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Single Party Payer Will Fail

December 21, 2015
inDisinformation and the healthcare system, Repairing the Healthcare System, Stakeholder Abuse of the Healthcare System, Stakeholder Mistrust
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Stanley Feld MD, FACP, MACE

Socialism does not work!

Intellectually, socialism is attractive and easy to understand.

 

Simple Definition of Socialism

 

Full Definition of socialism

  • “1
:  any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods

  • 2
a :  a system of society or group living in which there is no private property
b :  a system or condition of society in which the means of production are owned and controlled by the state

  • 3
:  a stage of society in Marxist theory transitional between capitalism and communism and distinguished by unequal distribution of goods and pay according to work done.”


It would be nice to have the government tend to all our needs equally.

Everything would be free to the public.

  • Not one would need to “get ahead.”
  • No one would have special privilege.
  • Everyone would live the same housing.
  • No one would have to have responsibility for anything.
  • No one would have incentive to be creative or inventive.
  • No one would need to take the initiative to be innovative and create new good and services.

The government would then run out of money because people would have little to be innovative about or have any incentive to work hard to provide for their family.

People would have little incentive to produce income that would generate taxes for government to spend on goods and services to support the benefits offered the people in a socialistic system.

The government would have to borrow more money from others because the people would not produce enough income to tax.

What lender would be inclined to lend money to a country that could not pay it back?

The socialistic system would then become unsustainable and collapse.

This explanation might be considered by some to be a fifth grade explanation of socialism. It is simple to understand but direct and to the point.

America is headed in that direction. The present healthcare system as is unsustainable.

Government cannot spend other peoples’ money when the money is not there.

In America the federal government and state governments keep making the same mistakes over and over again.

Obamacare’s regulations caused 335,000 healthcare insurance policies to be cancelled in Colorado. In 2010 Obamacare made these Coloradan healthcare insurance policies illegal.

Obamacare has failed for the citizens of Colorado.

The state’s politicians tried to fix Obamacare by borrowing hundreds of millions of dollars from the federal government to set up Colorado HealthOP the state’s co-op health insurance plan.

The goal was to stimulate competition among insurance companies by providing lower priced insurance. The co-op is in debt to the federal government for hundreds of millions of dollars.

Colorado HealthOP became the largest insurer on a state health insurance exchange in Colorado.

Colorado HealthOp lost so much money that it could not borrow any more. The Colorado HealthOp had to shut down in October 2015 leaving the federal government to absorb its loan to the state of Colorado.

The closure of Colorado HealthOP left 80,000 Coloradans without health insurance coverage for 2016.

The other state insurance plans are increasing premiums an average of 11.7% to stay above water according to state calculations.

It has made premiums and deductibles too expensive for many of these uninsured 80,000 people.

Coloradans are tired of all the insurance changes, increasing prices and uncertainty. They want something new.

The knee jerk reaction is to change to something easy to understand. A socialistic single party payer system (SPPS) is the easiest to understand. Let the state provide healthcare insurance to everyone. Healthcare would be universal and free to the public.

The problem is nothing is free. The advocates in Colorado (progressives and liberals) are mobilizing to replace Obamacare with either the Canadian or United Kingdom healthcare system.

However, both of these nations healthcare systems are unsustainable. They are failing because of the cost, inefficiency, long wait times for diagnosis and treatment and lack of services despite the governments claims and some of the consumers’ perceptions.

The progressive advocates accumulated 100,000 Coloradans’ signatures. These progressive democrats have gotten a single party payer (SPPS) proposal on the 2016 ballot.

“ColoradoCare,” as it is being called, would replace private insurance with health care funded completely by the government, substituting higher taxes for premiums.

The conservatives in Colorado do not have a proposal to replace Obamacare to put on the ballot in 2016. They have been asleep at the switch.

Conservatives and libertarians have been sleeping at the switch in every state except Vermont.

Conservatives and libertarians did nothing in Vermont. Peter Shumlin was elected governor to institute a SPPS.

The Vermont experiment with a single party payer system has been a disaster already.

“In 2010 Vermont voters elected Democratic Gov. Peter Shumlin, who promised to institute single payer in lieu of ObamaCare.”

Jonathan Gruber, who designed Obamacare, and thinks Americans are stupid, along with William Hsiao, who thinks price controls work designed the system for Vermont.

“Helping design the system was advisers such as Jonathan Gruber, the MIT economist often described as the architect of Obamacare, and William Hsiao, the Harvard economist who developed the Medicare price controls that are driving up prices around the country.”

Vermont played right into President Obama’s goal of creating a single party payer system (SPPS). Colorado is trying to follow the same path to disaster.

The Obama administration provided Vermont with many millions of dollars in federal grants in order to accomplish President Obama’s dream of a single party payer healthcare system.

In order to pay for Vermont’s SPPS the state proposed an 11.5% payroll tax on businesses, which would have taken the total payroll-tax burden to nearly 20%.

Vermont contemplated a new state income tax of 9.5% to pay for the SPPS on top of the existing 3.55-8.95% individual state tax.

The state budget would need to be doubled with the SPPS, therefore taxes would need to be doubled.

Even with these increases in taxes the plan would be deep in the red in three to five years.

Gov. Shumlin (Vermont) was elected to create a SPPS. In 2014 he abandoned single payer system he was about to create because of its effect on the state economy.

Gov. Peter Shumlin woke up to the impending disaster, “The potential economic disruption and risks,” he remarked, “would be too great to small businesses, working families and the state’s economy.”

Ben and Jerry might even flee the state and move to Texas because of the high taxes and economic disruption.

The people of Colorado should look carefully at Vermont’s mistake. The Denver Post has already predicted tax increases that would drive business and job growth out of the state.

Colorado also has a large VA Hospital System. In April 2015 the Colorado Springs Gazette reported that four of Colorado’s VA facilities were among the 10-worst in terms of wait times of all VA hospitals.

The Veterans Affairs hospital system is a pure a single-payer system.

“ A September report by the agency’s inspector general supports the conclusion that thousands of veterans may have died while waiting for the care they needed, although shoddy record-keeping made it impossible to know for sure.”

All Coloradans have to look at is their state’s VA SPPS that cannot take care of the 400,000 veterans in the state. Why should Coloradans expect a SPPS would work for five (5) million residents it their state?

What have conservatives and liberations offered as a substitute for the failed Obamacare experiment?

Nothing!

Leaders should start looking at My Ideal Medical Savings Account system that would put consumers in charge of their health and healthcare dollars.

Please send my summary blogs about an alternative to Obamacare and my Ideal Medical savings accounts to your elected representatives.

Spread the word about My Ideal Medical Savings Account as an alternative to Obamacare.

I wish everyone a HAPPY AND HEALTHY HOLIDAY SEASON

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

All Rights Reserved © 2006 – 2015 “Repairing The Healthcare System” Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP,MACE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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I Told You What To Do 8 Years Ago: Part 2

November 2, 2015
inDisinformation and the healthcare system, Politicians,Healthcare and Vested Interests, Stakeholder Mistrust
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Stanley Feld M.D. FACP,MACE

There are so many little changes that can have a big affect on repairing the healthcare system.

These changes would go a long way in putting consumers in control of their own health and healthcare dollars.

President Obama and the Democrats want to make consumers dependent on government. Most Republican politicians do not understand the healthcare system’s problems.

Republican senators and congressmen have not been able to come up with a viable solution because they are influenced by vested interests other than the consumers’ vested interests. .

Republicans cannot understand that consumers are smart. Most know how to spend their money wisely. Consumers can solve problems if they are given the right tools and incentives.

In last week’s Republican debate Mike Huckabee got close when he said we have to solve four chronic diseases and the costs to the healthcare system would plummet. He mentioned diabetes, heart disease, cancer and lung disease. He was almost correct.

The care of chronic diseases that are manageable consume 80% our healthcare dollars. Most of the 80% is spent on the complications of these chronic diseases.

Motivating patients to become the “Professor of Their Disease” can prevent at least 50% of the complications of these diseases.

Mike Huckabee missed that part. Patients must be provided with financial incentives to prevent a chronic disease from occurring in the first place and then learn how to prevent complications from occurring.

I am publishing the spring of 2007 blog summaries to demonstrate that none of the obvious fixes have been executed to put consumers in a position to make wise choices and be responsible for them.

What Have I Said So Far? Part 2 Spring 2007

April 3,2007

Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP,MACE

 

The solutions I have proposed are all directed to a patient centered, patient driven, and patient advantaged system. I will review the proposed solutions in the next two blogs.

 Price transparency is an essential beginning. Not only must the retail price be published but all of the discounted prices must be transparent as well.

The government must enact legislation so that the providers and the insurance companies post their range of prices. The government has to empower the patient with negotiating power to get the best price.

There are many different prices paid for a service depending on the negotiating power of the purchaser. The net effect of this total price transparency will be lower the prices and decrease cost of health insurance.

Consumer must demand real price transparency. Aetna’s declaration of price transparency last year was a rouse. The hospital associations of Wisconsin and now Texas have developed web sites to provide hospital retail prices.

We have little idea how much the government or insurance companies pay for these services. I assure you the discount is very deep and the hospitals are satisfied with the payments. 

The automobile industry has figured out how to deal with total price transparency and the Internet publication of the MSRP, the invoice prices and the average prices paid for an individual automobile. 

We should demand that the healthcare system does the same. The system should be set up where patients can negotiate price pre or post treatment. Sometimes the patients need a care emergently and are not in a position to negotiate in an emergency room.

Yet an oncologist is not permitted to administer the drug in his office for one and one half times the cost of the drug. It is estimated that $150 billion dollars are wasted on administrative costs in the hospital and in the insurance industry. These costs add not value to the treatment of patients. Increased executive salaries and increasing construction of enlarging hospital facilities absorb the administrative waste. The brick and motor expansion of hospitals should be over since much can be done on an outpatient basis.

 These are some of the solutions necessary to repair the healthcare system. The solutions have to be instituted as a total plan and not introduced piecemeal. Each of the pieces of the solution is dependent on each other in order to have a positive effect on repairing the healthcare system. Next time I will review the other elements of my plan needed to Repair the Healthcare System.

April 03, 2007  

There are two more parts to go. If only our elected officials would listen. The only way that will occur is if consumers start making demands. If the politicians do not listen them kick them out of office.

The most profound thing said at the Republican debate last week was by Marco Rubio. He said the traditional media is the Democrats largest and most powerful special interest group.

I suggest people start reading between the lines of the New York Times articles for a start.

Wake up, America.

 

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

 All Rights Reserved © 2006 – 2015 “Repairing The Healthcare System” Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP,MACE

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Simple, Viable Republican Alternatives To Obamacare

April 12, 2015
inChronic Disese Management, Consumer Driven Health Care, Disinformation and the healthcare system, Health Savings Accounts vs Medical Savings Accounts, Healthcare Insurance Industry, Medicaid, Medicare, Medicine: Healthcare System, Politicians,Healthcare and Vested Interests, Stakeholder Mistrust, Universal Healthcare
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Stanley Feld M.D., FACP, MACE

There are many simple and viable alternatives to Obamacare which Republicans should start considering.

Republicans should seriously consider My Ideal Medical Savings Account as an alterative to Obamacare. It is logical, simple, does not require a large complicated infrastructure and aligns all the stakeholders’ incentives.

It is easy for consumers to understand.

Consumers want to have choices. The dysfunction of our healthcare system has gotten to the point where most consumers don’t have a choice. Consumers simply do not know they lost their freedom of choice and access to care until they get sick.

Consumers think they have adequate healthcare coverage until they get sick. Only 20% of the population gets sick.

The other 80% of the population refuses to think about the problem.

When they do experience illness, the dysfunction in the healthcare system makes them furious. They want to blame someone. Physicians are usually the targets of their frustration.  

Most physicians are trapped in a situation that causes them to fight for their own survival for all the reasons I have previously enumerated. This creates a more dysfunctional healthcare system.

All the stakeholders fight for their own vested interests. These vested interests have become misaligned. The vested interest of the government is to control of the system and decrease its costs.  

Costs cannot be controlled by regulations without consumer involvement.   Consumers of healthcare must understand the effectiveness of their care is dependent on their involvement in their own medical care.

Consumers’ adherence to treatment is a key component in the effectiveness of medical care.

Medical costs cannot be controlled by government price fixing.

Medical costs cannot be controlled by government restrictions to access of care. Consumers will become sicker resulting in a higher cost illness.

Consumers must be empowered to be intelligent, motivated and responsible consumers of medical care. Only then can healthcare costs be controlled.

A functional healthcare system must provide financial incentives to consumers in order for them to want to be empowered to control costs. Consumers should not be dependent on the government to control costs.

The government must repair the actuary and accounting rules of the healthcare insurance industry. Insurance reserves should not be scored as a loss to justify premium increases.

The healthcare insurance industry takes 40 cents off the top of every insurance dollar that is spent. Consumers with both private insurance and government insurance are only getting 60 cents value for every healthcare dollar spent. The healthcare industry is allowed to do some strange accounting with their required reserves.

If this accounting method were repaired, premium costs would decrease.

Effective malpractice reform would result in a significant decrease in healthcare costs. The Obama administration refuses to believe tort reform is needed.  

Many of the rules written into Obamacare, Medicare, and Medicaid are so screwy they defy common sense and penalize consumers. One glaring rule is Medicare permitting hospitals to admit Medicare patients to the hospital for observation for 48 hours.

Medicare does not pay for Observation admissions. Patients have to pay out of pocket for these admissions.

Consumers must become aware of these screwy rules and protest them. These rules have been written by the Obama administration to save the government money. These rules penalize patients the government professes to help.

Consumers are the only stakeholders that can motivate President Obama and congress to fix the significant points of waste in the healthcare system. Consumers have the power to vote.

I do not believe that President Obama has an interest in repairing the healthcare system. All of his actions signify that he wants the healthcare system to fail. After it fails people will beg the government to completely take over and have a single party payer.

Does anyone trust the government to take over our most valuable asset, our healthcare?

The government take over will also fail because dependent consumers will figure out how to game the system just as food stamp recipient have figured out how to game that inefficient system.

The goal of a sincere administration and congress is to figure out how to motivate consumers to be “PROSUMERS” (productive consumer) with an economic interest in the healthcare system.

Airlines, banks, bookstores, entertainment venues have all figured it out. Why can’t the government help consumers figure it out?

My blog entitled “My Ideal Medical Saving Account Is Democratic” presents a consumer driven healthcare formula. It gives every socioeconomic group the opportunity to be an effective “Prosumer”.

It gives all Prosumers the incentive to be responsible for their health and healthcare dollars.

Below is the blog My Ideal Medical Savings Account Is Democratic!

My Ideal Medical Savings Account Is Democratic!

Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP,MACE

A reader sent this comment; “My Ideal Medical Savings Account (MSA) “was not democratic and leads to restriction of medical care for the less fortunate.'

This comment is totally incorrect. I suspect the comment came from a person who has “an entitlements are good mentality.”

I believe that incentives are good. They lead to innovation. Innovation leads to better ideas.

Healthcare entitlement leads to ever increasing costs, stagnation, restrict freedom of choice and decrease in access to care.

The excellent example of increasing costs, decreasing choice, and decreasing access to care is Medicaid.

The fact that someone is covered by healthcare coverage does not mean they have access to medical care.

 I have written extensively about the virtues of My Ideal Medical Savings Accounts (MSAs). They are different than Health Savings Accounts (HSAs).

HSAs put money not spent in a trust for future healthcare expenses. MSAs take the money out of play for healthcare expenses. MSAs provide a trust fund for the consumer’s retirement.

MSAs provide added incentives over HSAs to obtain and maintain good health.  Obesity is a major factor in the onset of chronic diseases. Consumers must be motivated to avoid obesity to maintain good health. MSAs can provide that incentive.

The MSA’s can replace every form of health insurance at a reduced cost. It limits the risk to the healthcare insurance industry while providing consumers with choice.

This would result in competition among healthcare providers. Competition would bring down the cost of healthcare.

Some people might not like MSA’s because they are liberating. They provide consumers of healthcare with freedom of choice. They also give consumers the opportunity to be responsible for their healthcare dollars while providing them with incentives to take care of their health.

MSAs could be used for private insurance purchasers, group insurance plans, employer self- insurance plans, State Funded self-insurance plans and Medicare and Medicaid.

In each case the funding source is different. The cost of the high deductible insurance is low because the risk is low. 

If it were a $6,000 deductible MSA, the first $6,000 would be placed in a trust for the consumer. Whatever they did not spend would go into a retirement trust.  If they spent over $6,000 they would receive first dollar healthcare insurance coverage. Their trust would obviously receive no money that year.

The incentive would be for consumers to take care of their health so they do not get sick and end up in an expensive emergency room.

If a person had a chronic illness such as asthma, Diabetes Mellitus, or heart disease with a tendency to congestive heart failure and ended up in the emergency room they would use up their $6,000.

If they took care of themselves by spending $3,000 of their $6,000 trust their funding source could afford to give their trust a $1500 reward. The benefit to the funding source is it saved money by the consumer not being admitted to the hospital. The patient stayed healthy and was more productive.

President Obama does not want to try this out. He wants consumers and businesses to be dependent of the central government for everything.

MSAs would lead to consumer independence from central government control of our healthcare. MSAs would put all consumers at whatever socioeconomic level in charge of their own destiny.

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

Please have a friend subscribe

Republicans who really want to repair the healthcare system should take notice of these suggestions. They should stop proposing complicated alternatives to Obamacare that will not work.

Republicans should start trying to understand the real problems in the healthcare system.

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

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The Obamacare Alternative That Would Work!

February 9, 2014
inConsumer Driven Health Care, Disinformation and the healthcare system, Medicine: Healthcare System
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Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP,MACE

Some have complained that "My Ideal Medical Savings Account" cannot work. I have communicated with some of these people who made this and similar comments. I discovered two common themes to their comments.

The first theme was that people are too dumb to take care of themselves and make their own medical decisions.

The government must make the healthcare decisions for them.

The second was people would not handle their healthcare dollars appropriately if they were given the money.

These people might be talking about 5% per of the population who will be a burden to society no matter what healthcare system is put into place.

Why burden the other 95% of the population who want to be responsible for their health and healthcare dollars if they were given the chance?

The chance given has to include complete transparency, equal tax treatment, and adequate education to use their healthcare dollars wisely to made wise medical care decisions.

The week Tammy Bruce wrote an article in the Washington Times entitled, “Obamacare Isn’t A Train Wreck, It’s A Cancer.”

She explains how it is metastasizing throughout our economy and culture. It will destroy our society.

It is clear me that people commenting did not read my blog “My Ideal Medical Savings Account Is Democratic” carefully.

I decided to republish that blog at this time when it appears that Obamacare is failing on every level as I had predicted.

My hope is people will read the blog more carefully this time and understand it as an alternative to the impending disaster of Obamacare. 

My Ideal Medical Savings Account Is Democratic!

Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP,MACE

A reader sent this comment; “My Ideal Medical Savings Account (MSA) was not democratic and leads to restriction of medical care for the less fortunate.'

This comment is totally incorrect. I suspect the comment came from a person who has “an entitlements are good mentality.”

I believe that incentives are good. They lead to innovation. Innovation leads to better ideas.

Healthcare entitlement leads to ever increasing costs, stagnation, restrictions on freedom of choice and a decrease in access to care.

I have written extensively about the virtues of My Ideal Medical Savings Accounts (MSAs). They are different than Health Savings Accounts (HSAs).

HSAs put money not spent in a trust for future healthcare expenses. MSAs take the money out of play for healthcare expenses. MSAs provide a trust fund for the consumer’s retirement.

MSAs provide added incentives over HSAs to obtain and maintain good health.  Obesity is a major factor in the onset of chronic diseases. Consumers must be motivated to avoid obesity to maintain good health. MSAs can provide that incentive.

The MSA’s can replace every form of health insurance at a reduced cost. It limits the risk to the healthcare insurance industry while providing consumers with choice.

This would result in competition among healthcare providers. Competition would bring down the cost of healthcare.

Some people might not like MSA’s because they are liberating. They provide consumers of healthcare with freedom of choice. They also give consumers the opportunity to be responsible for their healthcare dollars while providing them with incentives to take care of their health.

MSAs could be used for private insurance purchasers, group insurance plans, employer self-insurance plans, State Funded self-insurance plans and Medicare and Medicaid.

In each case the funding source is different. The cost of the high deductible insurance is low because the risk of spending $6,000 for most people is low. 

If it were a $6,000 deductible MSA, the first $6,000 would be placed in a trust for the consumer. Whatever they did not spend would go into a retirement trust.  If they spent over $6,000 they would have first dollar healthcare insurance coverage. Their trust would obviously receive no money that year.

The incentive would be for consumers to take care of their health so they do not get sick and end up in an expensive emergency room.

If a person had a chronic illness such as asthma, Diabetes, or health disease with a tendency to congestive heart failure and ended up in the emergency room they would use up their $6,000.

If they took care of themselves by spending $3,000 of their $6,000 trust their funding source could afford to give their trust a $1500 reward. The benefit to the funding source is it saved money by the consumer not being admitted to the hospital. The patient stayed healthy and was more productive.

President Obama does not want to try this out. He wants consumers and businesses to be dependent of the central government for everything.

MSAs would lead to consumer independence from central government control of our healthcare. MSAs would put all consumers at whatever socioeconomic level in charge of their own destiny.

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

Please have a friend subscribe

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I Gave You A Better Plan In 2008

December 8, 2013
inMedicine: Healthcare System, Stakeholder Abuse of the Healthcare System, Stakeholder Mistrust
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Stanley Feld M.D., FACP, MACE

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

Any Rand, The Fountainhead

 

                                                                        December 7,2013

Dear President Obama;

Last week you said no one has showed you a better plan for healthcare than Obamacare.

You were the dysfunctional healthcare system’s great hope in 2008. Your problem is you listened to the wrong people when you wanted to repair the healthcare system.

 Unfortunately, these people believe as you believe. Their ideology believes in central government control and the redistribution of wealth. This ideology has only led to the failure of national economies in the past.

There are better plans than Obamacare.

In fact, I sent you six letters right after you were elected President explaining how the healthcare system had gotten into the mess it was in and what must be done to repair the mess.

You ignored me completely. I understand why. Your ideology is to increase central government control and redistribute wealth.

I believe in giving individuals the ability to control their own destiny, make free choices, and have incentives to improve and become innovative.

Increasing incentives promotes innovation. You believe in decisions by committee. I have never seen that work in business.

There are several key elements needed to Repair the Healthcare System.

The first is consumers must be responsible for their own healthcare dollars and their own health. Government should not be responsible for consumers’ healthcare dollars.

Consumers must be given positive financial incentives and education to use their healthcare dollars wisely and take care of their health.

A system of financial incentives can be set up so that people who are sick with a chronic disease such as diabetes, heart disease or lung disease can be rewarded if they keep themselves from getting a complication of their chronic disease.

Eighty percent of the healthcare dollars are spent on the complications of chronic diseases. Clinical research studies have shown that appropriate medical care and appropriate self-management can decrease the complications of chronic disease by at least 50%.

People are not dumb. If they had control of their money and freedom to choose they would choose to keep themselves healthy.

Past government attempts at redistributing wealth have never worked. Redistribution of wealth by increasing taxes on “the wealthy” has never historically increased efficiency or productivity.

What makes you think total government control and the redistribution of wealth will work now?

I appreciate your desire to have all Americans covered with healthcare insurance.

What makes you think healthcare coverage will make Americans healthy?

If you would provide incentives to American consumers to practice healthy habits and save money you would better serve us.

The healthcare insurance industry takes at least 40% of the healthcare dollars off the top of both private and public insurance.

You have done nothing with Obamacare to decrease the insurance industry’s incentives except try to penalize them. Obamacare has been unsuccessful.

The reason is clear. Obamacare is totally dependent on the administrative services of the insurance industry.

If fact, because of your disastrous web site you have asked the insurance industry to tell you how much the government owes them. This is the fox in the hen house.

What have you done about Tort Reform?

You have done nothing. Why?

Your healthcare policy advisors know little about medical care and the problems in the practice of medicine.  They believe that the practice of defensive medicine has a minor effect on the cost of medical care.

An estimate is that defensive medicine costs the medical care system $300 billion to $750 billion dollars a year in unnecessary testing.

Obamacare’s solution is to pay less money for those tests, not to eliminate the need to do those tests.

At the same time Obamacare lets secondary stakeholders take advantage of the system. It costs the government $1700 dollars for a fifteen minute ambulance drive to a hospital. Why? What are the basic costs and a reasonable profit to the ambulance company?

Physicians who treat those Medicaid patients brought in by the ambulance receive $24 dollars in reimbursement for his care. Does that make any sense to you?

Your government bureaucrats say we need to save money somewhere.

Hospital systems also receive special deals from the government.

Every hospital has a least two sets of books. One set for the government to see how much the hospital system is losing and the other set to show the hospital administration and board of trustees how much they are making.

Why are hospital administrator salaries increasing as physician salaries are decreasing?

Physicians are smart people. They will figure out how to get around the distortions being created by Obamacare. The result will be a more costly healthcare system and a further increase in the redistribution of wealth.

Who approved of the $640 million dollars contract to CGI for www.healthcare.gov  only to receive a system that doesn’t function and is probably about half built using an antiquated software program that should not be used?

Is it cronyism or stupidity? I know you are not stupid.

We have seen many examples of cronyism. In healthcare the multiple waivers from Obamacare are egregious. Two of the most agregious waivers were the waivers to congress and the unions.

What should the role of government be in healthcare?  Government should work to align everyone’s vested interests. It should set conditions to give all stakeholders real incentives to improve the healthcare system efficiently.

Consumers should be given the most incentive. Consumers are the only one that will be able to lower the costs. Consumers and physicians generate those costs. You do not impose restrictions by penalty. You increase incentives to get consumers to save money.

Try my ideal medical savings accounts.

Below are the links to the letters I had written to you when you were President-elect in case someone in your administration misplaced them.

In those letters is the course you should have followed to have a legacy to be proud of.

I have also provided a host of summary blogs that have explained repairs in detail.

Dear President-elect Obama Part 1

http://stanleyfeldmdmace.typepad.com/repairing_the_healthcare_/2008/11/dear-president-elect-obama.html

Dear President Obama-elect Part 2

http://stanleyfeldmdmace.typepad.com/repairing_the_healthcare_/2008/11/dear-president-elect-obama-part-2.html

Dear President Obama-elect Part 3

http://stanleyfeldmdmace.typepad.com/repairing_the_healthcare_/2008/11/dear-president-elect-obama-part-3.html

Dear President Obama-elect Part 4

http://stanleyfeldmdmace.typepad.com/repairing_the_healthcare_/2008/12/dear-president-elect-obama-part-4.html

Dear President Obama-elect Part 5

http://stanleyfeldmdmace.typepad.com/repairing_the_healthcare_/2008/12/dear-president–elect-barack-obama-part-5.html

Dear President Obama-elect Part 6

http://stanleyfeldmdmace.typepad.com/repairing_the_healthcare_/2008/12/dear-president-elect-obama-part-6-why-dont-you-listen-to-practicing-physicians.html

Summary Blogs

http://stanleyfeldmdmace.typepad.com/repairing_the_healthcare_/summary-blogs/

You are the one who asked to “show me a better plan.”

I hope you pay attention to my letters this time.

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

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What Is Going On With Obamacare?

November 17, 2013
inMedicine: Healthcare System, Politicians,Healthcare and Vested Interests, Stakeholder Abuse of the Healthcare System, Stakeholder Mistrust
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Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP,MACE

President Obama’s implementation of Obamacare is right on course to destroy the healthcare system and replace it with the federal government being the single party payer.

He is out to prove that the free market system does not work.

President Obama uses the strategies of Cloward and Pivan as well as Saul Alinsky to overwhelm the healthcare system. The goal is to create chaos in the system.

At the same time he attacks his enemies personally.

Cloward and Pivan said full enrollment of those eligible for welfare (entitlement/Obamacare) “would produce bureaucratic disruption in welfare agencies and fiscal disruption in local and state governments” that would “deepen existing divisions among elements in the big-city political parties and party coalitions.

The remaining white middle class, the working-class ethnic groups and the growing minority poor would be polarized. This would further weaken democratic institutions and existing political parties.

"In order to avoid the continuation of the chaos the federal government would step in and be obligated to advance a federal solution to poverty that would override local welfare failures, local class and racial conflicts and local revenue dilemmas.”[3]

Doesn’t this sound familiar? This week President Obama presented a non-fix to fix the problem of over five million people losing their insurance coverage. His move will only accelerate the chaos in the healthcare system he has already created.

Saul Alinsky said “do not let the enemy attack with a constructive solution. The enemy must be neutralized before its solution takes hold.”

The way to neutralize the enemy is by focusing on an individual you are going to attack. “Do not attack the constructive solution or the institution.”

Freeze the criticism on the individual; personalize the individual criticism and then polarize the populous against the individual and the constructive solution that individual represents. 

This is exactly what President Obama and the Democrats did to Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan. President Obama ignores the opposition’s constructive solutions.

An unidentified source sent me this comment. I am in total agreement

“Obamacare was designed to fail so that the unwashed masses, at the mercy of a cumbersome and unworkable system would look to Obama and the Feds for salvation in the form of single-payer medical care”. 

The only "incompetent and unknowledgeable" aspect of the situation is that Obama never, ever considered that the sycophantic Mainstream Media would ever call him out on this.

President Obama has never considered the wisdom of the American people.

In reality, government interference with the free market and its bureaucratic structure, inefficiencies and ill informed advisors have been the major cause of all the chaos.

Ben Carson quote

Barney Frank and John Kerry told President Obama that the only way Obamacare would work is with a strong public option and a single party payer system. President Obama’s response was don’t worry just pass the Affordable Care Act.

The creation of chaos in the healthcare system is the first step. Obamacare has succeed is creating chaos for people having their healthcare insurance coverage cancelled.

President Obama promised them that they could keep their insurance if they like their insurance. They could also keep their doctor if they liked their doctor.

He knew that this was not true in 2010. Nevertheless he promised it 23 more times since.

The New York Times reported,” A Contrite Obama Unveils a Health Fix

President Obama announced a fix to his signature health care law that will allow existing customers to keep their insurance plans.”

President Obama was far from contrite in my view. His non-fix fix will serve to accelerate the chaos in the marketplace.

His pronouncement is unconstitutional.

The insurance industry is not inclined to do things obviously against the “law of the land”. The main reason is the insurance industry has already purged the old insurance policies from their systems.

It will be impossible to reactivate them again in four weeks.

Increasing chaos is an important step in accelerating President Obama’s endgame to collapse the entire healthcare system.

Let us look at what he said during his “contrite” press conference.

"His announced fix is aimed at remedying the mass cancellation of individually purchased insurance plans by letting insurance companies re-offer non-compliant policies."

President Obama let slip that this is one big blame-shifting exercise. He announced that no one would be able to say Obamacare caused him or her to lose insurance.  

This is a Saul Alinsky tactic. The insurance industry has no inclination or ability to change its policies this late in the game. The industry can only lose money doing this.

President Obama has thus set up the healthcare insurance industry to take the blame for the before and after crisis in the healthcare system.

The fix undermines the essential premise of Obamacare. The young healthy people need to be forced into buying insurance through the health insurance exchanges. Insurance they do not want or need.

The President’s new fix will explicitly encourage many people to stay out of the exchange. The signal is clear that no one should sign up now because the entire program is in flux.  Young people do not trust President Obama anymore.

There were a series of incredible statements and lies made at the fix press conference.  Those paying close attention could hear them.

“We fumbled the rollout on this health-care law.”

No kidding. Where is the lie about the promise you made after you knew this would happen with both the web site and the ability to keep your insurance.

“I completely get how upsetting this can be for a lot of Americans.”

Thank you Mr. President.

“It is a complex process.”

Therefore, no one in the administration is to be blamed for anything that went wrong because it is a complex process.

“I was not informed directly [How about indirectly?], that the Web site would not be working. . . .

I don’t think I’m stupid enough to go around saying this is going to be like shopping on Amazon or Travelocity, a week before the Web site opens, if I thought that it wasn’t going to work.”

This is either an intentional lie or he did not listen to people who were telling him the web site was not ready.

People were telling him for months that the web site was not ready, not secure and not tested.

It is time for President Obama take some personal responsibility.

“With respect to the pledge I made that if you like your plan you can keep it. . . that there is no doubt that the way I put that forward unequivocally ended up not being accurate.”

President Obama didn’t lie. He was just inaccurate. Hah!

“The Affordable Care Act is not going to be the reason why insurers have to cancel your plans.”

President Obama must be kidding. His administration’s regulations made the old insurance policies against the law of the land.

“The federal government does a lot of things really well. One of those things it does not do well is information technology procurement.”

Is it the federal government’s fault when President Obama awarded the non-bid contract to build the web site to Michelle Obama’s girlfriend?

“In terms of what happens on Nov. 30th or Dec. 1st, I think it’s fair to say that the improvement will be marked and noticeable.”

I thought we were promised that the web site would be fixed by November 30.

“What we are also discovering is insurance is complicated to buy.”

 Why make it more complicated with Obamacare? The process could and should be simplified.

“There is no doubt that our failure to roll out the ACA smoothly has put a burden on Democrats, whether they’re running or not.”

The burden is on the Democrats. They were fools to pass this un-executable law without reading it or understanding it.

Didn’t Nancy Pelosi tell fellow Democrats that they have to pass the bill in order to see what is in it?

Democrats were the only ones that voted yes for the bill. They are responsible for what is in it.

They all deserve to be kicked out of office in 2014.

“There have been times where I thought we were … slapped around a little bit unjustly. This one’s deserved, all right?”

Again Saul Alinsky comes up. In the last few days I have once again seen the race card come up in the traditional media and among celebrities. Alinsky said attack your enemy personally.

There is beginning to be outrage and fear among the people of all socioeconomic groups. Everyone is now getting President Obama number. No one trusts him anymore.

 Obamacare must be repealed. America must start all over again to reform the healthcare system.

A good place to start is with My Ideal Medical Savings Accounts and Tort Reform.

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

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 .[3]

Permalink:

Maybe Obamacare Is Not Such A Good Idea

August 7, 2013
inHealthcare Insurance Industry, Medicine: Healthcare System, Patients Problems, Physician's Problems, Politicians,Healthcare and Vested Interests, Stakeholder Mistrust
• Leave a comment

Stanley
Feld M.D.,FACP ,MACE

Dear
President Obama;

Maybe Obamacare
is not such a good idea.

I suspect
you will not read this nor have you read my letters to you when you were first
elected.

The letters
were about how our healthcare system became so dysfunctional and what solutions, that will work,
are needed to repair the healthcare system.

Dear President Obama Part 1

http://stanleyfeldmdmace.typepad.com/repairing_the_healthcare_/2008/11/dear-president-elect-obama.html

Dear President Obama Part 2

http://stanleyfeldmdmace.typepad.com/repairing_the_healthcare_/2008/11/dear-president-elect-obama-part-2.html

Dear President Obama Part 3

http://stanleyfeldmdmace.typepad.com/repairing_the_healthcare_/2008/11/dear-president-elect-obama-part-3.html

Dear President Obama Part 4

http://stanleyfeldmdmace.typepad.com/repairing_the_healthcare_/2008/12/dear-president-elect-obama-part-4.html

Dear President Obama Part 5

http://stanleyfeldmdmace.typepad.com/repairing_the_healthcare_/2008/12/dear-president–elect-barack-obama-part-5.html

Dear President Obama Part 6

http://stanleyfeldmdmace.typepad.com/repairing_the_healthcare_/2008/12/dear-president-elect-obama-part-6-why-dont-you-listen-to-practicing-physicians.html

Respectfully,

Stanley Feld M.D., FACP, MACE

President Obama did not listen to me at all. It looks like his
agenda was not to "Repair the Healthcare System." It was to destroy it and
replace it with a government control single party payer system.

I continually think about the statement President Obama made to
Barney Frank and John Kerry when passing the law. They said the law must have a
public option and a single party payer to work.

President Obama told them not to worry about the public option.

Now Obamacare is experiencing objections from the interest
groups whose support is needed.

The unions, government workers in congress, the IRS, the healthcare
insurance industry, small businesses, large corporations, large fast food
businesses, privately insured Americans, Medicare insured seniors, physicians, hospital
systems all have objections to the law now.


Many states realized they would get stuck with the bill for the
health insurance exchange. Thirty-three states did not want to participate.
Many did not want to increase their budget deficits.   

All these stakeholders are realizing that President Obama has thrown
them under the bus despite his initial promises.

Obamacare does not serve the vested interests of any of these
stakeholders. 

Some of the stakeholders are going to get special treatment with
waivers.

For Obamacare to work, everyone must participate. The mandate was
included in the law to force everyone to participate.

The Supreme Court called it a tax to allow the Obamacare law to be
constitutional.

A basic insurance principle is that everyone must participate to spread
the risk for the insurance industry.

The present system and Obamacare exempts the insurance companies from incurring risk.
It also exempts patients from being responsible for their own health and
healthcare dollars. When Americans spend their own money the free market works as
we have seen in many industries. They support the best product within their
means.

The government could support the underprivileged by providing them with
their healthcare dollars and teaching them how to use them.

The biggest villains in the healthcare system are the healthcare
insurance companies. They take 40% of every healthcare dollar spent by private
and public insurers off the top.

The healthcare insurance industry is the administrative service
provider for all public employees, public healthcare entitilments and private health insurance plans. The 40% overhead is charged
to all. The charge is not transparent.

Obamacare sets the conditions for continued abuse by the healthcare
insurance industry.

The Obama Administration estimates that
of the projected 7 million exchange enrollees next year, 2.7 million need to be young adults (with a low
risk of being sick) to make the premiums work.

 If young people don’t show up for Obamacare,
premiums for everyone else in the exchanges will skyrocket—which, of course,
dramatically increases the cost for taxpayers.

Congress
and congressional government workers wanted to be exempt from Obamacare because

 “The 2010 law
generally requires lawmakers and aides who work in their personal offices to
get coverage through the exchanges.”


That implies that they would no longer receive
coverage through the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program…

It does not clearly
authorize the government to pay premiums for federal employees who obtain
insurance through the exchanges.


Nor does it
authorize the government to reimburse federal employees who buy health
insurance on their own.”

Congress and their aides have
the best insurance coverage in the nation. Taxpayers subsidize their healthcare
insurance.

Through the years this
subsidy has been discussed.  Many have objected
to the cost of this Congressional benefit.

Congress has
objected to Obamacare changing the healthcare insurance they have enjoyed. Congress wants to be exempt from Obamacare.

“President
Barack Obama privately told Democratic senators he is now personally involved
in resolving a heated dispute over how Obamacare treats Capitol Hill aides and
lawmakers, according to senators in the meeting.”

Few on Capital Hill objected to President Obama changing the
rules of the law himself to protect their benefit.

A question should be asked, “Why should Congress and
congressional aides be treated differently than the general population?”

“At issue is whether
Obama’s health care law allows the federal government to continue to pay part
of the health insurance premiums for members of Congress and thousands of Hill
aides when they are nudged onto health exchanges.”


Currently, the government
pays nearly 75 percent of these premiums.

 The government’s contributions are in jeopardy
due to a controversial Republican amendment to Obamacare, which
says that by 2014, lawmakers and their staff must be covered by plans “created”
by the law or “offered through an exchange.”

President Obama declared,
“I'm on it” to clear up Capital Hill’s objections to Obamacare’s effect on
Capital Hill’s healthcare insurance.

The IRS employees also want to be exempt from Obamacare.

IRS
chief Danny Werfel, the head of the agency charged with administering Obamacare
said that he would rather keep his own insurance than get coverage under the
system created by President Barack Obama's single domestic policy
achievement. 

Danny Werfel made this statement before the
House Ways and Means Committee,

"I would prefer to stay with the current policy that I'm
pleased with rather than go through a change if I don't need to go through that
change."

Like
most
other federal workers, IRS employees currently get their health insurance
through the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, which also covers
members of Congress.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp said he has long
believed, “every American ought to be exempt from
the law, which is why he supports full repeal,”

IRS employees have the
responsibility to enforce much of the health insurance law,
especially in terms of collecting the taxes and distributing subsidies that finance
the whole system.

IRS agents, in addition to
collecting taxes will also collect data and apply penalties for those who fail
to comply with many of Obamacare’s requirements.

The special favors are coming
next. The Obama administration will only create more dysfunction in the
healthcare system. President Obama’s published goals are good. However, the law
is bad and its execution is worse.

Maybe he ought to consider
my Ideal Medical Savings Accounts as a free market solution to our healthcare
system’s problems.

If you do
not like what is going on, please write your senator, congressman and the
President and tell them that,

“Maybe Obamacare Is Not Such A Good
Idea.”

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

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Permalink:

Big Data Is A Major Problem For The Healthcare System.

October 31, 2012
inChronic Disese Management, Consumer Driven Health Care, Information Technology in Healthcare, Medicine: Healthcare System
• Leave a comment

Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP,MACE

President
Obama is blinded by his ideology. His healthcare policy goal is to eventually
have a single party payer system. Medical care will be commoditized with
treatment decisions made by the central government.

It
is a charade that his health insurance exchanges will lead to affordable
private insurance. It is misguided to believe that a non-elected central
committee (IPAB) will be tolerated to make treatment decisions for the
population.

The
larger pretense is that President Obama is building an inexpensive bureaucracy.
Last week he again stated that government overhead for Medicare and Medicaid is
very low. He again declared that the overhead expense is only 2½ percent.

It
cost two and one half percent for the central government to outsource administrative
services to the healthcare insurance industry. The healthcare insurance
industry, in turn, charges the government 18-40% to administer the programs.

Everyone
knows most everything government run is inefficient. President Obama is
enlarging the scope of government in all areas at a time when government is too
large and inefficient. The government’s income is $1 trillion dollars less than
its expenses per year since he has been President.

President
Obama thinks if he spends enough money he will spend his way out off the jam.

President
Obama believes one way to become more efficient is to gather more data. He can
then figure out which hospital systems and physicians are inefficient and
penalize them.

This
philosophy has two potential pitfalls. If the data is faulty the conclusions
are wrong. The second pitfall is that penalties do not encourage cooperation
and meaningful improvements. 

“Decision-making in
healthcare can be painfully slow, as any physician will tell you. Hospital systems and
physicians are being spurred on in part because healthcare is beginning to deal
with a shift in reimbursement toward one that rewards quality and disincentives
inefficiency and waste.

One problem is that quality is not clearly
defined and is sometime false. The government must reexamine its premises.

Most hospitals and health systems have lots of
data that might improve outcomes and cut waste.

The
problem is getting that data, which is often unstructured, into a format that
allows clinicians to make decisions faster and in a more coordinated fashion.

All
of the innovation is happening without input from physicians. It is being done
to decrease the cost of the hospitals. One thought would be to get rid of a few
excess salaried, $750,000 a year hospital administrators and $2,000,0000 plus
healthcare insurance company administrators which would go a long way to reduce
the cost of healthcare coverage.

Instead
the government is looking to penalize physicians. Physicians are the providers
that deliver medical care.

There
is software being developed that deals with real time processing of clinical
data. The software can communicate those data to networked physicians instantly
and help physicians deliver more timely care.

Many
hospital systems are trying to install these real time systems. Unfortunately,
many hospital administrators do not understand its power as a teaching tool to
increase the efficiency and effectiveness of medical care.

 The hospital systems’ only interest is in the
financial result and the question of whether the huge investment is worth the
capital expenditure.

Some
physician group practices, independent of hospital systems, are incorporating
these software systems into their electronic medical records. These groups recognize the potential
importance of having instantaneous predictive data.

Most
physicians do not have an EMR and only 7% of physicians have a fully
functioning EMR.

In
the monograph from “Pathways to Data Analytics” two things were very apparent. It
looks like the healthcare insurance industry controls the committee and its
plans is to continue to control the healthcare dollars and hope to control the
healthcare data.

Increasingly, a
data-driven approach to healthcare is necessary.

The complexity of clinical care requires it, says Glenn Crotty
Jr., MD, FACP, executive vice president and chief operating officer at CaMC.

 “We’re moving from an
individual practitioner cottage industry to a team-based process now . . .. [Medical
care] is beyond the capacity of any one individual to be expert enough to do
that. So we have to do it in a team.”

A team requires information. The changing dynamics of healthcare
spending and reimbursements also require data to navigate.

“Our analytics are not just for finance, which traditionally is
what hospitals invested in,” says St. Luke’s Chief Quality Officer Donna Sabol
, MSN, RN. “When you look at how [hospital] payment is changing [to] a value-based
equation, you have to have good analytics for finance and for quality.”

Absent from the report is the patient and his/her responsibility
to the therapeutic unit. Until some policy maker understands the role of
patients to the therapeutic unit they will get nowhere in improving the
healthcare system.

A glaring example is the money spent by hospital systems to
improve the discharge process to avoid re-hospitalization within the 30 days
post discharge.

Obamacare has instituted the rule November1,2012 that if a
patient is re-hospitalized within 30 days of the initial hospitalization the
hospital system will not get paid.

I can think of 5 ways hospital systems can get around this rule
without suffering the penalty. 

None-the-less the hospital systems are buying software to study
and automate the process to avoid re-hospitalization using its clinical data in
real time.

 The Seton Hospital System in Austin Texas
might have figured it partially out.

It started what it calls an extensivist
program. It is acting as an extension of its physicians care to help avoid re-hospitalization
and use the best data it can collect.

Its is helping clinicians identify patients who
would benefit most from extra attention following discharge. The program
started with congestive heart failure patient


"A
lot of it is about enabling decision-making," Ryan Leslie says

"It's taking the whole universe of
information we have and cutting out what's extraneous and giving clinicians the
information they need to make decisions."

Ryan Leslie is vice
president of analytics and health economics at Seton Healthcare system.  He is taking
unstructured clinical information and connecting that with billing or
administrative information and social demographic information.

He says,  "you start connecting all those things
together and you get a more complete picture of the patient as a person, rather
than as a recipient of a bill," he says. "That's been the exciting
thing recently. You realize that a patients' success or failure may not have to
do with the care plan details or the clinical attributes of the patient as much
as the social attributes."

Physicians
outside the hospital work with a team of social workers, nurses, and others to
visit patient homes and figure out what's keeping a patient from effectively
following treatment protocols that will likely keep them out of the hospital.

The software
helps determine, based on a host of combined data, which patients are most
likely to be re-hospitalized within 30 days. Targeting the patients is like
looking into a crystal ball. The hospital system cannot afford to service all
the patients with congestive heart failure. The program is in its early stages.
If successful the plan is to expand it to diabetes and other chronic diseases.

This will
happen well beyond November 2012 and January 1,2014. This hospital system
finally realized that it can and must be an extension of its physicians’ care
and not a competitor for patient care.

Missing is the
patients responsibility and incentive in not being readmitted to the hospital.
This can only be accomplished when consumers not only have a desire to be
healthy they have a financial interest to stay healthy.

This can be
accomplished in a consumer driven healthcare system where the patients are responsible
for their health and own their healthcare dollars. The easiest way to get there
is using my ideal medical savings accounts.

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

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Permalink:

With Obamacare Patients Lose

July 15, 2012
inMedicine: Healthcare System
• Leave a comment

Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP,MACE

President Obama, in his attempt to create a healthcare system that is more efficient, affordable and democratic does not attack the basic dysfunctions in the healthcare system.

Obamacare does nothing to disintermediate the healthcare insurance industry.

It does not provide incentives for consumers to be responsible for their health or their healthcare dollar.

 It creates another entitlement and increased consumer dependency on government rather than consumer independence.

 It does nothing to alleviate the practice of defensive medicine and the waste of $750 billion dollars for unnecessary tests that would be eliminated if effective Tort Reform were enacted.

President Obama and his advisors believe that defensive medicine accounts for only 2-3 billion dollars a year.

They conclude the cost is insignificant. They are ignoring reality proven by well-done studies. Their premise is incorrect. Ignoring the facts will continue the dysfunction in the healthcare system.

 I have stated repeatedly that I believe President Obama’s goal is complete government control of the healthcare system.

The rules in Obamacare will destroy the patient physician relationship and private healthcare.

The only system left will be the government’s Public Option through Health Insurance Exchanges. Everyone will be on Medicare or Medicaid.

Both Medicare and Medicaid are presently unsustainable. Expanding both will accelerate the demise of both Medicare and Medicaid. 

The resulting socialized Medicine will be an unsustainable disaster as it has become in England and Canada.

The public knows Obamacare will fail. They also know we need to do something. The public needs to hear about a viable alternative.

With Obamacare premiums will increase along with taxes. Access to care and rationing of treatment will occur.   

The path America is on is  “The Road To Serfdom” as described by Fredrick Hayak. Serfdom is occurring slowly but steadily. President Obama has told us in his own words how we will get there.

He sounds great because he is charming and seductive. His only problem is he is not truthful about his goal and its cost to society.

 

http://youtu.be/i2e-86eOIT0

Consumers will be the biggest losers.

The more than 250 million consumers who already have health insurance will see their healthcare insurance change, the cost increase, and the quality of care diminish.

 How will Americans feel when they hear about a brand new cure only to find out that their government’s controlled insurance won’t cover it? The decisions to cover care will be made by a non-elected committee that sends its recommendation to another not elected committee who then sends it to a third committee to decide on whether the treatment is affordable or valid for the age of the patient.

“Patients will have to get used to less access to real health care solutions, fewer approvals for the very latest, personalized, genetic-based cancer treatment or surgical technology that could save your life.”

Who loses? The consumer.

The Doctor Patient Medical Association released survey of doctors showing that 90% believe that Obamacare is on the wrong track.

The same survey revealed that 83% of practicing physicians are contemplating quitting the practice of medicine.  

The physicians remaining in practice will see more patients per hour and have care of their patients dictated to them by the government bureaucrats. Obamacare will turn personalized patient care into commodity care.

There will be no patient physician relationship. There will be rationing of care and decreased access to care. Patient’s will not have freedom of choice for care or treatment.

 A recent article in Britain’s Daily Mail described the use of the “Liverpool Pathway.  A British Professor claims the NHS kills off 130,000 elderly patients every year using the Liverpool Pathway.

The Liverpool Pathway is a set of rules that decide who should receive treatment and who should not receive treatment.

“Professor Pullicino claimed that far too often elderly patients who could live longer are placed on the LCP and it had now become an ‘assisted death pathway rather than a care pathway.”

 Under Obamacare physicians will bear the brunt of explaining how come ever rising premiums are buying you fewer and fewer benefits.

 Consumers who can afford to pay physicians directly will not receive a tax break unless their medical care expenses are more than 10% of their gross income.

 The popular Health Savings Accounts will perish because of the barriers against them as written into the healthcare law.

 The Healthcare System’s savior “My Ideal Medical Savings Accounts” will vanish from consideration.

Obamacare also restricts physicians’ clinical judgment.  Sometimes physicians will sense a patient is really sick with a serious disease. An example is a disease called a fever of unknown origin. Many tests would have to be performed to make the diagnosis. The sooner the diagnosis is made the better the chance for patients to survive.

Physicians might fear the Independent Medicare Advisory Board would deny the workup and penalize the physician. It could be that the Independent Medicare Advisory Board members and the other committees did not factor in the difficulties in the diagnosis.

In time the diagnosis would become obvious but it might be too late to save the patients life.

We have already seen healthcare premiums soar under Obamacare. I have shown that Medicare premiums are schedule to escalate in 2014. Medicare and Medicaid is healthcare insurance.

Healthcare insurance will be less affordable not more affordable even though government subsides will be greater.  The budget deficit will grow increase.     

Access to care will decrease because of the increased number of patients. Physicians will have less time to spend with patients. A growing number of patients will have increased difficulty finding a physician.

There is a current physician shortage. The physician shortage will become compounded when some physicians stop practicing medicine. Other physicians will either restrict the healthcare insurance plans they accept or stop accepting healthcare insurance completely.

The delivery of healthcare is getting worse and more expensive not better and less expensive.

Obamacare is creating an escalating mess.

Patients are going to be the biggest losers on every level of interaction with the President Obama’s Healthcare Reform Act.

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

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