Obamacare is failing. The impending disaster is coming November 1st when the insurance vendors publish their premium prices for Obamacare’s Health Insurance Plans.
Consumers will be shocked by the 20% increase in premiums, the sparse selection of insurance vendors and the higher deductible.
As a distraction from the failure of Obamacare, the progressive Democrats are now trying to sell the “Public Option” as the savior of Obamacare.
I have received several questions asking what exactly is the “Public Option.” The “Public Option” was turned down in 2009 when Democrats were in control of both houses of congress.
How could a “Public Option” be passed in a Republican controlled congress? It can’t be passed.
The Democratic push to sell the “Public Option” is political theater. It is meant to provide hope for President Obama’s progressive base and blame Obamacare’s failure on the Republicans.
It is also meant to distract the traditional mainstream media from the impending Obamacare failure and upcoming disasterous enrollment before the Presidential election.
Here is the answer to the question “What exactly is the Public Option ? ”
It is another defective program that will fail. If passed by congress it will result in the deepening distruction of the healthcare system.
The “Public Option” was first introduced into Obamacare at the onset of the passage of the act. It was eliminated from the bill in a Democratic dominated congress because as Barney Frank said, “We don’t have the votes”.
Barney Frank and John Kerry were convinenced that the only way to get to a single party payer system in the United States was though a “Public Option.”
The “Public Option” is the creation of a federal government-run health insurance agency. The goal of this new insurance company would be to compete with private health insurance companies on price within the United States.
The original published purpose of the “Public Option” was to provide more affordable health insurance rates to uninsured citizens who are either unable to afford the rates of or are rejected by private health insurers.
Now it will be providing cheaper insurance than the private insurance companies are offering to force the private insurance companies to reduce their premiums.
The private insurance companies will not show up to compete.
Obamacare was supposed to be doing creating competition through its Health Insurance Exchanges and State Co-Ops for the people with pre-existing illness and the poor.
The result was premiums went through the roof for both the Health Insurance Exchange policies and private insurance policies.
The government is ended up providing subsidies for 85% of only 10 million people who have bought insurance through the Health Insurance Exchange. It is economically unsustainable for the government and tax payers if the entire population would buy insurance through the Public Option.
It is obvious that the government would try to undercut the private insurance companies and force the private insurance compaies to lower their prices. The result would be bankruptcy as the State Co-Ops experienced.
“Supporters argued that a government insurance company could successfully lower its rates by using greater leverage than private industry when negotiating with hospitals and doctors,[18] as well as paying the employees of the public option insurance company salaries as opposed to paying based on individual medical procedures.[19]”
However, the federal government is dependent of the healthcare insurance industry for the administrative services necessary in adjudicating healthcare insurance claims.
Federal government dependence is true of all government healthcare programs except the VA Healthcare System.
Does anyone think the federal government bureacracy can run a healthcare system effectively and efficiently?
The healthcare insurance industry builds profit into its administrative services contracts. The federal government’s bureacracy cannot control those prices.
The reduced premium pricing would result in government subsidizing the “Public Option” further resulting in an increase in the federal deficit. This has happened in Medicare. Premiums have gone up, covered care has gone down. Medicare is unsustainable.
The recipients of Medicare think it is a wonderful program. The trustees of Medicare feel it is unsustainable simply because of the massive hidden subsidies and cost overruns.
There is no question that premiums are increased, reimbursement to providers has decreased, care is rationed and access to care has decreased.
No one in government is thinking of a more efficient way to format Medicare.
Neither Barak Obama, Hillary Clinton, or Bernie Sanders are thinking about the consumer and the consumers’ needs at this point.
Neither are they thinking about a healthcare system that is affordable to the federal government or the consumers of healthcare.
No one is thinking about consumers driving the healthcare system and being responsible for their health and healthcare dollars.
These politicians are only thinking about power and central control by the federal government over the healthcare system no matter the cost to the federal government, the tax payer, the quality of care delivered to consumers, or the system’s effect on economic growth.
“The real sign of how Bernie Sanders changed the Democratic Party can be seen not just in shifts in the Democratic Party platform, but in how the party’s current leader, Barack Obama, has altered his own posture. “
“And this week, in a special communication to the Journal of the American Medical Association, Obama endorsed a public health insurance option to enhance the Affordable Care Act, his signature legislative achievement.”
“This puts Obama in line with his preferred successor, Hillary Clinton, who recently reiterated her support for a public option and for allowing Americans between 55-65 to buy into Medicare. Both policies tilt toward Sanders’s vision of universal coverage.”
Philosophically it is called Socialism.
Big government controlling society does not work. There are countless examples of socialism’s failures in Europe, bankruptcies, unemployment and stagnation, both economically. and politically.
America must learn now. We ought to adopt a healthcare system that is consumer driven.
Big government and its bureaucracies cannot do it for us. It has led from one disaster to the next. It will destroy our healthcare sytem.
America should try a system that provides financial incentive to the public so people are responsible for their health and healthcare dollars.
The government should adopt a healthcare system that I have outlined.
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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