. Many wonder how real these numbers are. If they are real there has been no increase in enrollment in the last year.

Confirmed 2016 Exchange QHPs: 9,584,850 as of 12/30/15
Projected Exchange QHPs: 11.32M by 01/02/15 (8.60M via HC.Gov)
In the last week in December only 80,000 people signed up compared to 96,000 the same week last year.

The coverage is poor and too expensive for most people.

Open enrollment has now been extended to January 31 for enrollment March 1^st.

“People who go without insurance next year may be subject to tax penalties of $695 a person or more, although some may be able to qualify for hardship exemptions.”

This is a joke. However, the joke is on the consumers and taxpayers.

So far, Obamacare has created a 10% increase in federal taxes middle-class taxpayers.

It has increased coverage for the Medicaid eligible poor. However, these people cannot find a doctor who will treat them.

The healthcare system is costing over three trillion dollars a year and increasing our deficit more than $1.5 trillion dollar a year. There are still 34 million people uninsured. How many people are under insured because their jobs have been changed to part time jobs? They cannot afford to buy Obamacare’s insurance?

2017 is the year the healthcare insurance markets are supposed to stabilize. These markets have not stabilized. Healthcare insurance companies, and business groups can not understand how the new CMS’ proposals will regulate and expand provider networks and standardize plan options let alone have insurance markets result in lower premiums.
“We remain deeply concerned that this proposed rule will not stabilize the individual market,” Steven Kelmar, Aetna’s executive vice president for corporate affairs, wrote in a letter to the CMS. “Unless some fundamental flaws are corrected, we believe there is a grave risk that the federal exchange will not operate as a viable, competitive market in 2017.”

One of the more significant and controversial provisions in the proposed rules involves the adequacy of provider networks. The CMS proposal demands that ACA-compliant health plans sold on the federal exchanges in 2017 would have to abide by new network standards.

All plan networks would have to include hospitals and doctors within certain travel times or distances from members. There would also be minimum provider-to-member ratios for some medical specialties.

CMS proposed that all health plans in each metal tier on the federal exchange have the same benefits. For example, all 2017 bronze options would have a $6,650 deductible, and all plans would have no more than one provider tier.

This proposal practically guarantees that the healthcare insurance industry selling insurance under Obamacare’s exchanges would lose money. Therefore, the industry would choose not to participate.

The big losers would be patients with preexisting illnesses. They would lose their insurance.

The traditional mainstream media is already cranking up the Obama administration spin machine to promote a single party payer system as the best and simplest option to provide insurance for all Americans.

Nobody is thinking about who will pay for a single party payer system after the administration emotionally conditions the public to beg for a single party payer system.

The hardest by increased costs in the system are consumers at every income level.

As the cost rises to unaffordable levels all consumers are starting to take think about taking responsibility for their health and healthcare dollars.

“The new research also finds that as a result of the increase in health care costs, focus group participants are changing how they operate within the health care system.

They are questioning their doctors recommendations more frequently, comparing cost and quality information for local providers, and even putting off seeking care altogether.”

Despite the low of enrollment in 2016 (that the Obama administration denies), CMS is about to publish new 2017 rules for the insurance industry. These rules are guaranteed to make the healthcare system more dysfunctional.

The fact is the structure of Obamacare is failing and about to collapse.

All of the Obama administration’s tinkering to stop the free fall is creating greater momentum for total collapse of the healthcare system.

The answer to fixing the healthcare system is not a single party payer system.

The answer is a consumer driven healthcare system with the aid of smart phones and the Internet and Medical Savings Accounts.

Progressives have a tendency to forget the math. They have more interest in satisfying an emotional response. The resulting entitlement policies lead to the unintended consequences and only make things worse.

Neil Cavuto demonstrated this logic recently in an interview with a student campaigning for free student loans.

https://youtu.be/Zmji36q8E4o

Progressives’ logic is faulty. It demonstrates a lack of understanding of the affects of entitlements and their unintended consequences.
The opinions expressed in the blog “Repairing The Healthcare System” are, mine and mine alone.

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December 13, 2015

inDisinformation and the healthcare system, Medicine: Healthcare System, Stakeholder Abuse of the Healthcare System, Stakeholder Mistrust

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The Disinformation Continues

Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP,MACE

A simple definition of well-informed in Merrian Websters dictionary of is:

having a lot of knowledge about current topics, a particular situation, etc.
based on fact

A simple definition disinformation in Merrian Websters dictionary of is:

false information that is given to people in order to make them believe something or to hide the truth.

Most of us like to be well-informed. It is almost impossible for a person to be well informed about a subject that they are casually interested in when President Obama and his administration control the information. It does not matter what the subject is.

The traditional mainstream media led by the New York Times picks up on the administration’s press releases. The traditional mainstream media then pretends to help us become well-informed citizens.

The problem is we are feed disinformation and have the truth hidden from view.

The First Amendment protects Americans. Students of an issue can see through the disinformation. These students of an issue attempt to inform themselves and others using by connecting facts from government reports to help people become well informed about the facts.

The use of these facts through the Internet is driving President Obama and his administration crazy. The administration is having trouble controlling the message.

President Obama is trying to control the media in many subtle ways

The New York Times, on Thursday December 9^th, published a stunning example of disinformation.

I signed up for the New York Times Daily Briefing to stay “well informed” on multiple current events according to the New York Times.

The Thursday December 10^th headline was:

NYTimes: Your Thursday Briefing: Donald Trump, San Bernardino, ‘Serial’ Podcast

7:13 AM (3 hours ago)

“Here’s a story from The New York Times I thought you’d find interesting:

Here’s what you need to know to start your day.

Read More: http://nyti.ms/1Q2A3vQ

Get The New York Times on your mobile device

Here is one of the topics covered in the daily

Health insurance deadline nears.

One million new customers have signed up for health insurance during the Affordable Care Act’s third open-enrollment season. The deadline for coverage beginning Jan. 1 is Tuesday.

At the same time, a little-noticed provision that Senator Marco Rubio slipped into a giant spending law is quietly undermining the health care law.

It is impressive that “One million new customers have signed up for health insurance during the Affordable Care Act’s third open-enrollment season. The deadline for coverage beginning Jan. 1 is Tuesday.”

ACAsignups.net publishes government release enrollment numbers weekly. These are the December 9th numbers.

Confirmed 2016 Exchange QHPs: 3,260,356 as of 12/09/15 Estimated 2016 Exchange QHPs: 4.73M as of 12/09/15 (3.60M via HCgov)

Projected Exchange QHPs: 5.76M by 12/12/15 (4.34M via HC.Gov)

Projected #OE3 QHP Selections: 14.70M nationally (11.23M via HC.gov)

Projected #OE3 QHP Selections by State

http://acasignups.net

The problem is that maybe 9 million signed up last year.

Where are last year’s enrollees with 3 weeks to go in until January 1, 2016? Christmas to New Years consumes one week of enrollment. Holiday shopping will consumer the other two weeks.

Why did the government reduce the expected enrollment to 5 million when enrollment was 9 million last year?

Does the Obama administration expect 4 million people to drop out of Obamacare because it is too expensive?

Why did the Obama administration’s information given to the CBO caused the CBO to predict an enrollment of 21 million enrollees for 2016?

The New York Times Daily Briefing suggests to the well- informed reader that 1 million new enrollees is a good number.

What happened to the old enrollees?

The 1 million new enrollees is being used as further evidence that Paul Krugman is correct when he declares that Obamacare is working.

In actual fact 1 million new enrollees out of the 3.6 million confirmed enrollees is a terrible number. It tells us that only 2.6 old enrollees renewed their coverage.

The New York Times bias is subtle but real.

The second part of the Daily Briefing is even more revealing of the New York Times bias.

At the same time, a little-noticed provision that Senator Marco Rubio slipped into a giant spending law is quietly undermining the health care law.

We do not know how much Obamacare is costing the taxpayers in direct costs. The average American is feeling the cost in higher deductibles and insurance premiums with less coverage.

No one is considering the direct costs of the hidden tax increases written into Obamacare. Obamacare’s hidden taxes increased everyone tax bill 10% both directly and indirectly.

It is not the Republicans’ fault that this is happening. President Obama’s administration has not told the American people what the direct cost to the government is with all the inefficiency that has been built into the system.

Some have estimated that the start up costs are over 1 trillion dollars.

President Obama has been spending money on Obamacare like a drunken sailor. Marco Rubio put a cap on that spending. President Obama signed the cap into law.

The spending cap has resulted in an underpayment of 88% of the reinsurance bill due to the healthcare insurance industry.

The reinsurance bailout program should have never happened. It was an anticipated bailout of the healthcare insurance industry’s loss due to participating in the defective provisions in Obamacare.

The New York Times’ Daily Briefing suggests that Senator Rubio is undermining Obamacare by trying to slow down spending and decrease losses.

At the same time, a little-noticed provision that Senator Marco Rubio slipped into a giant spending law is quietly undermining the health care law.

This is a typical Saul Alinsky tactic. The tactic of blaming the next guy is a tactic used daily by the Obama administration.

I feel sorry for the country, and my well-informed liberal, progressive and sophisticated friends who are being influenced by this misinformation.

The weird thing is they believe their opinion is absolutely correct. I say they should start reading the New York Times carefully to see the subtle way the Obama administration feeds and molds our opinions and hides the truth.

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

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Breaking The Law Again

December 9, 2015

inDisinformation and the healthcare system, Medicine: Healthcare System, Stakeholder Abuse of the Healthcare System, Stakeholder Mistrust

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Stanley Feld M.D, FACP,MACE

The mainstream media is biased. It usually supports the Obama administration blindly. Many intelligent liberals believe everything in the New York Times and what Paul Krugman says as if both were source material.

The New York Times and the TV networks ignored the initial press release by United Healthcare potentially withdrawing from the 38 federal health insurance exchanges in 2017. Fox news was the only cable network that covered the story.

The potential withdrawal is a very big deal. It is an indication that Obamacare is failing. Paul Krugman continually declares Obamacare is a success.

In order to induce United Healthcare’s participation in Obamacare’s health insurance exchanges the Obama administration guaranteed the healthcare insurance industry stop loss protection.

Then the Obama administration only paid 12.6% of the $2.8 billion dollars due the healthcare insurance industry under the stop loss agreement.

“Health insurance stocks took a nasty tumble last week, and maybe the markets are realizing that ObamaCare isn’t performing as well as the political class pretends.”

“The immediate cause of the selloff was UnitedHealth Group ’s shock $425 million downgrade to its earnings forecast for 2015, almost entirely driven by losses on the Affordable Care Act exchanges. “

United Healthcare did not sign up to sell insurance in the federal health insurance exchanges originally because it was afraid it would suffer large losses. It signed up only after President Obama activated the stop loss provision embedded in the reinsurance program of Obamacare legislation.

The United Healthcare announcement comes only a few weeks after 12 of 23 smaller, nonprofit insurance cooperatives failed and stopped selling insurance to Obamacare subscribers. These co-ops received billions of dollars in federal loans that will never be paid back to the nations taxpayers.

These cooperatives were given federal loans by the Obama administration in order to be competitive with the big insurance companies.

The federal health insurance exchanges attracted people with pre-existing illness. President Obama’s legacy law guarantees people with pre-existing illness availability to healthcare insurance at the same price as people without pre-existing illness.

People with pre-existing illnesses cost more than people without existing illness.

The resultant premiums are high and the deductibles are higher. Consumers who qualify for subsidies do not receive subsidies for the $6000 deductibles.

Young healthy consumers are not buying insurance from the federal health exchanges. They have figured out that they are not getting insurance coverage until they spend the $6,000 deductible.

These young consumers did not earn enough money to afford the high premiums and higher deductibles. The poor cannot afford the deductibles either. No one at low risk is signing up for Obamacare.

In order to keep Obamacare going the Obama administration needs the healthcare insurance industry. The healthcare insurance industry performs all the administrative services for the government.

United Healthcare is not interested in selling insurance on the health insurance exchanges because the government has not been trustworthy and has not paid them what was promised.

The stop loss insurance should not have been promised to the healthcare insurance industry in the first place. However, President Obama jumped in and essentially gave the healthcare insurance industry the ability to sell insurance at no risk.

United healthcare did not sign up for 2013 but jumped into the Health Insurance Exchanges in 2015 because of the government’s stop loss guarantee.

Obamacare now owes the healthcare insurance industry 2.5 billion dollars. The budget contained an amendment that does not permit the government to reimburse more than it collected in premiums. Both houses of congress and President Obama signed the amendment into law.

At present President Obama has pledged to pay out the risk corridors payments despite the massive shortfall in the near term.

All President Obama has to do is ignore the law he signed in order pay the $2.5 billion dollars illegally. If he pays United Healthcare the money due it might continue to participate in Obamacare’s federal healthcare insurance exchanges.

HHS “will explore other sources of funding for risk corridors payments, subject to the availability of appropriations. This includes working with Congress on the necessary funding for outstanding risk corridors payments.”

“The risk corridors program, one of three health insurance risk programs established by the Obamacare, essentially helps mitigate insurers’ losses in the early years of the new insurance marketplaces. The risk corridors program expires after 2016.”

United Healthcare is in business to maximize profits and not to lose money on good deeds.

Obamacare’s business model is a terrible model destined to lose trillions of taxpayers’ dollars. United is not interested in losing billions of dollars doing the government a favor.

Paul Krugman continues to tell his readers Obamacare is working wonderfully despite fact that it is failing. Major media networks have hardly described the problem.

It will be worse if we go to a single party payer system. Socialism has never worked.

It should be all about consumer driven healthcare and market forces driving healthcare with consumers being responsible for their health and healthcare dollars.

Government only function should be to create simple regulations that none of the stakeholders should abuse. The government must execute the enforcement of these simple regulations.

My ideal medical savings account will work. It will permit universal healthcare coverage and eliminate the development of the massive, inefficient and dysfunctional healthcare system called Obamacare.

Obamacare is unsustainable. It is being proven every day even if it is ignored by the traditional media, President Obama and his administration and Paul Krugman.

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

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Obamacare Is In Big Trouble!

November 18, 2015

inMedicine: Healthcare System, Politicians,Healthcare and Vested Interests, Stakeholder Mistrust

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Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP,MACE

There are so many parts of Obamacare that are failing it would be impossible to describe each failure in a single blog..

President Obama and his administration keeps telling the American people that Obamacare is working great. It is here to stay.

I cannot believe Americans believe him. I cannot believe he thinks Obamacare is doing great.

It could be true that everything is going great for him if he wants Obamacare to fail and cause hardship for millions of Americans.

At that point Americans would beg President Obama or another progressive president loke Hillary Clinton to institute a single party payer system.

A single party payer system has been Hillary’s dream since Hillarycare 1993. Now she is saying she wants a private insurance based system. The purpose of this statement is to neutralize (freeze) her free market system critics.

Once more America is being exposed to Hillary Clinton’s use of a typical Saul Alinsky tactic. The tactic in his “Rules for Radicals” is to freeze your opponent by stating his position as yours even if it is a lie.

Hillary wrote her senior Wellesley College thesis on Saul Alinsky and “Rules for Radicals”. She also became a big fan and good friend of his.

Hillary Clinton and President Obama know Obamacare is failing. They are just waiting for the tipping point. The tipping point will be when the American people say please help us and give us a single party payer system.

At that point we will hear the typical gee shucks, I guess we will have to try a single party payer system.

A single party payer system will be a bigger financial and patient care disaster than what we have now.

The data on the first week of applications for Obamacare’s healthcare.gov was announced to the rave reviews by the Obama administration.

Since few pay attention to the actual numbers President Obama can get away with the lie.

The CBO predicts 19 to 21 million will sign up for Obamacare for 2016. The administration estimates they are going to have 9.1 to 11 million enrollees for 2016.

The Obama administrations estimate is 30% lower than the announce 13 million enrollees in 2015. In reality only 9.7 million enrollee paid for healthcare insurance through healthcare.gov 2015. Of those 9 million only 6.5 million kept their insurance premiums current for the entire year.

The www.acasignup.net quoted the Obama administrations claim that 595,590 filled out applications to get price insurance quotes. Only 8% of the reported applicants or 47,243 paid their first month’s premium for 2016.

These numbers are not a cause for celebration unless you want to misinform the public by claiming a successful first week enrollment.

Let’s do the math. The enrollment period for 2016 is from November 1^st until December 31^st 2015 or eight and one have weeks with four major holidays, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years.

Let us the assume all 600,000 that filled out applications will pass the application requirements and pay their assigned premium for each month. Let us also assume the average weekly application rate is 600,000 per week for the 81/2 weeks. The grand total enrollees would be 5.1 million enrollees for 2016. This is 4.5 million less paid enrollees than in 2015.

There was an attrition rate 2% a month in 2015. President Obama extended the enrollment period several times to get more people to sign up.

2015 FULL YEAR ENROLLMENT/ATTRITION RATE TABLE PROJECTION:

2014 FULL YEAR ENROLLMENT/ATTRITION RATE TABLE (FINAL):

It is clear that President Obama’s victory laps celebrating the success of Obamacare is unwarranted.

However the media is the message. He controls and manipulates the media. It would have been much easier to provide Medicaid and CHIP coverage to the poor outright than destroying the healthcare system with changes that are not working.

The final enrollment for 2014 was 6,338,622 not over 13 million. The final enrollment for 2015 was 9,736,350 and not over 13 million. This is a net gain of 3.5 million new paying enrollees in 2015.

This year the Obama administration estimates that 9 million will purchase insurance through the health insurance exchanges. At the present rate only 5.1 million will purchase insurance for 2016 at the end of the enrollment period December 31, 2015.

The CBO’s estimate was 19-21 million paid enrollees.

It does not represent a very successful net gain when the government publishes that there are 34 million uninsured Americans. No one knows if the 90 million unemployed Americans are counted in the number uninsured.

All anyone hears is the Obama administration’s reasons our taxes, and insurance premiums are going up, while our insurance coverage is going down. The Obama administration is blaming the healthcare insurance industry and Republicans.

President Obama has used, with the help of the mainstream media, the Saul Alinsky tactic to freeze opponents by shocking them with unsustainable factoids.

The Avalere Health consultancy’s analysis of 2015 signup data showed surprisingly weak ObamaCare enrollment at modest income levels. At between 150% and 200% of the poverty level, just 41% of those eligible signed up for coverage. The number falls to 30% among those between 200% and 250% of the poverty level.

In 2016 President Obama is going to penalize people that do not have healthcare insurance.

It’s now clear that the actual impact of ObamaCare’s individual mandate tax penalty will be far worse than the benign intent that the Obama administration claimed.

“What we’re talking about is a penalty for the few people who will refuse to buy health insurance — even though they can afford it — and who expect the rest of us to pick up the tab for their care,” a September 2009 White House defense of the individual mandate states.”

Reality should be coming into focus by now for the average American taxpayer and the poor. Obamacare is ripping everyone off.

“The mandate’s primary impact will be to compel low-income households to buy bronze coverage with deductibles of up to $6,850 per adult that are well beyond their capacity to afford. “

Even after these poor people pay the $6,850 deductible they have a 40% deductible on the rest of the billing.

Who said poor people are too stupid to handle their own money and be responsible for their healthcare dollars?

They are smart enough to know the government is ripping them off.

George Shore101 • 3 months ago

“If the Obama administration and Democrats love the poor why did they force the poor to purchase something they can not afford and then penalize them for not being able to afford it?”

It is a horrible thought to think President Obama is working to make the poor poorer and make the healthcare system fail the American people.

It looks like he is. His plan to replace it with a single party payer system will result in a bigger failure.

Why are Republicans just standing around doing nothing? Why don’t they publicize my Ideal Medical Saving Accounts?

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

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A Message That Needs Repeating

November 11, 2015

inMedicine: Healthcare System, Stakeholder Mistrust

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Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP,MACE

Obamacare has not been discussed in the traditional mainstream media very much these days even though open enrollment begun on November 1^st.

Senator Marc Rubio is correct. The traditional mainstream media is President Obama’s and the Democratic Party’s main special interest group and super pac.

They have keep Americans blind to what is really going on in America as they report President Obama’s and the Democrats lies as if they are the truth.

Americans have been programmed to be a headline and sound bite society.

President Obama and the Democrats do not allow us to be critical thinkers because they do not expose us to the true facts.

Consumers can think critically if they have the actual facts and not manufactured sound bites.

We are being driven toward a socialistic society. Socialism does not work. Americans will soon realize this. They will not like it at all.

This is happening in economics, finance, healthcare and welfare.

People must be responsible for themselves and not be dependent on the government.

Why? The answer is simply because bureaucracies will decide what we can have and what we cannot have. The inevitable corruption that develops because of bureaucracies is destroying our freedoms.

Ayn Rand in Atlas Shrugged, published in 157 developed this thesis in a simple love story as she observed the destruction of incentives, initiatives and innovation.

Progressives continually lie about her message and try to marginalize her as evil in compliance with Saul Alinsky’s “Rules for Radicals.”

Democrats and Ayn Rand

October 5, 2014

Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP,MACE

http://stanfeld.com/democrats-and-ayn-rand/

I have never understood why Democrats have always belittled Ayn Rand. Atlas Shrugged is reported to be the best selling book in history aside from the Bible.

I first read it in 1959, two years after it was published. It is a weak love story but a powerful critique of government policy and the effect of expanding government control over society.

I did not think about it much during medical school.

I thought about it when the government started to control my endocrinology practice in the early 1970’s.

In 1984 my son, Brad when he was at MIT, insisted I read Atlas Shrugged again. It describes exactly the effect the government was having on the practice of medicine.

I did not understand why Democrats in congress and the Democratic Party members become were so angry with Ayn Rand and her philosophy. I thought Democrats were problem solvers for the benefit of the people.

I finally realized that Ayn Rand’s writings are a dangerous threat to the Democrats’ progressive agenda. The Democrat’s agenda is the government’s control over society turning free citizens into clients of big government.

In this election season the Democrats have decided to combine their anti-Rand rhetoric with a Saul Alinsky tactic.

The Democrats are trying to immobilize Republicans’ replies through a replay of their anti-Rand sound bites. They are using the traditional mainstream media to spread their disinformation.

If a reader wants to know what Ayn Rand’s philosophy is read Atlas Shrugged. I suspect most critics have not read the book.

Democrats attack Ayn Rand by misrepresenting her philosophy as evil.

This year the Democrats’ attack dog is House Minority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.).

“ He accused Republicans of following author Ayn Rand’s advice that “compromise is always evil,” and warned that letting Republicans take over Congress would only lead to more gridlock and partisanship.”

In reality comprise is usually evil. If a policy or law is wrong, compromising will not fix the problem that policy or law set out to fix. According to Ayn Rand there are issues in which compromise is evil. If a law or policy does not work compromise can be evil is if is not modified by compromise.

Steny Hoyer’s warning Republicans taking over congress would only lead to more gridlock and partisanship does not logically follow the first part of his sentence.

The House of Representatives have passed about 350 bills. A 98% of the House passed bills were bipartisan.

Harry Reid, chairman of the senate, has created the gridlock by not permitting these bills to be brought to committee or the senate floor for debate.

Harry Reid has been President Obama’s inarticulate creator of gridlock.

“Compromise is not evil,” Hoyer said. “It is the necessary and noble pursuit of those who govern responsibly in a democracy. We listen to one another. We come to an agreement.”

Harry Reid has not compromised on anything. Neither has President Obama.

How does Steny Hoyer have the chutzpah to make such a statement?

Why doesn’t the traditional media react to this ridiculous statement.

Steny Hoyer’s statement is the typical Saul Alinsky lie crafted to immobilize the enemy’s ability to have a strong reply.

If a policy is wrong and is not working or has not been working reasonable men should debate the issue and change the policy so it works to the benefit of the people.

The policy must be changed. It is the responsibility of both parties to change it to something that can work for the benefit of all the people.

Obamacare is a law forced through congress by a Democratic majority that is not working. Compromise can only make it worse.

Who is to blame for congressional gridlock?

Is it the Republicans or Democrats?

If there were a Republican majority in the Senate and bills passed both houses President Obama has threatened to veto the bills. He would then be responsible for his errors not Harry Reid.

Hoyer accused House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and others as following Rand’s teachings when it comes to operating Congress.

The implication is Paul Ryan is evil.

The message is President Obama knows what is good for the people. Therefore. elect Democrats to congress this fall.

Which of President Obama and the Democrat’s policies have worked? All are failing at the expense of the middle class taxpayer.

President Obama’s policy decisions have been proven wrong daily.

He has created chaos in the healthcare system with Obamacare.
He has increased the costs of unsustainable entitlements programs.
Obamacare is another unsustainable entitlement program.
He has increased the deficit from $11 trillion dollars to $17 trillion dollars.
America’s foreign policy is chaotic.
America’s economy is still a mess and getting worse even though the President claims it is better.
People are more dependent on government.
Individual privacy had been violated.
Independence has been discouraged.
Individual responsibility has been discouraged.
Cronyism has been promoted..

President Obama wants to do away with racism yet makes every issue a racist issue and blames it on Republicans.

I think before Steny Hoyer and the Democrats start attacking Republicans who might have been influenced by Any Rand, he should read Atlas Shrugged or at least watch the three-part movie.

“He should reexamine his premises.” (A John Galt quote).

President Obama’s own party members are running away from his concepts of big government and central control in order to be elected.

They are sounding like Republicans.

The people are realizing that “Big Government” has had difficulty in doing anything efficiently.

These days government competence is all too often exposed as a fragile veneer. When an elite corps like the Secret Service can’t remember to lock the White House’s front door and alleged health technocrats can’t build a working Obamacare website for less than $2 billion, a sense of low-level worry about Ebola seems more than reasonable.”

President Obama is always blaming his failures on President George W. Bush or his advisors.

Many of President Obama’s advisors are now blaming Republicans for their agencys’ shortcomings. Even Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Health Infectious Disease division, is implying Republicans are to blame for the agencey’s lack of efficient response to the Ebola virus epidemic.

“Nor does it inspire confidence that the head of infectious diseases for the CDC is resorting to that promiscuous federal excuse—budget cuts.

Anthony Fauci recently told Congress that sequestration “has, both in an acute and in a chronic insidious way, eroded our ability to respond in the way that I and my colleagues would like to see us be able to respond to these emerging threats.”

Is this a joke? There are many other examples of shifting blame such as our foreign policy crisis in the middle east, the crisis with ISIS, nuclear Iran, Israel/Hamas and the Arab spring to name a few.

All these excuses remind me of the excuses that characters in Atlas Shrugged used when the world was falling apart.

“As I listened to President Obama’s repeated statements that government was going to somehow fix what Obama calls “income inequality” it brought to mind several of the more depressing chapters of Any Rand’s novel Atlas Shrugged, which you recall envisioned a dystopian world in which government “looters” stripped society’s producers, thinkers and creators of the fruits of their labor in the name of equalizing society.”

“The looting of the fruit of their labor provoked the producers to withdraw from society. Without producers, thinkers and creators there was an economic implosion and society rapidly declined and fell into chaos.”

Every time President Obama mentions government enforced income equality or government-led opportunity I think of the villains in Atlas Shrugged such as the politician Wesley Mouch (New York Senator Chuck Schumer) or crony capitalist Orren Boyle (various green energy vampires) to name only two.

In the words of Yogi Berra, “It feels like Deja Vu all over again.”

Please think about this as we look at both the Republican candidates and Hillary Clinton during this Presidential election season.

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

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I Told You What To Do 8 Years Ago: Part 3

November 4, 2015

inMedicine: Healthcare System, Stakeholder Abuse of the Healthcare System, Stakeholder Mistrust

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Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP,MACE

I told you about all my ideas necessary to repair the healthcare system 8 years ago. None of the ideas have changed

Politicians and their healthcare policy wonks have not implement or supported any of theses ideas. The adoption of Obamacare has made the healthcare system worse.

“The hardest thing to explain is the glaringly evident, which everybody has decided not to see.”

Any Rand, The Fountainhead

It is a pity that the public votes for people who hold their vested interest and their quest for power above the needs of the people.

It is worse that the traditional media works as a special interest group to support the politicians’ quest for power over the people.

Our government is getting further from the solution to the problems of our healthcare system in order to force consumers to be more dependent on big government and less responsible for themselves.

The end game will be a disaster for Americans, our freedoms and our financial well-being.

My ideas do not support the vested interests of secondary stakeholders. I support consumers’ interest. Many of these secondary stakeholders are abusing the healthcare system. They take advantage of consumers.

The government is one of those secondary stakeholders that cause dysfunction in the healthcare system with its endless regulations.

The government regulations are written to control physicians and patients..

Consumers’ health and their healthcare dollars must be the responsibility of the consumers. A consumer driven healthcare system is the only way to stop the evolving medical care and financial disaster.

This week the progressives in Colorado blew my mind. They want to eliminate Obamacare because it has failed and replace it with a state run single party payer system.

This group has 200,000 signatures to petition that its proposal be put on the 2016 ballot.

In the small print they are proposing a $25 billion dollar tax increase to pay for the proposal.

Obamacare has resulted in increasing the cost and dysfunction of the healthcare care system. The adoption of this single party payer system will make it worse.

I am sure many people in Colorado are unaware of the progressives’ stinking thinking.

However, the petition is the first step in President Obama’s scheme to make thing so bad that the people beg the government to take over the entire healthcare system.

This tactic is right out of Saul Alinsky’s playbook and right up Hillary Clinton’s alley.

Meanwhile, “What Have I Said So Far? Spring 2007 Part 3 is republished below.

Maybe people will start paying attention to what is happening in our healthcare system before it is too late.

For more details on each proposal please click on the links.

“What Have I Said So Far? Spring 2007 Part 3

Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP, MACE

The following are additional solutions necessary for the Repair of the Healthcare System

Develop Centers of Excellence and Focused Factories in both hospital based clinics and physician outpatient clinics to treat chronic diseases by a team of multi disciplinary experts using systems of care based on evidenced based medicine.

Disease management systems can be developed in primary care physicians’ offices because there are not enough specialists to take care of all the patients with chronic disease.

Treating chronic diseases this way should lower the complication rate for chronic diseases. The result should be a reduction in the cost of healthcare by at least 45%.

Emphasis should be place on teaching the patient how to be the “professor of his disease”. Payment should be available to the Center of Excellence for this education.
Promotion of and payment for early evaluation, recognition and treatment of chronic diseases is essential to detect and prevent the complication of these chronic diseases and lower the cost of healthcare.
A sophisticated information system connecting medical care with financial outcomes. An ideal EHR should be made available to physicians on a per use basis so that the investment cost is not a burden to the physician. The information technology should be used as a learning tool for the physician to continually improve the quality of care and not as a weapon to penalize physicians.
Quality of care should be defined aswhom to evaluate, how to evaluate, whom to treat, how to treat, how long to treat, how often the patient should be seen, how often the patient should be retested, and the measurement of adherence to medication.

Measurement of quality should be all of the above. However, the key measurement of quality is the medical outcome as it relates to the financial outcome. If you prevent a $50,000 complication utilizing $1,000 of treatment you have a leveraged financial outcome as well as an excellent medical outcome.

The main question is, “was the complication of the chronic disease avoided?” We are misguided when we start believing that measuring the percentage of our patients we measure cholesterol on, or the percentage of patients on whom we do colonoscopies or bone densities is a measure of quality of care.

It is simply one element of quality medical care and it should not be rewarded as the Pay 4 Performance advocates are suggesting. This thinking makes us vulnerable to another false hope of reducing complications of chronic diseases.

Increasing obesity in our population is a huge health risk.The government should declare war on obesity. It should strive to eliminate the many stimuli we are exposed to. It should institute a gigantic public media campaign to explain the health risks and the stimuli in society to overeat.
The most important need is to put the patient in charge of his disease management. The patient must be responsible for his care and in control of his health care dollar. We do not need more schemes destined to fail such as;

the California and Massachusetts mandates. We do not need the Pay 4 Performance scheme that will distort the healthcare system even further.

We need some common sense infused into the development of a healthcare system that is driven by the patients and not the facilitator stakeholder for the purpose of the facilitator stakeholders’ bottom line.

If patients do not want to take care of themselves they will suffer medically and financially.

These are some of the solutions I have proposed. We need the political will and leadership to institute and execute these solutions.

Responsibility for follow up care and compliance must be the patient. The physicians are the teachers educating patients to be experts in their disease self- management.

In the present system the penalty to the patient is bad health. The new system should have a clear message of good health and financial reward. It is much cheaper for all the stakeholders in the long run.

The patient has to;
• Be responsible for the purchase of care.
• Have ready access to care.
• Be responsible for the appropriate adherence to care and medication regime given by the physicians.
• Be rewarded for excellent lifestyle changes and avoidance of complications of disease.

If this is accomplished, and it can be with appropriate leadership and the demand by the consumer, we can repair the healthcare system.”

It is almost past time to start listening and demanding a “consumer driven healthcare system.”

Consumers have Patient Power and do not even know it.

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

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I Told You What To Do 8 Years Ago

October 28, 2015

inDisinformation and the healthcare system, Medicine: Healthcare System, Politicians,Healthcare and Vested Interests, Stakeholder Abuse of the Healthcare System, Stakeholder Mistrust

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Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP,MACE

I started my blog Repairing The Healthcare System in 2006. I methodically described the defects in the Healthcare System.

I provided healthcare alternatives in policy and regulations to both Democrats and Republicans to Repair the Healthcare System.

No one listened to me.

In 2007 the healthcare system was unaffordable and unmanageable.

Republicans had some weak ideas and no inclusive business model for the future.

The election of President Obama and the partisan passage of Obamacare have accelerated our healthcare system’s demise.

I believe President Obama’s goal is to destroy the healthcare system. He wants it replaced with a single party payer system (2003). Consumers of healthcare know the government cannot manage healthcare.

American cannot sustain Obamacare financially. Consumers cannot be sustained medically with Obamacare or after the collapse of Obamacare with a government run single party payer system.

The obvious proof is the dysfunction and failure of the VA Healthcare System, Medicaid and Medicare.

All these healthcare systems are government run single party payer systems. All are unsustainable.

As I was archiving my blogs I ran across four blogs I wrote in 2007 outlining the problems and what should be done about them.

The government has made none of the repairs I have suggested. Obamacare has made the situation worse. I will present all four parts of “What Have I Said So Far? Spring 2007” consecutively as written.

“What Have I Said So Far? Spring 2007 Part 1

Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP,MACE

April 01, 2007 in Medicine: Healthcare System

In August 2006 I summarized my blog to that point. I outlined some important solutions necessary to Repair the Healthcare System.

Since then I have covered many of the solutions to the key questions I raised. Not one of these questions has been addressed effectively by our leadership or people in control of making policy.

One must ask: Do they really want to solve the problems in healthcare delivery in this country or are they focused on preserving their own vested interest to the exclusion of a breakthrough that might benefit not only their vested interests but the vested interest of all the stakeholders.

The questions were:

How do we reduce the cost of medical care? • How do we provide affordable insurance for the 45 million people uninsured?
• How to we provide affordable medical care coverage so that all the patients can have access to medical care?
• How do we align all stakeholder incentives?
• How do we construct a system so that all the stakeholders make a reasonable return on investment?
• How do we close the holes in the system to eliminate abuse by stakeholders?
• How do we restore trust between stakeholders?
• How do we restore trust between the patient and physician?
• How do we stop secondary facilitator stakeholders from continuously destroying the patient physician relationship?

In reality, developing solutions to these questions are in themselves business opportunities for facilitator stakeholders that can help Repair the Healthcare System.

However, neither the insurance industry, hospital systems, nor the government see the long term advantage and economic opportunity.

In a comment to my blog Shel Isreal said “

98% of the people think it is broken and the other 2% work for the insurance industry.

The insurance industry has the money and the power.”

http://stanleyfeldmdmace.typepad.com/repairing_the_healthcare_/2007/01/the_ideal_elect.html.

However, we have demonstrated the abuse and misuse of the power of information technology by the insurance industry. The misuse and abuse has lead to further dysfunction in the healthcare system and mistrust by the hospitals and physicians.

The insurance industry and the government have used information technology to penalize both physicians and patients using the wrong data to draw their conclusions.

Insurance companies do not have the information technology resources to measure the correct parameters to measure quality care.

I do not see an attempt on their part to correct this deficiency. I only see a movement to make the healthcare system worse with a Pay for Performance (P4P) reimbursement system that is not well thought out. .

It is essential that the solutions I have proposed be coordinated and introduced simultaneously as a single plan rather than introducing elements of the solution separately.

Unfortunately, the government with the pressures of its present political vested interest influences finds it difficult to present the components of repair as a single plan.

The solutions will have to be driven by the consumer (the patient) and not the government. The patients have the power to drive the solutions because they are the users of the healthcare system. If they were the purchases of healthcare, some clever entrepreneur could provide the option for a compelling insurance product that could reward the patient for being responsible for their own care and well being.

The insurance produce could be built to fix the healthcare system.

All that is needed is for the government to write sensible regulations, enforce them and get out of the way.”

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

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Healthcare Spending Increases To 18.2% of GDP

October 27, 2015

inMedicine: Healthcare System, Politicians,Healthcare and Vested Interests

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Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP, MACE

Healthcare spending has increased each year. Healthcare spending is now 18.2% of the GDP up from 17.7% in 2014.

In 2000 it was 14% of the GDP.

The data presented in the following charts are partially correct. They are derived from clams data which are also partially correct. The charts can give an idea on how the healthcare money is

spent. and wasted.

Wasted Money

Drivers of increased Healthcare Spending

Distribution of Healthcare Spending

There are many reasons for this increase. The Obama administration prefers to blame the increasing spending on his most popular reasons.

His reasons might not be completely true.

The traditional media then publicizes the President Obama’s popular reasons. The reasons get translated into public understanding and public opinion.

President Obama’s reasons for the increased healthcare spending are hospitals’ and physicians’ prices are increasing. Hospital and physician retail prices are increases. However, their insurance reimbursement has decreased. Public opinion then demands that physicians decrease their prices.

The reality is physician reimbursement has been steadily declining in recent years as spending has been increasing.

I have continually pointed this out.

Medicare, Medicaid and private insurance have forced physicians to accept lower reimbursement. Patients are increasingly discovering that “my doctor doesn’t take my insurance or my Medicare or my Medicaid.”

Consumers without insurance coverage are charged retail price by hospitals and physicians rather than the discounted prices hospitals and physicians accept.

These consumers can try to negotiate the prices. They are usually more successful with physicians than hospitals.

Decreasing reimbursement is one of the main reasons physicians are driven to see more and more patients in less and less time.

Physicians must continue to pay overhead and salaries.

This phenomenon of increased patient volume disrupts the magic of the physician/patient relationship. It is also the driving force behind the massive increase in concierge medicine.

If it is not the rise in physician reimbursement, what is the reason for the increase in healthcare spending?

There are several possibilities.

GDP is increasing at a lower rate than healthcare spending.
Consumers are sicker. They need more medical and surgical care than previously.
Healthcare insurance premiums are increasing at a greater rate than the GDP.
Bureaucratic support of the healthcare system is growing at a greater rate than the GDP.
Pharmaceutical use is increasing because a sicker population needs more drugs.
RNA Technology has lead to the discovery of more potent therapies that are costly to the healthcare system.

Statistics published by the Altarum Institute in July suggest that President Obama and his fans in the traditional media reevaluate their premises about the rising healthcare spending.

“Out-of-control spending on prescriptions drugs and the soaring cost of health insurance administration continue to be the two major drivers behind rising healthcare costs.”

Healthcare spending grew to $3.3 trillion in this year.

Prescription drug spending increased by 9.2% from the previous year. Part of that increase was the introduction of new drugs.

The Obama administration ignores the fact that more people are becoming sick because of an increase in obesity, diabetes and hypertension. These people now have to take medicine, see doctors, and buy medical devices.

Administration services costs and net costs of health insurance (after paying medical bills) have increased 9.4% from a year ago.

These costs included government bureaucratic costs, insurance bureaucratic costs, out of pocket expenses and insurance premium costs.

How much waste is in all these administrative services costs.

3. Hospital spending rose 6.1% from a year ago. Hospital bureaucracy has been try how to decrease spending by decreasing waste and personal. However, bureaucracy and unnecessary administrators and outrageous hospital executive salaries continue to increase.

Physician and outpatient clinical expenditures rose 5.0%.

Physician investment in medical structures and equipment rose only 1.7%. Physicians are reluctant to make investments in a failing healthcare system.

Each category in the various graphs above reveals opportunities to decrease the cost of medical care.

It cannot be done by the government’s complete take over of healthcare.

The government is the problem as we have seen and still are seeing with the VA Healthcare system.

Socialism does not work. In leads to unintended consequences as consumers adjust to the rules and regulations of an attempt to manage society.

Consumers must demand rule changes and permit the market place to sort things out.

Repair of the healthcare system can only occur in a consumer driven healthcare system with consumers in control of their healthcare and their healthcare dollars.
The opinions expressed in the blog “Repairing The Healthcare System” are, mine and mine alone

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