Another Trap From Ezekiel Emanuel and President Obama
Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP,MACE
President Obama and Ezekiel Emanuel set a trap in the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) for all Americans including middle class and upper class wage earners.
The administration has claimed that 7.1 million people have signed up on the exchanges as of March 31, 2014. It is now 10 days after his April 1st claim.
I doubt that we are going to have a breakdown of the enrollees. I doubt that we are going to hear anything about the Rand Corp survey showing that only 875,000 people actually signed up for insurance that did not have insurance previously.
I have not heard any demands for those numbers from the traditional media or congress. It looks like President Obama got away with another one to the American people.
Ezekiel Emanuel M.D. is one of the main architects of Obamacare.
President Obama’s promised the American people that you can keep your doctor if you like your doctor and if you like your plan you can keep your plan. President Obama knew it was a lie before Obamacare was passed. Dr. Emanuel admitted as much in his multiple television interviews
Americans are starting to see another lie beginning to unfold. President Obama promised that his health insurance exchanges are a free market solution to promote competition. It looks like he knew that this was not true before Obamacare was passed.
If you recall both John Kerry and Barney Frank said the Affordable Care Act would not work unless we have a single party payer system. They said the bill must contain a “Public Option.”
http://youtu.be/-522hcm3woA
President Obama said, “don’t worry. We don’t have the votes. Also, we don’t need a “Public Option.”
He should have added, “We don’t need a “Public Option” the way the bill is written.”
The truth is a “Public Option” and a single party payer will happen by default as implementation of Obamacare proceeds.
In his recently published book, “Reinventing American Health Care” Ezekiel Emanuel predicted; by 2025, “fewer than 20 percent of workers in the private sector will receive traditional employer-sponsored health insurance.”
With all the changes President Obama has made without congressional approval, it is obvious that each change will help Obamacare get to a single party payer system more quickly.
There must be a public outcry by the public to stop its loss of freedoms especially freedom of choice of physicians and choice of care.
All the stakeholders are confused about Obamacare at this point.
Many patients have lost insurance. If President Obama did not waive the corporate mandate and the small business mandate many more would be uninsured right now.
Many who think they are insured are not insured. Many physicians do not know if they are going to get paid. Insurance companies do not know if they are going to make money.
If the mandate were in place for all those that received waivers, there would have been a gigantic public outcry that would have sunk Obamacare immediately.
The mandate’s delay decreases the number of people directly affected all at once.
If a person is not directly affected by Obamacare, the long-term implications of the law are ignored. It is difficult to have a public outcry.
Dr. Emanuel’s book is subtitled; “How the Affordable Care Act Will Improve Our Terribly Complex, Blatantly Unjust, Outrageously Expensive, Grossly Inefficient, Error Prone System.”
All of the above are true. The healthcare system has been driven to this level of dysfunction because one action by one stakeholder leads to an unintended consequence which in turn leads to another untended consequence and another stakeholder’s reaction.
It is clear that government must set up concise rules that level the playing field for all the stakeholders.
All President Obama has to do is to discontinue the mandate for large corporations year after year. The large employers will drop its employer sponsored healthcare insurance for its employees. Having no other choice these employees will go to the health insurance exchanges to get the cheapest insurance.
“Dr. Emanuel argues that in the next two or three years, “a few big, blue-chip companies will announce their intention to stop providing health insurance.”
I believe this was the plan before the law was passed. It forces people into the “Public Option” without there being a “Public Option” in the law.
“Dr. Emanuel says that few small businesses will join the SHOP exchanges set up for them and that most of those that offer coverage now are even more likely than big companies to drop the coverage since those who employ fewer than 50 workers face no mandate.”
Enrollment in the health insurance exchanges to non-covered employees will increase if the price is right. The price has been right for the government subsidized people. The premiums are much higher for the employees that do not qualify for government subsidy.
“Dr. Emanuel thinks is fine.”
Many employees previously covered by the employer-sponsored plans will receive government subsidies.
The healthcare insurance furnished by the health insurance industry for both private insurance plans and government plans will still be price at non-subsidy prices for the government.
The government subsidy will result cause greater government deficits and/or an additional tax increase.
Employees who previous received healthcare coverage from employers received those benefits with pre-tax dollars.
Now they are going to pay for healthcare insurance with post tax dollars.
Employers received a tax deduction for the employer sponsored healthcare plan’s insurance payments.
Both employees and employers will be losing In Dr. Emanuel and President Obama’s system.
The winner is the government by collecting more taxes. The biggest loser is the consumer earning over $50,000 a year.
The next step is for government to stop calling the subsidized private insurance healthcare coverage.
“President Obama should call it something like it “Medicare G.” Obamacare will have achieved another entitlement without calling it a “Public Option.”
Why doesn’t the Obama administration concentrate on eliminating fraud, abuse, and waste in the healthcare system?
Why doesn’t it concentrate on making the healthcare system more efficient?
Why doesn’t it promote the patient/physician relationship?
Why doesn’t it concentrate on making the healthcare system more patient friendly?
Why doesn’t it put the patients in control of their healthcare dollars and promote patient responsibility for their health and healthcare?
The opinions expressed in the blog “Repairing The Healthcare System” are, mine and mine alone
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