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Biased Newspaper Reporting

April 3, 2016

inDisinformation and the healthcare system

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Stanley Feld M.D.FACP, MACE

I used to read every word of the New York Times. After all it was “all the news fit to print.”

It took me a long time to figure out it was the same sensational journalism as the New York Daily News and the New York Post. Its sensationalism is subtler.

Both the News and the Post had better Sports sections than the Times. All three newspapers are biased. They all leave out important facts.

The New York Times leaves out important facts and does not connect related facts. The result is intelligent people reading and believing the New York Times can have one world view, while another group of intelligent people reading and connecting the facts can have an opposite world view.

The following headline appeared on the front page of the Sunday Times on Easter Sunday.

On Campaign Trail, Republicans Tone Down Criticism of Obamacare.

On its surface the headline infers that Obamacare is working and citizens like it.

The Times claim is, “Among the most embattled Senate Republican incumbents, the campaign websites of Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, Mark Kirk of Illinois and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin barely mention the health care law.

The article goes on to quotes Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell.

“The explanation for (the lack of criticism of Obamacare) may be that for all its controversy and imperfections, the sweeping law has taken hold.”

“This (Obamacare) is in the fabric of the nation,” said Burwell.

“To be sure, the presidential election outcome will be a determinant of whether the health care law is reshaped, bolstered or downsized.”

Is reporting this Obama administration bias? To me it certainly is. This conclusion is total nonsense. It is an attempt by the New York Times to help the Obama administration spin the truth and save President Obama’s legacy

The Times also points out that; “President Obama took part in a celebration in Milwaukee this month after the city was given an award for increasing health insurance enrollment.”

Paul Krugman’s New York Times articles have been telling reders how successful Obamacare has been. The problem with his commentary is it does not fit the facts.

Meanwhile President Obama and the administration have been modifying the law almost monthly without the consent of congress.

It has also been spending money without congressional approval because the law has not worked out well for President Obama and his administration.

Obamacare has been a failure for all the stakeholders. It has had a negative impact on the economy and the delivery of medical care.

It cannot be fixed with a few modifications.

I hope the New York Times is just printing the Obama administration’s press releases. However, the Times editorials reflect the lies.

Anyone running for congress who believes the New York Times propaganda about the success of Obamacare should not be elected.

Many patients credit the President with giving them access to coverage even if they have a pre-existing condition and are not in a group plan. Meanwhile, the cost of the insurance has changed with higher premiums and deductibles, and the cost of coverage is increasing annually for both Obamacare and private insurance.

Remember President Obama’s promise, “If you like your insurance you can keep your insurance

The cost of HealthCare.gov has been a debacle. It had been riddled with scandals, inefficiency, cronyism, and disrespect for consumers’ intelligence. I thought the original $800 million dollar cost estimate was ridiculously high. Its present estimate is $2.1 billion dollars. the web site healthcare.gov is still not right.

How much did CMS really spent on Obamacare? No one really knows. It has not been cheap. Most of the expenditures have not been approved by congress.

For the last three years the Obama administration has lied about the enrollment numbers. At the same time they have bragged about the enrollment success. In 2014 the grand total enrollment in private insurance through the Obamacare exchange was 260,000 while 14 million privately insured lost coverage.

However the total number of consumers enrolled through Medicaid was 8.99 million. This occurred with only 23 states participating in the expansion of Medicaid

The enrollment figures had not improved at the end of 2015 even though the Obama administration extended the enrollment period constantly throughout the year.

“Earlier this month (2016), the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced that nearly 8.8 million Americans had “effectuated” coverage at the end of 2015, meaning they were paying their health insurance premiums.”

The agency praised this number as a sign of Obamacare’s success in expanding access to coverage.”

This is a perfect example of spinning the news. At the of the 2015 enrollment period before the enrollment extensions 11.69 million members signed up and paid. At the end of 2015 only 8.78 million people continued to pay their premiums.

This represents less than the Obama administration claimed enrollment of 2014.

The New York Times is publishing fiction because of it’s bias toward President Obama and Obamacare. The truth about Obamacare’s lack of success is public record. Unfortunately the New York Times ignores the truth.

Obamacare enrollment decreased even further this year (2016). The insurance premiums and deductibles are too high for people making over 50,000 dollars a year. Only the fully subsidized people can afford to stay in Obamacare.

Obamacare’s State Co-Ops were formed to have states run their own state insurance exchanges. Inefficiencies and faulty business model cause 13 of the 23 to fail so far.

The Obama administration provided 2.5 billion dollars in loans to these State Co-Ops. So far the federal government has lost 1.2 billion dollars of it 2.5 billion loaned to the state Co-Ops.

The Affordable Care Act allowed for the creation of consumer-operated and oriented plans, or co-ops, that were intended to inject competition into areas where consumers had few choices.

At present 8 more Co-Ops are on the verge and will probably close for enrollment for 2017.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have little hope or collecting the money lent to the State Co-Ops. Information surrounding the liability of the failed state Co-Ops for the loans has not been transparent.

A total of $2.4 billion in loans was awarded to 23 Co Ops start-up and solvency loans to the 23 co-ops.

Now, 12 of the 23 co-ops that opened their doors in 2013 have closed and have left 900,000 consumers without insurance. No one can tell if these people were assimilated into the federal health exchanges. Republicans in Congress are questioning whether the taxpayers will ever get repaid $1.2 billion loaned to those failed Co-Op insurers.

Obamacare has made insurance available to millions of Americans with pre-existing conditions were denied coverage. This is true. However both the premiums and the $6000 deductibles are unaffordable.

A diabetic wrote to me, “Obamacare is great! Now I can buy insurance. My premium cost $12,000 a year. My deductible is $6,000 for a total of $18,000 a year. My medical bills were $100,000 last year.

I asked what was her HbA1c. She said it was 9.2% (normal 4.5% -5.5%).

The high HbA1c means she is a poorly controlled diabetic.

Shouldn’t this patient be responsible to lower the HA1c to 6% in order to reduce her diabetes complication rate?

Not everyone can afford $18,000 per year. Most of the diabetic patients who cannot afford the high insurance rates in the federal health exchanges have even higher HbA1c levels. They will ultimately cost the payer of last resort, the government, even more after the patient is bankrupt.

A better system needs to be developed to incentivized these people to be responsible for their own diabetes control.

Another feature of Obamacare that is publicized as one of the great successes is that children can stay on their parents’ plans until age 26.

The unintended consequence of this feature has given the healthcare insurance industry and excuse to raise insurance premiums by double digits increase each year.

President Obama has bragged, and the New York Times has applauded him for it, that health care inflation has been lowered since Obamacare was passed into law. He say that Obamacare has bent the healthcare cost curve.

This is false. Obamacare was collecting Obamacare imposed tax increases on every income bracket for three years prior to implementation of the healthcare coverage.

The cost curve was bent because there were no expenditures in the delivery of healthcare. In 2015 the healthcare cost curve is rising.

There are 20 hidden taxes in the law that effect citizens earning less than $250,000 dollars a year. .

These new taxes contradict President Obama’s promise that “anyone making under $250,000 a year will not pay a dime in new taxes.” Many of these taxes on businesses are being passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices.

https://youtu.be/eHlRY3kHhBk

Insurance companies are leaving the federal health exchanges in droves because they are not making as much money as promised by the Obama administration. Obamacare will disappear without insurance company participation.

“When compared to 2015, 22 states and the District of Columbia have fewer insurers offering coverage on the exchanges in 2016.

Just 10 states have more insurers offering coverage on Obamacare’s exchange.
The New York Times presents deceiving information about Obamacare. I cannot understand why readers believe these lies.

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

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Obamacare Co-Op Folly

March 21, 2016

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

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Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP,MACE

I apologize for spending so much time on the failure of the Obamacare Co-Ops. It is worth emphasizing because this is an example the common denominator of the many other Obamacare failures.

A reader asked me to list the 12 states that closed down and declared bankruptcy before 2016 enrollment leaving 700,000 consumers without insurance coverage.

In my last blog on Co-Ops I did not mentioned the name of the 12 states Co-Ops that went bankrupt. These state Co-Ops defaulted on their federal loans. The federal taxpayers loss was $1.2 billion dollars.

I did not list them because I predicted that all 22 state Co-Ops would go bankrupt by the end of 2016. Taxpayer’s will lose at least $2.5 billion dollars in loans for a program destined to fail from the start.

CMS has said it will regain most of the money and but has not explained how it will recover the loan losses. There were multiple reasons for the Co-Op failures.

An important reason is the disastrous business plans. The Obama administration hired Deloitte to evaluate each state’s loan application. Deloitte’s advice concerning the applications deficiencies was ignored by CMS and the HHS.

The point is the Co-Ops are ill conceived, as many of the Obamacare “innovations” are ill conceived. Once the ideology is approved the Obama administration ignores the advice from expensive hired consultants.

Deloitte Consulting evaluated the viability of the state Co-Ops by evaluating their loan applications and business plans. Deloitte expressed concerns about the now defunct 13 Co-Ops. According to the study from Republicans on the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, the Department of Health and Human Service and CMS ignored Deloitte’s warnings.

“HHS instructed Deloitte to evaluate the proposed budgets for completeness as well as “reasonableness and cost effectiveness.” The Department told Deloitte to review the pro forma financial statements for completeness, clarity of assumptions, and consistency with each Co-OP’s business plan.

In its review, Deloitte identified numerous problems ranging from comparatively minor issues, such as omitting needed expenses, to more significant concerns, like presenting an unreasonable budget.”

2. In addition to inconsistencies, Deloitte noted that many of the Co-Ops’ budgets appeared to be unreasonable or did not align with the states own financial projections.”

This is typical of many bureaucracies in government agencies.

3. Deloitte also expressed skepticism about the risk-taking and unreasonable assumptions reflected in some of the Co-Ops’ financial projections.

4. “Each CO-OP loan applicant was required to “identify its management team, explain their qualifications and experience, and submit an organizational chart and detailed position descriptions, including the qualifications required for each position.

5.Based on its review of this portion of the CO-OP’s business plans, Deloitte consultants expressed concern over key leadership position gaps or thin industry expertise for all of the 12 failed Co-Ops.”

This observation, by Deloitte alone, should have disqualified the state Co-op from obtaining a federal loan.

The devil is always in the details. The details are so voluminous than few dig in to find the defects. The goal is only to have the paperwork done.

Deloitte had many negative comments. The loans were made despite the negative comments by the Obama administration.

Some state CO-Ops did not even list the senior management team.

6.“These failed co-ops were a costly experiment gone wrong, and real people got hurt, including the more than 700,000 Americans who lost their health plans,” Sen. Rob Portman, chairman of the subcommittee, said today at a hearing on the co-ops.”

How many more Obamacare programs are constructed to fail?

Can taxpayers trust the government to control its medical care with a single party payer system when a single portion of Obamacare is so poorly constructed and consultants ignored?

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

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The Obamacare Spin Goes On

March 14, 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

The Obama administration continues to spin the virtues of Obamacare even as it is becoming more obvious that it is a failure.

Andy Slavitt, acting head of CMS, in testimony before a congressional committee explained the failure of the Obamacare Co-Ops. In an effort to distract the committee Mr. Slavitt repeated Health Secretary Sylvia Burwell’s comment in February, after enrollment ended, that more than 90% of Americans are insured because of Obamacare. She said this was a record number of people who are insured.

The committee was not impressed. To my disappoint none of the Republican dominated committee members pointed out the insignificance of the enrollment statement.

There are 330 million people in this country. If 10% are uninsured there are still 33 million people who are uninsured.

Prior to Obamacare there was an average of 43 million people uninsured or 13% of the population. In 6 years there has only been a 3% increase in insurance coverage at an estimated cost of almost $1 trillion dollars.

Healthcare.gov insurance is even too expensive for people who have receive federal subsidy. A recent blog post said it all.

“Now I Have Insurance. But I Can’t Use It. What Am I Supposed to Do?”

Obamacare is not the successful project Secretary Burwell and the Acting Head of CMS spun to congress and the American people.

The federal loss of $1.23 billion dollars in loans to state Co-Ops alone because of the failure of 13 of the 23 Non-Profit Co-Ops is a large failure. The federal government will never be paid back for the loans to these failed Co-Ops.

The loans will probably not be charged to Obamacare. At present 2 more have failed and 6 of the remaining nine Co-Ops are under investigation and at the verge of failure.

Co-Ops enrolled 400,000 in 2014 and more than 1 million at the end of 2015 enrollment.

Twenty-two (22) of the twenty-three (23) Co-ops lost money in 2014. Only 9 reached targeted enrollment. The 13 failed Co-Ops served 14 states. They have all closed down.

718,000 enrollees lost coverage through the Co-ops that failed.

If the enrollment for 2016 is truly 1 million people these enrollees will be distributed in the remaining half of the states that lost money in 2014. These Co-ops are bound to failure in 2016 unless the federal government pours money into the remaining Co-ops.

As of March 1, 2016 according to acaSignups.net there were 12,668,585 signups for 2016.

9.6 million signed up through HC.gov. The CBO projected 21 million signup for 2016.

The Min-Med programs approved for McDonald’s and other fast food businesses and exempt form Obamacare are still allowed. These workers are essentially uninsured if they become ill. Yet the government counts these workers as being insured.

President Obama and his administration continue to deceive Congress and the American people about the success of Obamacare.

The Republican dominated congress does not challenge the Obama administration on these deceptions. They are afraid the people will react negatively to the congress.

The people are reacting to President Obama, his administration and the congress. Maybe the people are smarter than all the politicians think they are.

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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Where Is The Missing Money?

November 30, 2015

inUncategorized

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Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP,MACE

Does anyone know how much Obamacare cost each year? Does anyone know if Obamacare is the cause of America’s more than one trillion-dollar deficit each year despite the Obamacare tax increases that are supposed to pay for it ?

If someone knows they sure are not telling taxpayers. A good friend who is a liberal and a big fan of President Obama said to me he is not worried about the federal deficit. Neither is President Obama. President Obama has convinced his base that the budget deficit and America’s escalating debt is an insignificant problem.

It follows that he can spend money as he wishes and waste money with impunity. I was taught that is not the way to run a business. Especially when the waste fullness gets negative results that leads to more deficit spending.

The problem is the waste of money is reported in dribs and drabs and usually on a Friday afternoon.

We have seen that happen in the VA system. After one year and billions of dollars spent the waiting times have decreased slightly. The medical service to veterans has not improved. No one in the bureaucracy has been held responsible. Veterans have been complaining more loudly since nothing has improved.

Missing Money

“The federal government awarded over $5 billion to help states set up Obamacare exchanges, with the vast majority – $4.6 billion – going to 16 states and Washington, D.C.”

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently reported that most of the money has not been accounted for. Several of those State Health Insurance exchanges have gone out of business this year.

$1.4 billion of that has been spent on IT projects. This sounds very high for 16 different web sites. Why couldn’t everyone use the same website?

Three ($3 billion) has been “spent or drawn down.” Only some of the drawn down spending has been detailed.

At least $1.6 billion is unaccounted for. Only three states returned any portion of the money. The federal government has only received back $1 million.

It sounds like government bureaucracy inefficiency at best and fraud and abuse at worst with no one being held accountable.

Can Americans trust the government to run our healthcare system?

Where did those taxpayer dollars go?

More Missing Money

Obamacare created the co-ops to encourage State Health Insurance Exchanges to increase competition in state insurance markets.

The intent was to offer consumers choices with the hope of holding down premiums.

Co-ops were snuck into Obamacare to replace the public option. No one has spoken about this being a substitute for the “public option.” The public option is an obvious ploy to convert the healthcare system quickly to a single party payer system.

The public option was designed to compete with private insurers on the state level by offering lower premiums in order to force the insurance industry to lower its premiums. The co-ops were designed to do the same thing.

President Obama offered state co-ops $6 billion dollars for start-up costs. Since there were only 23 states co-op formed instead of 50 Congress decreased the total payment to $2.4 billion to the 23 start-up co-ops.

All 23 co-ops received their proportional federal loans to meet solvency requirements as well as start-up costs.

President Obama now claims the Republican house denied Obamacare enough money for the co-op to be successful.

Twelve (12) of the 23 nonprofit insurance co-ops announced they will not offer coverage to consumers who bought healthcare coverage in 2015 in 2016. They are bankrupt. Where did the money go?

Somewhere between 300,000 and 600,000 people will be shopping for more expensive healthcare coverage for 2016.

The remaining 11 standing co-ops are $500 million dollar in the hole.

There is no accounting available to explain why these co-ops have failed

Does anyone think these $2.4 billion dollar loans will be paid back to the federal government? I do not. It will simply be added to the federal deficit.

“CMS said the government would “use every tool available to recover taxpayer dollars” from the co-ops going out of business, but it declined to say how much she expected to recoup.”

There are many reasons these co-ops have failed. Republicans not giving the co-ops more money, as progressives and Democrats have claimed, is not one of the reasons.

Another area of missing taxpayers’ dollars.

The Senate Finance Committee is looking into the millions of taxpayer dollars being spent on ads to promote Obamacare enrollment.

The total federal government budget for ads and PR was nearly $1 billion in fiscal 2013. How much was spent on Obamacare?

The Health and Human Services budget for “paid media” is about $35 million for the current enrollment period. The $35 million dollars will be spent in the 38 states using HealthCare.gov in the 2016 enrollment period.

Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, raised concerns about agency ad spending and sent a letter to the acting head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) asking for a full accounting of agency ad spending.

“Increased transparency on government spending on advertising will improve accountability and help ensure that the taxes from hardworking Americans are not squandered and wasted on ineffective or misguided government programs,” he wrote to Acting Administrator Andrew M. Slavitt.

Senator Hatch demanded the accounting by November 25^th. Does anyone think he received it?

In 2010, the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported the Obama administration spent nearly $20 million on a Medicare brochure that contained “instances in which HHS presented abbreviated information and a positive view of Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) that is not universally shared.”

The GAO papered over the ridiculous expenditure.

GAO concluded that “nothing in the brochure constitutes communications that are purely partisan, self-aggrandizing, or covert.”

CRS reported HHS was second only to the Department of Defense, spending $197.4 million on advertising in fiscal 2013.

“The total federal government budget for ads and PR was nearly $1 billion in fiscal 2013.”

Would healthcare be so expensive if the government was transparent and congress was really on top of everything?

Physicians only receive 20% of the healthcare dollars spent.

President Obama and his administration spend taxpayer’s money at will.

Americans have to demand “more efficiency and much more transparency.”

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

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Obamacare Is Unaffordable For All

October 18, 2015

inMedicine: Healthcare System

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Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP,MACE

The 2016 Obamacare enrollment period through healthcare.gov is going to have lots of problems. The Obama administration knows it.

The enrollment projection by the Obama administration is far below the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office’s projection of about 21 million people.

The CBO gets the numbers to calculate its projections from the Obama administration.

“ The administration has set the goal of 10 million to have coverage. That is about the same amount of enrollees who have paid for Obamacare now.”

“We believe 10 million is a strong and realistic goal,” said Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell. “

The next sentence is the Obama administration’s spin to confuse the public about the truth.

“We’ve seen high levels of satisfaction with the marketplace and expect the vast majority of our current customers will re-enroll. And our target assumes that more than one out of every four of the eligible uninsured will select plans.”

The original Obama administration enrollment prediction for 2015 was 17 million.

The Obama administration claimed Obamacare was a success in 2014. Eleven million people enrolled despite the healthcare.gov problems. Enrollment in 2014 was extended for most of the year.

The final enrollment number was reduced to 6.6 million after not payment of premiums, false applications, miscounting and dropouts.

Enrollment numbers for 2015 were published as more than 13 million. It was again revised to 11 million and finally 9 million. Enrollment again was extended in 2015.

Two weeks ago it was announced that 330,000 enrollees did not make their second month’s premium payment. Enrollees have a 90 grace period in which they can use their insurance to pay for medical care.

The result is enrollees can have four months of healthcare insurance for the price of one.

People stopped paying the premium because they realized they could not afford the 2015 premium cost. This year the cost will be between 10-40 percent higher than 2015.

In 2012 fifteen (15) million people lost their individual healthcare insurance because of Obamacare’s changes in insurance policy requirements.

The CBO predicts there will be 21million enrollees in 2016.

The Obama administration, using taxpayers’ money, has loaned health insurance co-ops more than $2.4 billion spread over just 23 states.

Most of the Co-Ops are hemorrhaging cash. Four have gone bankrupt and Colorado and Oregon are on the way. Consumers who bought healthcare insurance from these “Co-Op’s” are going to have to find another insurance company through the health insurance exchange.

People are not going to be able to find an affordable insurer. Premiums and deductibles are going to be out of reach to everyone including people on subsidies.

In 2015 the 300,000 that did not pay after the first premium payment has proved this already.

Obamacare has other huge problems. Medicare is one of them

Medicare will expose millions of senior americans to a staggering 50 percent increase in their premiums for Medicare Part B.

It is a result of provisions in the laws governing Medicare and Social Security.

Here is the impending disaster.

The Part Medicare B premiums have been rising each year. The premiums are deducted from Social Security payments made to beneficiaries’ each month.

There is a “hold harmless” provision in the Medicare rules that guarantees that a dollar amount increase in Medicare’s premium one year cannot be so big that the senior is left with a Social Security check payment that is less than the year before.

The goal of the provision is to ensure that senior beneficiaries don’t have less money to live on the next year than the year before.

Inflation is not calculated into the equation.

Watch this.

Seventy percent of the Medicare beneficiaries are held harmless and do not have to pay the increased premium because of the rising premiums. These seniors will pay the same premium they paid the previous year.

The increased costs to the government will have to be paid by higher Medicare premiums and deductibles by the remaining 30 percent of beneficiaries not held harmless.

The Medicare rule is that beneficiaries have to cover at least 25% of the government’s Medicare Part B costs.

As premiums to the government are increased 10-40% by the healthcare insurance companies that do the administrative services for the government, the premium costs to the 30% who are not held harmless are going up over 50% of the previous year’s premiums.

“Medicare Part B deductible, which must be paid by everyone on Medicare (no one is “held harmless”). Medicare Part B premiums will rise from $147 in 2015 to $223 in 2016.”

“This will pose a particular burden to beneficiaries just above the poverty line who aren’t eligible for assistance from Medicaid in paying deductibles.”

The Medicare deductible of $1300 for each hospital admission is a tremendous burden on a senior.

President Obama and the Democrats are frantically seeking ways to avoid a senior uproar as seniors discover yet another hidden Obamacare tax increase.

The Democratic leadership is trying to figure out how to blame Republicans for this mess.

The leadership of both parties is quietly trying to figure out a way around the increase to the affected seniors.

“Premium increases could affect about 30 percent of the 51 million people enrolled in Part B of Medicare, which covers doctors’ services, outpatient hospital services, some home health care and other items.”

Nancy Pelosi has started grandstanding to blame the Republicans for the increase in premiums.

She said, “Congress has a responsibility to act,”

“If we do nothing, millions of American seniors will suffer. Democrats continue to press the Republican leadership to bring a fix to the floor so we can prevent the serious harm this increase will have.”

To avoid a big uproar from seniors Democrats want the federal government to absorb the estimated $7.5 billion dollar premium increases in 2016.

The blame game starts. John Boehner’s aids told Mrs. Pelosi’s staff that the cost would have to be offset by savings elsewhere in the federal budget.

“ President Obama’s staff is considering administrative action to moderate the increase in premiums, perhaps by using a Medicare contingency fund.”

The White House is grandstanding without regard for the law or fiscal responsibility.

“We share the goal of keeping Medicare’s premiums affordable, are exploring all options, and appreciate the interest and ideas of members of Congress,” said Katie Hill, a White House spokeswoman.

Republicans are worried that Democrats will depict them as waging a “War on Seniors” if they do not go along to soften the affect of any premium increase on some irresponsible funding solution.

Isn’t this terrible? Congress and the President refuse to look at and solve the real cause of these problems. They are the unintended consequences of Obamacare that got us into this situation.

The Democrats are using the banal excuse is that the country is to far down the road with Obamacare to abandon it.

Nonsense!

Maybe this is exactly what President Obama intended?

Obamacare has only enrolled 9 million people and yet.

It is destroying employer insurance.
The cost of adjusting to Obamacare’s rules is too high.
It has left more uninsured than insured.
It has caused insured persons healthcare insurance to be unsustainable.
It has added millions to the Medicaid roles.
Medicaid reimbursement is very low.
People on Medicaid cannot find a physician because of low reimbursement.
It has pushed up premiums and deductible for seniors who can barely afford the costs.
Seniors on Medicare cannot find a physician.
Obamacare has made the cost of our healthcare system more unsustainable that previously.

Why don’t Republicans teach the people to understand why Obamacare is such a terrible law?

Why can’t they stand up for what they believe?

Why can’t they use my ideal medical saving account to simplify and solve the complications of Obamacare?

The answer always is 50% of people are getting entitlements and they do not want to give them up.

Entitlements can be formatted so that they are earned and responsible entitlements that will not bankrupt the country.

Entitlements can be formatted to help people become independent and prosperous as opposed to more dependent on government and poorer.

Socialism has not worked well anywhere not even in Sweden.

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

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Wanting Something To Fail?

October 13, 2015

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

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Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP,MACE

If someone wants something to fail, make it complicated enough so no one understands what is going on.

I am convinced that President Obama wants Obamacare, Medicaid and Medicare to fail.

President Obama wants a single payer health care system. He said it as far back as 2003. This You Tube was uploaded on Aug 12, 2009.

https://youtu.be/LhEX3rHssJI

President Obama won’t tell the American people the truth about his plans for health care. Watch President Obama declaring his intention in his own words.

The result is everyone will receive the same healthcare under the government direction and control.

The ultimate goal is to make people dependent on the government.

The people will have no power to choose their physician or their treatment. It is true that every country in the western world has this system.

No country has proven that a single party payer system works for countries with the single party payer systems economy or their citizens. Surveys have shown that their citizens are satisfied.

The main reason people like it is because it relieves anxiety of being able to receive medical care even though they have relinquished their freedom to choose their physician or insurance company.

The biggest loss is independence from the government bureaucracy. People will be dependent on the decisions of unelected government bureaucrats.

The big questions that are never answered about medical costs are; who is spending most of the healthcare dollars and what are the healthcare dollars being spent on?

Do you want the government to decide if you are young enough to get an artificial hip or knee when you need it?

Do you want the government to decide about your treatment or do you want your doctor to help you decide on what your best treatment is?

President Obama is changing medical care in a methodical way. He is utilizing executive orders and rules and regulations written by non-elected bureaucrats, who are forced to follow his orders. Our elected officials should be in charge of government spending.

Many in congress know better and would not let President Obama do what he is doing. Most in congress are happy that he has exempted congress from Obamacare.

President Obama and his administration have been trying to do bad things very quietly to avoid political uproar. The mainstream media has been a great Obamacare ally.

The mainstream media has helped Obamacare keep these destructive regulations and their subsequent failures out of public view.

The media has also publicized President Obama’s lies about the success of Obamacare.

President Obama is adept at diverting blame for errors and failures in pursuit of his single party agenda.

At the same time he is trying to take power away from the states he is trying to persuade states to not permit big insurance premium rate increases requested by many health insurance companies for 2016.

President Obama’s Obamacare is the cause of the increases. He is positioned to blame the state regulators for the insurance companies not showing up to sell insurance for 2016.

If the states act to cut back rate increases the insurance companies will not participate in the federal and state exchanges for the 2016 enrollment period. The result will be the erosion of the possibility of competitive pricing.

The Obama spin machine started working at the beginning of the summer to shift the blame and/or force insurance companies out of the market.

Kevin J. Counihan, the chief executive of the federal insurance marketplace said in letter to state insurance commissioners, “Recent claims data show healthier consumers.”

He also said, “The federal tax penalty for going without insurance will increase in 2016, he said, and this “should motivate a new segment of uninsured who may not have a high need for health care to enroll for coverage.”

This claim of costs data by Obamacare does not square with the healthcare insurance companies’ costs data. They are finding that new customers were sicker than expected. The insurance industry is also losing money because the Obama administration has paid them $2.5 billion dollars less than they were promised.

Health insurance plans sold through Obamacare’s Federal and State Health Insurance Exchanges are seeking 10 to 40 percent increases in premiums.

They are also seeking the same increase in the private sector as well as in Medicare and Medicaid.

The Obama administration is making up its own story to force state regulators to not allow the increased premiums.

The Obama agenda is choreographed to prove that insurance choices do not work. He is hoping that the public will conclude the only solution is a single party payer system.

The problem is the government cannot afford a single party payer system and the people will not tolerate it.

What is more bizarre is the Obama administration made loans to help start up state co-ops. These state co-ops were supposed to compete with the big insurance companies. They were supposed to sell insurance on the health insurance exchanges. The Obama administration invested $38 billion in startup costs and solvency loans to these co-ops.

Nevada Health Co-op received $66 million in federal loans. It is closing down on January 1,2016 because it ran out of money.

Louisiana Health Cooperative announced in July that it was voluntarily shutting down operations.

CoOportunity Health, which sold policies in Iowa and Nebraska, was liquidated and forced to close earlier this year.

Many state Co-op’s are on the way to bankruptcy. In Nevada alone one third of the health insurance exchange population will lose insurance coverage.

Nevada Health CO-OP’s departure will leave a big hole in Nevada’s exchange market. Open enrollment begins Nov. 1, and consumers will have to shop for plans with other carriers. The co-op had 21,300 members as of the first quarter this year. Nevada’s exchange population was about 63,000 at that time.

A.M. Best’s report shows a majority of the nation’s 22 co-ops have combined medical and administrative expense ratios above 100%.

All these failures and impending failures mean that either the Obama administration is stupid or things are going precisely as President Obama had planned.

The healthcare system is on its way to destruction. The federal government as the payer of last resort will replace it.

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

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