Results found: 43

Permalink:

A Point Of View Is Not Reality

May 18, 2016

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

• Leave a comment

Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP,MACE

I find it harder and harder to believe the administration’s press releases. Every press release and press conference seem to be a lie.

How can President Obama’s press secretary live with himself?

America’s government is supposed to be a government by the people, for the people. The three branches of government are supposed to balance each other’s power.

The executive branch under the Obama administration has usurped much of the power of the legislative and judicial branches of government.

I have pointed out that things are not going well for Obamacare.

Consumers cannot keep their doctors.

Consumer cannot keep their insurance.

Obamacare’s hidden taxes have raise taxes at least 10%. Many increases are passed on to all consumers in every tax bracket.

Healthcare premiums have increased for everyone.

The only real increase in Obamacare enrollment has been in Medicaid enrollment. The central government currently pays for 100% of the insurance cost for Medicaid patients.

The Obama administration pays for the yearly increases for Medicaid premiums billed to it by the healthcare insurance industry.

Eighty-five percent (85%) of Obamacare enrollees receive subsidies. The average taxpayer does not know these facts. I suspect most congressmen do not know these facts.

Meanwhile, during President Obama’s term in office, the budget deficit has increased from 12 trillion dollars to 19 trillion dollars.

Marilyn Tavenner was the former head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. She helped construct policy, publicize, sell, and administer Obamacare and its expansion of Medicaid.

Ms. Taverner had one point of view as head of CMS. She helped create greater dysfunction in the healthcare system.

Now, she has a completely opposite point of view. She is presently president and CEO of America’s Health Insurance Plans, the healthcare insurance industry’s premier lobbying group.

She continuously defended Obamacare after each mishap such as the enrollment web site, the enrollment errors in counting enrollees, the insurance premium increases, the poor enrollment and the decrease in service. Each disaster increased the dysfunction of the healthcare system.

Now that her point of view has changed she has become extremely critical of Obamacare.

Her criticisms of Obamacare have gotten her closer to reality. Now, her point of view is that of the healthcare insurance industry.

However, it is not a point of view that supports the needs of consumers.

Someone ought to look at the consumers’ and physicians’ point of view.

Marilyn Tavenner has harsh criticism of the program she once helped get off the ground.

The Obama administration’s continuous praise of Obamacare’s success has marginalized Ms. Taverner’s recent criticism of Obamacare.

Unfortunately, the Obama administration’s praise of Obamacare’s success is a lie.

The news that UnitedHealth Group, the country’s largest health insurer, announced last month that it would pull out of many ACA markets next year is a very big deal.

UnitedHealth, which actually operates in nearly two-thirds of all U.S. markets, has predicted it could lose $500 million on its individual Obamacare plans in 2016.

The Obama administration’s response was a classic misdirection response.

“The news is not all that shocking, and it is not a sign that the law is failing.”

United is not a dominant player in the marketplaces that the ACA “Obamacare” set up for individual insurance buyers. It covers only about 6 percent of 12.7 million marketplace participants. United does not appear to have been very effective at competing to attract customers.

UnitedHealth CEO Stephen Hemsley has blamed higher medical utilization rates for Obamacare members, as well as the ease of switching plans, for his company’s Obamacare woes.

The higher utilization rates are because the government subsidizes 85% of the people in Obamacare. Medical care is essentially free. People do not join Obamacare or pay premiums unless they are sick.

“A huge study released by the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association recently analyzed the medical claims of millions of Obamacare and employer-based members and found that Obamacare members are 22% costlier than employer-based members. Obamacare enrollees also tend to be sicker, coming with a host of chronic or expensive-to-treat conditions.”

United plans offer the largest network of doctors, hospitals and other providers to choose from.

All this is expensive. Unsurprisingly, marketplace insurance buyers tend to pick lower-cost options. All this causes their premiums to be higher.

Most people believe free is best. Many are being conditioned by the administration to love free healthcare insurance.

The quality and availability of care is ignored in the administration’s boasting of Obamacare’s success.

The Obama administration wanted insurance companies with large networks to join. Only companies with restricted networks are joining. These companies are not providing the infrastructure for the access to quality care.

Obamacare ignores individual responsibility for healthcare and emphasizes individual dependence on the federal government.

The Obama administration’s misdirection continues;

“United’s selective exit from ACA marketplaces appears to reflect two positive features of the law. “

“First, Obamacare was meant to spur competition among insurance companies, thus constraining premiums; in many markets, this dynamic appears to be at work, to the detriment of United.”

How is Obamacare promoting competition when UnitedHealth Group is leaving and Aetna is threatening to leave?

“Second, the law has curtailed many of the ways that insurers used to contain their costs, such as refusing to cover certain people or certain treatments, or jacking up premiums for older customers.”

This “positive feature” has caused premium prices and deductibles to increase and the affordable care act (ACA) to become the unaffordable care act (UAC).

“Many insurers on the ACA marketplaces have responded by offering plans that keep costs down by narrowing their networks of providers. This is a better way to contain costs than those the law forbids”.

Does anyone think this will make access to quality care more available?

Marilyn Tavenner is now implying the worst is yet to come. She made this prediction when she rolled out Obamacare and is declaring the same now as she runs the healthcare insurance lobbying group.

“I’ve been asked, what are the premiums going to look like [in 2017]? I think the overall trend is going to be higher than we saw in previous years. That’s my big prediction.”

Marilyn Tavenner was formally a big fan of Obamacare. Her point of view has now changed.

She doesn’t see just one problem pushing premium prices substantially higher next year. She sees a confluence of many factors. This would suggest that overcoming these obstacles isn’t going to be easy.

I will discuss the factors Ms.Taverner is referring to my next blog.

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

Permalink:

April 20, 2016

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

• Leave a comment

We Don’t Need A Public Option

Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP.MACE

When President Obama told Barry Frank and John Kerry “We don’t need a Public Option in the Affordable Care Act legislation” he was right.

https://youtu.be/SHPsEVQ9dGQ

https://youtu.be/4iR_iKRKewQhttps://youtu.be/4iR_iKRKewQ

Senator Chuck Grassley know all along what President Obama’s scheme was. His problem was none of his Republican friend would listen to him or do anything about it.

https://youtu.be/-522hcm3woA

President Obama’s goal all along was to sneak in a Public Option in through the expansion of Medicaid. He wanted the local states to be administratively and financially responsible for Medicaid while the Federal government controlled the system through regulations.

President Obama had figured out the way to get to a single party payer without a Public Option. However, he and his advisors misjudged the defects in Medicaid.

Republicans have been opposed to a single party payer system and government control of the healthcare system. Republicans felt government control would increase the cost of healthcare, increase inefficiency in the administration of healthcare care, ration healthcare and decrease access to healthcare.

President Obama thought he could use a myriad of regulations to help Obamacare back into a single party payer system. The State and Federal Health Exchanges (“so called Obamacare competitive model”) has resulted in both the health exchange and the private insurance industry increasing the cost of healthcare to unaffordable levels, decreasing access to care, rationing of care and destroying the healthcare system.

The politicians, in a state like California, by following the federal money, ignored the will of the people. The people hate Obamacare because it is restrictive. They are angry about the lie President Obama told them to get their support. “If you like your doctor you can keep your doctor. If you like your insurance you can keep your insurance.”

President Obama has created a healthcare system infrastructure that played on states’ greed. Many states have tremendously high budget deficits. They have over taxed state residents.

State citizens and businesses are leaving for more tax friendly states. The migration has created larger state budget deficits. State politicians say a way of getting more federal money into the states and perhaps attracting people back to the state will be by expanding Medicaid. The federal government promised to pay 100% for the first three years of the Medicaid expansion program

Twenty-two states fell into President Obama’s trap. These states are on their way to a single party payer system without even knowing it.

I predict his scheme will fail.

California was the first state to jump into this pot of boiling water.

The federal government is going to pay 100% of newly qualified enrollees to Medicaid until 2017. Medicaid is under state control.

A record number of people have signed up for Medi-Cal in California. This has led to huge cost increases in Medi-Cal. Its price tag has jumped from $59 billion to $91 billion.

Where does President Obama get the money to pay for it? He increased the federal deficit. I guess $32 billion dollars would be considered a rounding error to most Democrats in congress.

States will have to start paying 5% of the bill for the newly eligible and enrolled enrollees in 2017. In 2020 the states will start paying 10% of the bill.

Medi-Cal is the state’s Medicaid plan for low-income Californians. Nearly one in three Californians now receive coverage in Medi-Cal. With its continued Medi-Cal expansion it is predicted to expand to 20 million by 2020.

The people of California are going to be the first victims of the increased costs and decreased services.

Every government program creates a complex bureaucracy along with money wasting inefficiencies and abuses.

California politicians were bragging about the great deal the government had given them.

“That’s a really great deal for California,” said Scott Graves, research director at the California Budget & Policy Center. “You don’t find that anywhere else.”

“Advocates say the expansion, with the huge infusion of federal money, should in fact eventually yield savings for states, possibly enough to make up for the costs.”

“UC researchers calculated that each new federal dollar brought to California by Medi-Cal will generate 5.4 cents in tax revenue for the state, which would mean several billion dollars. That’s because the money creates jobs in healthcare, which creates income and sales tax.”

Over the years because of the cost overages, Medi-Cal has been forced to decrease reimbursement to physicians and ration both care and access to care. Physicians have opted out of Medi-Cal participation. As Medicaid has grown as a result of Obamacare, Medi-Cal patients cannot find a physician to care for them.

I suppose President Obama could force physicians to accept Medicaid payment in order to retain their license to practice medicine. This executive action would attack freedom of choice and propelling the United States further down the road to serfdom.

As predicted, a group of Californians filed a civil rights complaint against Medi-Cal, alleging that failures in the program have prevented Latinos from accessing their healthcare they needs.

“But the complaint filed with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services claims that because Medi-Cal administrators don’t pay doctors enough to see patients, they “effectively deny the full benefits of the Medi-Cal program to more than seven million Latino enrollees.”

Many complain that Medi-Cal’s reimbursement rates, among the lowest in the nation, create a shortage of doctors willing to see Medi-Cal patients.

“The audit confirmed our long-standing concerns about access for Medi-Cal patients,” said Anthony Wright, executive director of the advocacy group Health Access California. “The findings of the audit cry out for more oversight.”

Gov. Jerry Brown’s budget for the 2014-15 fiscal year accommodates an influx of uninsured residents into Medi-Cal.

“However, at Governor Brown’s request, the Legislature left in place a 10 percent recession-era cut in reimbursement to most doctors, dentists and other health care providers who treat Medi-Cal patients.”

Health providers predicted this harmful contradiction. The contradiction is that Medi-Cal expansion will provide more of the poor with adequate healthcare coverage. It is, in fact, reducing poor persons ability to get into clinics, practices and even hospitals.

The California HealthCare Foundation reported that 76 percent of primary physicians accept new patients through private insurance. Only 57 percent accept new Medi-Cal patients.

The optimism of politicians for the expansion of Medi-Cal improve state revenue has vanished. California’s deficit is increasing rapidly as a result of Obamacare’s largess.

In California, state officials are discussing how they’ll afford the program next year (2017). Gov. Jerry Brown called a special legislative session this year to address funding for Medi-Cal.

“It’s a strained system,” said Hernandez, “and I really believe we need to figure out how to resolve. ”

The 20 states that have not accepted President Obama’s offer to expand Medicaid were correct. These states wanted to make their own decision in the name of states’ rights. Many of the states could not afford expansion in the way President Obama was dictating it. Their budget deficits and taxes would have to increase.

California has just proven these states fears. In 2017 California will start paying 5% into the Medi-Cal expansion. It will make the budget deficit worse.

California will, once again, start begging the federal government to bale it out.

President Obama’s plan was to dump the financial burden on the states while controlling the system and creating a single party payer by default.

There is a much better way to provide healthcare to all people at an affordable cost.

The better way is to put consumers in control of their healthcare dollars.

They will control their health to avoid costly complications of chronic diseases. The people will be given financial incentive to be responsible for their health to try to avoid the onset of chronic disease.

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

Permalink:

Biased Newspaper Reporting

April 3, 2016

inDisinformation and the healthcare system

• Leave a comment

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.

Permalink:

President Obama Somehow Finds The Money

February 26, 2016

inMedicine: Healthcare System, Politicians,Healthcare and Vested Interests, Stakeholder Abuse of the Healthcare System, Stakeholder Mistrust

• Leave a comment

Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP,MACE

It is almost impossible to follow the tricks President Obama and his administration use to ignore congress and avoid the law. Few media outlets even try to understand the tricks. No one cares.

The media simply republishes the press releases of the Obama administration. The information is usually out of context.

ObamaCare was sold to the public and congress with a bunch of lies:

1.You can keep your healthcare insurance plan if you like it.

You can keep your doctor if you like your doctor.
Anyone making less that $250,000 per year will not pay a dime more in taxes.

President Obama’s promises were then followed by a long string of lawless executive actions to keep an unworkable scheme (Obamacare) going despite the damage being done to employers, doctors, consumers and the economy.

Statutory deadlines were routinely ignored.
Government funds were shifted from one program to another ignoring the law.
The employer and employee mandate built into the law was illegally delayed, repeatedly
Individual mandates were illegally delayed.
Free Obamacare healthcare plans were illegally granted to illegal immigrants.
Granting waivers to special favored groups.
And many more.

Now, it looks like President Obama is diverting public funds to bail out the health insurance-companies in defiance of the law passed by congress one year ago. President Obama signed it into law.

I am also surprised that Marco Rubio has not been screaming about it because he claimed to initiate that law passage of the law to prevent overspending for reinsurance.

President Obama desperately needs healthcare insurance industry to participation in Obamacare in order to prevent its collapse. He somehow had to come up with the bailout money.

Not only is he in the process of destroying our healthcare system as well as our economy, he is destroying America’s most important asset, the rule of law.

The mainstream media ignores the facts. One reason could be because the Obama administration keeps confusing the facts presented to the media. Another reason is the media bias toward President Obama.

These are probably the facts;

Last fall UnitedHealth said they were considering dropping out of the Federal Health Exchanges in 2017. The company said they were losing money on Obamacare. Aethna followed shortly thereafter

“The latest jolt is the $475 million loss UnitedHealth Group booked on the insurance exchanges in 2015, which the largest U.S. mega-insurer by membership expects to rise this year to another $500 million.”

Only three months ago the company projected losses of $400 million to $425 million. Every other line of UnitedHealth’s business is thriving.

In my last blog I published the outrageous healthcare insurance company executive salaries. The insurance industry cannot be losing money.

The real reason for UnitedHealth’s threat to quit was because the Obama administration underpaid the healthcare insurance industry $2.8 billion dollars for its 2014 obligated reinsurance payment.

When the reinsurance programs were activated congress passed the “Rubio” addendum stating that CMS could not pay out to the insurance industry more than they took in from insurance premiums.

The Obama administration had promised the healthcare insurance industry the reinsurance money for health risk overruns for participating in Federal Health Exchange.

The reinsurance programs were activated in 2014 for 3 years in an attempt to stabilize the insurance market (i.e. guarantee the healthcare insurance industry would not lose any money).

After he realized he could not pay more than 12% of what was owed he promised the healthcare industry he would make good on his commitment and pay as soon as he found the money.

This headline appeared, out of the blue, late on Friday afternoon February 12 at the start of Valentine Day Weekend.

“CMS readies $7.7 billion for ACA reinsurance payouts”

Some how President Obama found the money. The low enrollment in Obamacare resulted in high-risk patients with pre-existing illnesses. The few low risk young patients could not cover the cost overruns.

The shortfall was $2.8 billion for 2014. Somehow in the flurry of numbers thrown at the American public late that Friday afternoon it looked like the 2014 $2.8 billion shortfall was settled with the healthcare insurance industry for $1 billion by the government.

The 2015 reinsurance bill looks like it is $7.9 billion.

The reinsurance program was high in 2015 because the Obamacare health exchanges sold droves of healthcare insurance on the exchanges in 2015 to high risk people with preexisting illnesses.

So far the Obama administration has only found $5.5 billion of that $7.9 billion owed to the healthcare insurance industry.

“Just three California insurers—Anthem, Blue Shield of California and Kaiser Permanente—raked in more than $1 billion of reinsurance payments combined.”

Something is fishy about all of this, especially in the face of the Rubio amendment.

Where are you Marco Rubio?

Are you letting President Obama pull another trick on the American people at tax-payers’ expense?
The opinions expressed in the blog “Repairing The Healthcare System” are, mine and mine alone.

Please have a friend subscribe

Permalink:

Stop Confusing Me With Misleading Facts

February 8, 2016

inPoliticians,Healthcare and Vested Interests

• Leave a comment

Stanley Feld M.D. FACP, MACE

The truth is derived from facts. In social sciences such as politics and economics isolated facts can lead to conclusions that are far from the truth. It is also possible to manipulate statistics that lead to false conclusions.

Misleading facts can lead to false conclusions and inaccurate opinions.

The Obama administration has mastered the art of picking isolated facts and manipulating statistics. It has used that skill and the traditional mainstream media to mold public opinion.

Government agencies are supposed to be politically neutral. The Obama administration uses isolated reported facts out of context to mold favorable public opinion using the traditional media.

This methodology has been pervasive in misinforming and transforming America. This phenomenon is especially true as it relates to the healthcare system.

Healthcare.gov’s enrollment supposedly ended for 2016 on January 31, 2016. Enrollment has been abysmal for 2016. It is no higher that the enrollment reported in 2014.

The only real increase has been the increase in Medicaid enrollment.

“As announced yesterday, the official QHP selection number ended up coming in right in the middle of this: 12.7 million nationally (9.6 million via HC.gov).”

Nevertheless, Secretary Burwell announced that enrollment surpassed expectations.

In mid-December President Obama announced as proof of the success of Obamacare;

“Nearly 6 million Americans so far have enrolled in insurance for 2016 through HealthCare.gov, President Obama announced on Friday, touting a big increase over last year that he said shows the Affordable Care Act is succeeding.”

The truth is Obamacare is a failure. State healthcare exchanges are failing. Many states have closed down their state healthcare exchanges. Yet, President Obama’s message is that his signature legislation, the Affordable Care Act, is succeeding.

The administration never addresses the reason Obamacare is failing. However, people who know the facts know it is failing and why it is failing. Obamacare simply does not meet the needs of the middle class consumers.

“It’s time to look at the major reasons for the shortfall.

Some of these are well-documented criticisms: Premiums and/or deductibles are simply too damned high for many policies/regions in general.”

There are many additional reasons for the poor enrollment but that is not the point of this article.

The point of this article is the Obama administration deceiving the public .

There are other areas of consumer (public) deception by the Obama administration.

One outstanding example is the administration’s conclusion that there is no inflation in America, which is hard to believe. Every time we go into a grocery store the price of food seems to increase. Every time we buy clothing, an appliance, a car or a restaurant meal the price seems to increase.

Few people know that food and fuel are not included in the Consumer Price Index (CPI). The CPI is a measure used in determining the inflation rate.

The article that stimulated me to write this blog was last week’s announcement that the unemployment rate has just decreased to below 5%.

President Obama, who expressed frustration that he has not received the credit he feels he deserves for the country’s improving economy, said the jobs numbers were further signs of progress.

“After reaching 10 percent in 2009, the unemployment rate has now fallen to 4.9 percent even as more Americans joined the job market last month,” he told reporters at a White House briefing in Washington. “Americans are working.”

The New York Times reported that the Obama administration has used this figure to brag about how well the economy is doing under his administration.

A non-traditional media publication, PJ media, has reported, in detail, the interpretation of the real numbers using the government’s own statistics. It is worthwhile reading the entire article and forming your own opinion about the unemployment rate.

“Every so often a monthly employment report is full of so many irregularities that it pays to discount the report. This might be one of those times.

We’ve commented several times over the years about the BLS cooking the books on jobs. James Pethokoukis lists some other stats that tell far more of the real story about the employment picture than the bare-bones numbers highlighted by the media:

Not everything was great: job gains far short of 185,000 expectations (though averaging 231,000 the past three months), U-6 unemployment-underemployment rate unchanged at 9.9%, long-term unemployment worsened, labor force participation and employment rate still way below pre-recession levels, wages gains short of what you would expect to see in a full-throttle economy. Particularly vexing for Barclays was job weakness in the service sector.

The unemployment rate figure is a fact used to mold public opinion. The mainstream media is the message. The problem is the Obama administration’s message is an absolute lie.

“In other words, the job situation in America still sucks, and the president is blowing smoke by touting the numbers as good news.”

One commenter wrote, using the government raw data;

“empiresentry 1st Boomer • 15 hours ago

Yeah that 30% was a ‘laugh’ and the Dims fell for it. Cali and some other Dim states mistakenly were unable to submit their numbers (cough cough)
.
For January 2016:
First time INITIAL jobs claims for unemployment insurance
Jan. 9, 2016 284,000
Jan. 16, 2016 294000
Jan. 23, 2016 277000
Jan. 30, 2016 285000
————-
940,000 human being lost their jobs

Jan. 623,000 “stopped looking for work”.
We did not stop looking for work. The government stopped counting us because our unemployment insurance ran out.

151,000 people found new jobs, most were retail and restaurant part time.”

The Obama administration and its agencies have presented distorted facts to us over and over again during the past 7 years. It has distorted the truth and, in turn, public opinion.

If one uses the wrong facts, one will come to the wrong conclusion.

Everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion. They are not entitled to their own facts.

That includes the President of the United States of America and his administration’s agencies.

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

Permalink:

Here It Comes!

February 3, 2016

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

• Leave a comment

Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP, MACE

The mainstream media has been very quiet about Obamacare lately as the defects in its execution keep rolling along.

You may recall President Obama telling Senator John Kerry and Representative Barney Frank not to worry about including a Public Option in the bill. He told them they would not have to include the Public Option in the Affordable Care Act.

Barney Frank said we would never get a single party payer system unless we have a Public Option in the bill.

President Obama was right. He didn’t need a Public Option because the single party payer system was already embedded in the bill without anyone knowing it.

Medi-Cal is California’s name for its Medicaid program. California is one of the states that have expanded the Medicaid program under Obamacare.

Twenty states have not expanded their Medicaid program for fear of the federal government impinging on states rights while sticking their state with the bill.

The states also feared increases in their budget deficit. States are required to balance their budget. The result would be an increase in state taxes.

The increase in state taxes would render the state unattractive to companies and their business. Less company growth would mean an increase in unemployment and a decrease in state tax revenue. A decrease in tax revenue would result in a decrease in state services.

President Obama said, “Don’t worry.” He promised to fund Medicaid expansion fully for the first 3 years. Federal funding would decrease after the first three years to 50%. The funding percent has changed a few times since that promise. One could not know the present decrease unless one read the Federal Register daily.

Expanding Medicaid was a key part of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). It was also a hidden trap set by President Obama to slip the healthcare system into a single party payer system by default. That is why President Obama insisted we did not need a Public Option.

Obamacare required nearly all Americans, under penalty of law, to have insurance starting in 2014.

“Though a surprise, the high Medi-Cal enrollment is generally hailed as a success. California’s uninsured population has been cut in half since Obamacare, in large part because so many Californians signed up for Medi-Cal, which is free for beneficiaries.

Medi-Cal was opened to all low-income Californians starting two years ago, with the federal government paying for those new enrollments.”

In 2016 one third (1 in 3) or 12.7 million Californians are covered by Medi-Cal.

The total cost of the Medi-Cal explosion is $91 billion dollars, up from $54 billion dollars in 2012. California is responsible for $12 billion dollars. It will increase California’s budget deficit and may result in another tax increase.

The cost per insured is $7,165.35.

“The Medi-Cal program continues to grow at a very substantial rate, which is great. We are very happy that we’re able to provide healthcare to getting close to 13 million Californians,” said Mari Cantwell, chief deputy director at the state Department of Health Care Services, at a hearing in downtown L.A. this month. But, Cantwell added: “Obviously with that comes cost.”

The Medi-Cal is viewed by many state officials as being underfunded.

Medi-Cal patients are struggling to find doctors.

Many patients are receiving low quality of care by government standards.

A psychiatrist in Los Angeles told me that all the private practice internists in L.A. require an upfront concierge fee of at least $2,000 a year at the beginning of the year to be in their panel. If this is true, Internists in L.A. are insulating themselves against the low reimbursement of Medi-Cal. This concierge fee increases the California physician shortage.

The result has been that groups of activists have filed a federal civil rights complaint alleging that Latinos are being denied access to healthcare because the program does not pay doctors enough.

“The Affordable Care Act allowed states to open up Medicaid to anyone making less than 138% of the federal poverty level.”

Twenty states did not sign up for the expanded Medicaid because of the fear of federal takeover and the further impingement of state rights.

Pre-Obamacare, states were required to pay 43% of Medicaid’s cost and the federal government paid 57% of the costs. States ran the program and determined reimbursement.

As costs increased reimbursement was decreased and physician participation decreased because of the decreased reimbursement.

As a result of the 20 states resisting Medicaid expansion the federal government will pay 100% of the cost of new expansion enrollees and 93 percent off the cost of expanding Medicaid over the next nine (9) years instead of the next two (2) years.

The present rule looks like a great deal for the states. However with the federal government paying most of the Medicaid bill for the next nine (9) years the federal government will want to control Medicare.

Who needs a Public Option to get to a single party payer?

Who is going to stop the federal government from changing the eligibility for Medicaid to 200 or 400% of the poverty level?

Who is going to force doctors to participate in Medicaid if they want to practice medicine with a federal license?

Where is the government going to get the money without having skyrocketing increases in taxes?

Tax laws and lack of pro-growth tax reforms are inhibiting America’s economic growth.

America has been set up to have the future state of healthcare be a single party payer system. President Obama has done it in a clever way. He has had no regard for being fiscally responsible in the face of a 19 trillion dollar, and rising, debt.

Single party payer systems have failed in England and Canada.

Why should America create another failure?

Can Americans have a future state healthcare system that is not destined to fail?

Yes we can!

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

Permalink:

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

• Leave a comment

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.

Please have a friend subscribe

Permalink:

Destroying The Healthcare System

January 6, 2016

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

• Leave a comment

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.

Please have a friend subscribe

Permalink:

December 13, 2015

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

• Leave a comment

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.

Please have a friend subscribe