President Obama: Please Stop Deceiving Us!

Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP,MACE

President Obama, please stop deceiving Americans. Please tell us the truth. Please be transparent as you promised us you would be.

President Obama promised to transform America. Americans did not know what that meant. They thought is was for the good. 

The healthcare system was dysfunctional before President Obama became president. In order to fix a dysfunctional system, one must try to get to the root of the problem.

President Obama has not done that. He has pasted another layer of bureaucracy on top of an already dysfunctional system. This has created further dysfunction.

He has further compounded the dysfunction in the healthcare system by changing the law unilaterally by executive order without the consent of congress.

There is question on whether his actions are unconstitutional. If they are unconstitutional it is grounds for impeachment.

At best these unilateral changes have destabilized the healthcare system further. The changes have also increase uncertainty in the investment community. The result of the uncertainty is to slow the jobs market and the economy.

President Obama is a charming fellow. The problem is the veneer has rubbed off. At the beginning he pandered to all the stakeholders vested interests.

He told them glorious things about what they could expect. People have recently found out that they have been deceived.

President Obama is not about innovation and opportunity as many hoped for in 2008.

President Obama is about increased central government control over our freedoms and our choices.

All of his actions and deceptions are starting to backfire on him. The majority of the American public is becoming aware of his tricks and abuse of power.

The tricks, deceptions, abuse of power and outright lies are starting to directly affect the majority of Americans in a negative way.

In healthcare we have been deceived by many actions. At present it is the reporting the enrollment figures in the health insurance exchanges.

President Obama, his administration, and even Dick Durbin have inflated the numbers without giving Americans the facts.

Last week even the Washington Post could not take it anymore. 

“The Washington Post, has given "three Pinocchios" to the White House for its claim that 6 million people have enrolled in Obamacare, and warned the media to ignore the distorted government figures.”

After President Obama announced these figures during his Super Bowl interview, he tweeted them on his official Twitter account.

https://twitter.com/BarackObama/status/421668496120897536/photo/1

The figure comes from a combination of 2.1 million people who have enrolled under federal and state healthcare insurance exchanges, plus 3.9 million who have qualified for coverage on Medicaid through November.

The key words in President Obama’s statement are qualified for coverage on Medicaid through November. These words tells you almost nothing about how the Affordable Care Act is affecting Medicaid enrollment."  

The mainstream media keeps on using the same incorrect numbers over and over again thinking they are fooling the American people.

"No one really knows, though some have tried to tease out figures from the data that has been presented."



 

California was supposed to have the strongest state insurance exchange.  Covered California signed up the most people for Obamacare since October 1,2013. It was the model exchange. After January 1^st, 2014 the problems became apparent.

As of Dec. 31, 2013, nearly 500,000 California residents had enrolled in health coverage through Covered California, the state's health insurance exchange created under the Affordable Care Act, according to data released Monday by HHS, KQED's "The California Report" reports.

Overall, California residents accounted for 22% of the total 2.2 million exchange enrollees nationwide (Aliferis, "The California Report," KQED, 1/13).

I would call this bragging without presenting the facts or the potential problems.

These are the potential problems.

According to the data, 85% of the 498,794 Californians who have enrolled in coverage through Covered California received a federal subsidy, compared with 79% nationally (Seipel, Contra Costa Times, 1/14).

The state and the federal government will have to come up with the subsidies. The result will be higher premiums for those that pay full premium price and increased taxes for those who pay taxes.

The data also show that:

• 61% of enrollees chose a silver-level plan; and
• 23% chose a bronze-level plan ("The California Report," KQED, 1/13).

          52% of enrollees were between ages 45 and 64 ("The California Report," KQED, 1/13); and

• 25% were between ages 18 and 34 (Contra Costa Times, 1/14).

 The number of enrollees is different than the number of people who definitely are insured. Enrollees are not insured until they paid their premiums.

Even so, the enrollee mix, if it stays the same will necessitate an increase in insurance premiums and a bailout of the insurance companies. The insurance company bailout was built into Obamacare upon passage of the act.

The public did not know about insurance company bailouts until recently. 

In California consumers have not receive the coverage they thought they bought. Consumers are not able to see physicians who were caring for them before the new year. Many cancer patients who require continuing care have not seen been able to see their physicians.

Seventy percent of the physicians in California have not signed up to accept Covered California because reimbursement is too low.  

 The White House was dealt a stunning new blow on Obamacare sign-up numbers:

“Reports have leaked showing that only about half of the people "enrolled" at healthcare exchanges in various states have actually paid their premiums.”

“Minnesota's exchange enrollment goal of 67,000 seemed within reach on Jan. 4, when signups stood at 25,860.”

 “But after surging by more than 4,000 per week in the prior five weeks, signups collapsed back to November's pace of less than 700 per week.”

  “As of Feb. 1, Nevada had just 14,999 paid enrollees — vs. the state's March 31 goal of 115,000.”

 “Washington state, meanwhile, was slightly more than halfway to its goal of 340,000 signups — but only 88,071 had paid as of Feb. 1.”

 “The January data available from a handful of states raise new doubts about whether ObamaCare's downgraded first-year prospects are still too optimistic.”

These numbers have been kept out of the mainstream media.

 The poor premium payments by enrollees of 50% in Washington and 66% in Nevada creates a risk that the demographics of the paid exchange population may be older and possibly sicker than the information the Obama administration has publicized to get more people to enroll.

This is only a partial list of President Obama’s present deceptions.

 A complete list of the 35 changes made to the law by executive order without consent of congress is in order about now.

Why are so few in Congress speaking out?

When are the people going to speak out?

Congresspeople who do not speak up should not be reelected!

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

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