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Finland’s Government Collapses Over Universal Healthcare Costs. March 2019 :Part 2

Part 2

Stanley Feld MD,FACP,MACE

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/finland-is-the-happiest-country-in-the-world-and-finns-arent-happy-about-it/

Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has been hanging his socialistic rhetoric on the success of Finland’s socialist society and especially Finland’s healthcare system which is supposed to be a free healthcare system for all. 

The New York Times published the article “Finland is a Capitalist Paradise” on December 2, 2019.

On March 3,2019, Finland’s government collapsed because the universal healthcare costs were unsustainable.                                                                                                                                                  

 President Donald Trump was correct when he said,

“Finland, of course, is one of those Nordic countries that we hear some Americans, including President Trump, describe as unsustainable and oppressive — “socialist nanny states.”

The New York Times ridiculed President Trump in December 2, 2019 for saying that Finland is a socialist nanny state.

https://legalinsurrection.com/2019/03/finland-government-collapses-over-universal-health-care-costs-bernie2020-hardest-hit/

https://freebeacon.com/politics/finnish-government-collapses-due-to-rising-cost-of-universal-health-care/

“Similar problems are bedeviling Sweden and Denmark, two other countries frequently held up as models to follow on health care. Finland’s crisis in particular comes as calls for universal health care have grown louder among Democrats in the United States.”

Americans have heard from few in the mainstream media about the collapse of Finland’s government or the reasons for that collapse.

Norway is excused from this discussion because Norway has become a very rich country from its North Sea oil income and its restrictive immigration policies. It is the citizen’s sugar daddy along with a 50% tax rate. 

The Kaiser Family Foundation found that 58 percent of Americans oppose “Medicare for all” if told it would eliminate private health insurance plans, and 60 percent oppose it if it requires higher taxes.

Reuters reported that soaring treatment costs and longer life spans have particularly affected the Nordic countries financial problems.

“Nordic countries, where comprehensive welfare is the cornerstone of the social model, have been among the most affected,” according to Reuters. “But reform has been controversial and, in Finland, plans to cut costs and boost efficiency have stalled for years.”

Just a few days before Finland’s government collapsed over its inability to foot the bill for its expansive socialist experiment, Sanders took to Twitter in an attempt to shame America.

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1097820307388334080/9ddg5F6v_bigger.png

Bernie SandersVerified account @BernieSanders

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“In the United States it costs, on average, $12,000 to have a baby. In Finland it costs $60. We’ve got to end the disgrace of our profit-driven health care system and pass Medicare for all.”

Bernie Sanders is not being honest with the American people.

“With the collapse of Finland’s government over its inability to financially support its massive socialist agenda, Bernie will undoubtedly do the same thing he always does when socialism (or communism) fails: ignore, obfuscate, and deflect.”

 We only have to remember Vermont’s “Medicare for All” failure. 

Bernie Sanders and AOC should read Finland and Sweden’s newspapers to understand that the people are unhappy with free but unavailable medical care. The unhappiness of the citizens historically happens in every socialist state run healthcare system..

If Democrats are successful in getting “Medicare for All” into law, America will face the same dilemma in the future

“The social welfare and health care reform was one of our government’s most important objectives,” Sipilä said at a press briefing. “The snapshot of the situation that I got from the parliament obliged me to examine if there was a possibility of continuing the reform process. There wasn’t.”

“My conclusion was that my government had to hand in our note of resignation,” he added. “I take my responsibility.”

https://www.politico.eu/article/finlands-government-collapses-over-failed-health-care-reform/

Finland has a decentralized system of health and social welfare programs, where much of the administration is left to local municipalities. This arrangement has led to widespread geographic variation when it comes to quality and access to health care services.

The reform was meant to address these inequalities and reduce the growing cost of the country’s health care system, which has come under increasing stress from an ageing population. It included centralization of the administration at a regional level.”

Finland has been held up as a model welfare state. The distribution of the resulting high taxes is spent on the social issues the politicians think are most important and not what the citizens think are most important.

The government should not be telling the people what they need if a healthcare system is to succeed. The people should decide on what they need and be responsible for their own care. The government should protect the people from both government and corporate abuse in a free enterprise system.

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



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Did Obamacare Cause The Increase In Private Healthcare Insurance Premiums?

Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP, MACE

A reader of my blog received this question from one of his friends.

The reader asked me his friend’s question  “I have a question and I don’t want it to be political (as I stay away from that for many reasons).                                                                                                                                 
Health insurance is so expensive and it does not cover hardly anything. We had to get the worst plan with the worst coverage. But it was not this way 6 years ago. We could afford good coverage.   

 The question is: Did Obamacare cause this change in healthcare insurance and these problems in access to care?

A reader asked:

Which of your blogs would be the best one to show him to answer his question?

The answer to the question is YES!! I will try to explain.

If I sent all the links to your friend would be overwhelmed. There are too many to count.  I will summarize some of the major reasons Obamacare is to blame for some of the increases in private healthcare insurance premiums and the decrease in the access to care. Obamacare has led us into a financial disaster. “Medicare for All” is not the answer.

I believe the goal of Obamacare was to create greater dysfunction in the healthcare system which would lead to huge premium increases for private healthcare coverage. The public would then beg the government to adopt a single party payer system with “Medicare for all.” This has been the progressives”  goal since 1935. Do you remember Barney Frank and John Kerry saying we cannot have a single party payer system yet because we do not have the votes?

https://stanleyfeldmdmace.typepad.com/repairing_the_healthcare_/2018/10/the-main-reason-behind-rising-medical-costs.html

The government has not had a very successful single party payer systems record.  The VA Health Administration, the Indian Health Service, Medicare and Medicaid are all inefficient and financially unsustainable.

“Our federal government already runs three single-payer systems—Medicare, the Veterans Health Administration, and the Indian Health Service—each of which is in a shambles, noted for fraud, waste, and corruption.”

“Why would we want to turn over all of the American medicine to those who have proved themselves incompetent to run large parts of it?”

https://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/short-history-american-medical-insurance/

The federal government depends on healthcare insurance companies to do the administrative services for Medicare, Medicaid and Obamacare. Administrative services include negotiating payments to hospitals, nursing homes, physicians and providers on all levels.

The various healthcare insurance companies are supposed to bid for these service contracts. The insurance companies receive one global fee.  The healthcare insurance company with the contract must pay providers on a fee for service basis. The healthcare insurance companies do not have good enough data to make an accurate bid estimate.  Actuary science is not rocket science. The healthcare insurance company builds in a twenty percent cushion to the bid. If the bid was low and the healthcare insurance company that lost money Obamacare guaranteed through a complicated reinsurance formula reimbursement to the company for its loss.

Recently the government audit discovered an overpayment of $10 billion dollars to the healthcare insurance industry for Medicare Part D.

I believe there is much more overpayment in Medicare Part A, B and D because of the government bureaucracy. The government only had the money to pay 12% of the reinsurance claims of the healthcare insurance company one year. The insurance industry simply raised the premium in the private sector.

http://stanfeld.com/president-obama-somehow-finds-the-money/

http://stanfeld.com/accelerating-the-destruction-of-the-healthcare-system/

http://stanfeld.com/the-deception-and-disinformation-continues/

Nationwide, the Obama administration made $7.3 billion in reinsurance payments to health insurers. The reinsurance program, funded by taxes on health insurers and self-funded employer health plans, has been criticized by Republicans as a “bailout” for insurers.

https://www.ibj.com/blogs/12-the-dose-jk-wall/post/53906-obamacare-shovels-another-122m-to-indiana-insurers

The healthcare insurance industry then once again raised premiums on the private healthcare sector to make up for its losses. to

The government reinsurance payments weren’t enough in all cases. New York-based Assurant Inc. asked for a 26 percent hike in private premiums for 2016, due to high claims in Indiana, before that company decided to exit the Obamacare markets in all states.

This was typical price shifting.

http://stanfeld.com/?s=price+shifting

Healthcare insurance companies projected that Obamacare would result in them losing money because of adverse selection. Obamacare’s increase required benefits for both public and private insurance. Obamacare’s rules included coverage for oral contraceptives for all and coverage of pre-existing illnesses among others. A sixty-year-old male does not need an insurance policy the receives oral contraceptives.

The healthcare insurance industry asked for double-digit increases in private healthcare insurance in every state. The logic was that these enrollees would pay for the loses that would occur from the Obamacare enrollees.

http://stanfeld.com/managing-points-of-view-and-healthcare/

The government’s argument is all should pay for everyone ’s healthcare needs. These healthcare needs have increased as the population has gotten more obese and has had a rise in drug addiction. These increased healthcare risks resulted in increased actuary estimates of healthcare cost. It does not put a burden on consumers who do not act responsibly.

The increased healthcare premiums caused many employers to drop healthcare coverage for their employees. The decrease in healthcare insurance coverage added to the pressure of healthcare premium increases.

The healthcare insurance industry also plays games with the Medical Loss ratio. The result is an increase in healthcare premiums and deductibles while decreasing services. The Obamacare issued regulations that the insurance industry must dedicate 80% of the healthcare premium to direct medical care and 20 % can be used for administrative expenses for both the public government insurance and private insurance. It is the state insurance regulators responsibility to enforce the regulation.

The expenses the industry wanted to be included are;

Expenses to be included in direct medical care are:

  1. The cost of verifying the credentials of doctors in its networks.
  2. The cost of ferreting out fraud such as catching physicians over testing patients or doing unnecessary operations.
  3. The cost of programs that keep people who have diabetes out of emergency rooms.
  4. The sales commissions paid to insurance agents.
  5. Taxes paid on investments.
  6. Taxes paid on premium income.

All these expenses are administrative expenses in my view and not medical expenses. If these expenses are permitted as benefit expenses, premium money available for direct medical care would decrease. The eighty percent required for direct medical care would be markedly reduced. The result would be an increase in healthcare insurance premiums.

http://stanfeld.com/medical-loss-ratio-how-did-the-healthcare-insurance-industry-do/

http://stanfeld.com/what-is-the-medical-loss-ratio/

The calculation for direct medical care helps the healthcare insurance company prove it lost money. The insurance company then applies to state regulators for a premium increase. The state regulators permit the premium increases.  If the premium increase is refused by the regulators the insurance company threatens to leave the state. The other option the healthcare insurance company uses is to decrease the insurance services and/or increase the insurance deductibles.

Another problem has developed in the healthcare insurance industry that is causing it to raise premiums and reduce services and access to care as a result of Obamacare.

Hospital systems are buying out physicians’ practices. Obamacare has put many restrictions on physician practices. It has increased practices overhead. Obamacare has decreased the ability for physicians to use their medical or surgical judgment that they have become happy to sell their practices to hospital systems. The hospital systems now have to deal with the problems of medical practice. The cost of electronic medical records, which have not added to the quality of medical care, increased many physicians’ willingness to sell their practices to hospital systems. At the moment the percentages of hospital-owned practices are up to 65% from only 17% ten years ago.

http://stanfeld.com/physicians-barriers-to-practice-their-profession/

https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704122904575315213525018390

As premiums have gone up physicians have not experienced an increase in reimbursement. They have been forced to see more patients quickly to earn almost as much as before Obamacare. Obamacare has destroyed the patient-physician relationship which in my view is essential in medical care. Physicians simply do not have time to talk to patients.

Hospital systems have taken over physician populations in many communities. This gives the hospital leverage over the healthcare insurance industry. The hospital system can demand higher reimbursement because it provides all the physicians.

The large hospital systems can demand that the insurance company only use the physicians in its hospital system even if there are lower cost of care options in a community.

The result is an increase in healthcare premiums and decreased the quality of care.

All of this is the result of Obamacare. There are about ten more reasons why Obamacare has increased premiums and decreased access to care. I have left link exposed. You are encouraged to look at them to see the full explanation for some of the point I have made.

I hope this blog answers your friend’s question. :  Did Obamacare cause this change in healthcare insurance and these problems in access to care? 

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



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A Thoughtful Solution To Repairing The Healthcare System

Stanley Feld M.D., FACP,MACE

President Trump might be going in the right direction. Unfortunately, the media’s hatred of him and the Democratic Party’s ideology and obstructionism might prevent him from potentially pursuing a new and sustainable direction that gives consumers the power to choose their healthcare goals. There is no reason that the government could not incentivize and subsidize the needy and less fortunate with this simple system.

I think everyone is tired of the political noise in the healthcare system. There seems to be no room for an understandable signal. However, I believe that effective technology and social networking can serve to decrease that noise to signal ratio and provide a less complex system.

President Trump is offering association directed healthcare plans, a blueprint to reduce decrease drug costs and health reimbursement arrangements to reduce the cost of healthcare insurance.

All three initiatives, if kept simple, can put control of the healthcare system in the hands of consumers.

Associations can provide healthcare plans to its members.  An association health plan (AHP) can provide multiple medical insurance plan options. Smaller employers, freelancers and self-employed association members can buy healthcare insurance through the association.

President Trump’s new regulations have made it easier for the members of associations to be equal to large corporations in negotiating the purchasing for health care insurance. They can also offer multiple healthcare plans and still have a high enough enrollment to obtain deeply discounted premiums and deductibles for small businesses, freelancers and self-employed that the members cannot get on their own.

These consumers will also be able to spend pre-tax dollars on their healthcare plans.

Access to the savings and benefit flexibility enjoyed by large group health plans is the foundation of the new association health plans. These savings can range from 8 to 18 percent for the same health insurance policy.”

“ Savings can be increased further through tactics such as self-insuring. Avalere Health, a healthcare research and consulting firm, has projected in a recent report that “premiums in the new AHPs are projected to be between $1,900 to $4,100 lower than the yearly premiums in the small group market and $8,700 to $10,800 lower than the yearly premiums in the individual market by 2022, depending on the generosity of AHP coverage offered.”

I think Jeff Bezos, Jamie Diamond and Warren Buffet’s new alliance has the right idea. They will provide deeply discounted healthcare coverage for their combined employees.

The primary advantage of offering health insurance through an association is the ability for an association to aggregate multiple employers so that the resulting health plan:

  • Operates under a large group health plan rules, which can be less costly than Affordable Care Act rules for small group plans.”
  • “Leverages its scale of participants in negotiations with health providers in order to obtain more favorable rates for medical services.”

The country has not been given enough information nor data to understand Obamacare’s inefficiency. The media has not been helpful in letting consumers understand Obamacare’s inefficiency and deficiencies.

President Trump is interested in having associations form and compare their success to the failed structure of Obamacare. Obamacare would seize to exist.

If associations are done right they can become a simple system that consumers can easily understand and use. This was Steve Jobs vision when Apple developed the iPod, iPhone, and iPads.

The insurance product that could achieve this vision for healthcare is my Ideal Medical Savings Accounts.

Americans need the new option to create a sustainable healthcare system.

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



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President Trump’s Drug Plan

President Trump’s Drug Plan

Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP,MACE

It is very difficult to know the truth in our post truth era. Intellectuals, elites and the well-educated are criticizing every idea the Trump administration brings forward.

He was hampered in moving forward in Repairing the Healthcare System when his own Republican Party did not pass the house of representatives’ bill to repeal Obamacare. The repeal would have enabled his administration to move the repair of the healthcare system forward quickly.

Most of President Trump’s ideas when it has related to repairing the healthcare system have been common sense. They are steps in the right direction.

Common sense solutions sometimes threaten to undermine extremely profitable private and public enterprises. The pharmaceutical industry and all related middlemen are an industry that is threatened by President Trump’s common sense solutions.

The industry will do everything in its power to spin the story so that the Trump administration’s plans sound sinister to the American public.

The American public can only make decisions on the information presented. In the post-true era the public does not know what to believe. The media has been anti-Trump and is not interested in presenting the details of President Trump’s blueprint for lowering drug prices utilizing free market principles.

“The problem of high prescription drug costs is something that’s been talked about in Washington for a long time. But that’s all it’s been: talk, talk, talk.

We are privileged to have a president finally acting, by laying out a blueprint for solving these problems using private-sector competition and private sector negotiation.

We’re not going to propose cheap political gimmicks. The President’s blueprint is a sophisticated approach to reforming and improving our system.

Everyone at HHS is rolling up their sleeves to get to work on this.”

On October 28,2018 the WSJ editorial board wrote a negative view of the Trump administration’s plan to lower drug prices. It is almost as if the editorial board did not read President Trump’s proposal as it appears on the White House web site. 

I believe it is worth discussing President Trump’s blueprint for lower drug prices.

I will then present the main points in the Wall Street Journal editorial.

The blueprint starts by stating:

These are the main problems with drug prices in the U.S.

Drug costs consume 30% of the healthcare dollar. Drug costs are unaffordable to both consumers and the government. Over 40% of elderly patients consume greater than nine drugs daily. Fifty percent of those 40% experience adverse drug reactions due to drug interaction. Many end up being hospitalized thereby increasing the cost of medical care.

If a patient cannot afford to buy a drug because of its cost it will not help control their disease. A hospitalization will occur increasing the cost of healthcare.

One of my greatest priorities is to reduce the price of prescription drugs. Prices will come down.”

President Donald J. Trump” 

The public should take this comment at face value.

These are some of the facts;

  • According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the United States had the highest per-capita pharmaceutical spending in 2015.
  • Senior citizens pay more in Medicare Part B and Part D because government rules prevent health plans and vendors from negotiating the better deals seen in other markets.

Isn’t that crazy? The government negotiates drug prices for the VA and Military but not for seniors. The government pays less than half for drugs in the VA healthcare system than seniors do for Medicare Part B and Part D.

  • Some hospitals that receive drug discounts under the 340B program, ultimately pushing up drug prices for patients with private health insurance.

The 340B program was enacted in 1992 by congress.  Section 340B requires pharmaceutical manufacturers to enter into an agreement, called a pharmaceutical pricing agreement (PPA), with the HHS Secretary.

Under the PPA, the manufacturer agrees to provide front-end discounts on covered outpatient drugs purchased by specified providers, called “covered entities,” that serve the nation’s most vulnerable patient populations. Medicaid patients get drugs free. The government pays the pharmaceutical companies the money through a series of middlemen.

  • Lower-cost drugs are kept out of the market by drug companies gaming regulatory processes and the patent system in order to unfairly maintain monopolies.
  • Lack of transparency in drug pricing benefits special interests and prevents patients from being able to make fully informed decisions about their care.
  • Other countries use socialized healthcare to command unfairly low prices from U.S. drug makers. These lower prices place the burden of financing drug development largely on American patients and taxpayers and subsidizes foreign consumers.
    • The United States pays more than 70 percent of branded drug profits among OECD countries.
  • The drug companies claim this behavior by other countries reduces innovation and the development of new treatments. They have to make the loss of revenue up by increasing the price of drugs.

The HHS executive summary outlines not only the problem it outlines the Trump administration’s solution. President Trump’s HHS team which includes CMS has spent many years studying the abuses that have led to dysfunction of the healthcare system. I believe HHS figured out the solution.

HHS has identified four challenges in the American drug market:

 High list prices for drugs

  • Seniors and government programs overpaying for drugs due to lack of the latest negotiation tools
  • High and rising out-of-pocket costs for consumers
  • Foreign governments free-riding of American investment in innovation

 Under President Trump, HHS has proposed a comprehensive blueprint for addressing these challenges, identifying four key strategies for reform:

 Improved competition

  • Better negotiation
  • Incentives for lower list prices
  • Lowering out-of-pocket costs

 There is nothing sinister about these goals. Some will work. Direct negotiation with drug companies certainly will work. The middlemen get more money per capsule than the drug company that invented and manufactured the drug. The middlemen, who are marketers, are terrified that President Trump is going to destroy their business.

 HHS’s blueprint encompasses two phases:

 1) actions the President may direct HHS to take immediately.

 2) actions HHS is actively considering, on which feedback is being solicited.

  Complex drug networks 11 26

The president and his administration are not a heartless group of politicians who don’t care about cancer drug cost. They are interested in patients receiving the best care at an affordable price. They care about fair pricing. Their goal is to eliminate the mechanisms by which multiple stakeholders game the system. This includes the multiple middlemen and the tremendous bureaucratic load.

Is the diagram complicated enough? Can you visualize all the areas of potential abuse? Do you think a government bureaucracy can control the potential abuse?

Phase one of the blueprint:

  • Lower prices on some Medicare Part B drugs could be negotiated for by Part D plans
  • Leveraging the Competitive Acquisition Program in Part B.
  • Working across the Administration to assess the problem of foreign free-riding.

 

The administration is aware of foreign free riding. They have not published a definite free market solution to change the situation yet.

Further Opportunities

  • Considering further use of value-based purchasing in federal programs, including indication-based pricing and long-term financing.
  • Removing government impediments to value-based purchasing by private payers.

 

ValueBased Purchasing (VBP) Linking provider payments to improved performance by health care providers. This form of payment holds health care providers accountable for both the cost and quality of care they provide. It attempts to reduce inappropriate care and to identify and reward the best-performing providers.”

 This is a stupid idea. It might save money but it tries to direct care and eliminate physician judgement. Healthcare providers will figure out how to game the system.

  • Requiring site neutrality in payment.

 

Site neutrality payment means “Under OPPS 2019, reimbursement for clinic visits in outpatient hospital settings would be capped at the rate paid for clinic visits in physician offices.”

It is about time this is happening. Hospitals are buying more and more physicians’ practices. Hospital systems bill the government hospital reimbursement prices. These prices are twice the government and private insurance companies approved office prices.

I suspect the hospital systems do not credit the physicians with this increase in reimbursement. The hospital systems leverage physicians’ intellectual property and outpatient surgical skills for the hospital systems’ own profit.

Hospital systems will fight this change tooth and nail. President Trump has the courage to go at it. Almost everyone in medicine has known about these unfair payments. However, past U.S. presidents have been afraid of the blowback from the powerful hospital lobby.

President Obama knew that this would drive physicians into selling their practices to hospital systems. The result is obvious. It would be easier to institute a single party payer system.

Evaluating the accuracy and usefulness of current national drug spending data.

Phase two;

  • Incentives for Lower List Prices Immediate Actions
  • FDA evaluation of requiring manufacturers to include list prices in advertising
  • Updating Medicare’s drug-pricing dashboard to make price increases and generic competition more transparent.

Further Opportunities

  • Measures to restrict the use of rebates, including revisiting the safe harbor under the Antikickback statute for drug rebates.

“The anti-kickback statute has been in place since 1971, but these specific safe harbors, protecting drug companies from anti-kickback laws, were introduced more than 2 decades ago.

The federal government provides an excellent resource for information about these safe harbors at the Federal Register website. It tells everything one needs to know about the opportunities for fraud and abuse in the current system. The website describes how the Trump administration plans to eliminate the government support of fraud and abuse.

https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2016/12/07/2016-28297/medicare-and-state-health-care-programs-fraud-and-abuse-revisions-to-the-safe-harbors-under-the

In brief, the safe harbors define exceptions to situations where organizations are receiving “remuneration” for providing goods or services.

 A rebate given as an incentive to provide a drug (i.e., on formulary) or to utilize more of a product (i.e., “performance rebates”) would currently qualify for safe harbor protection.”

 

https://biosimilarsrr.com/2018/07/24/anti-kickback-safe-harbors-drug-rebate-contracts-biosimilars/

I will discuss this in more detail in the future. This is another act of courage by the Trump administration. It is also a common sense move to reduce the cost of healthcare in our dysfunctional healthcare system.

  • Additional reforms to the rebating system.
  • Using incentives to discourage manufacturer price increases for drugs used in Part B and Part D.

The high retail pricing of new drugs on the market must be control. Many of the new drugs are a reformulation of two old drugs. The reformulation does not change the effectiveness of either drug.

The retail price of drugs used to treat cancer must be controlled someway.

  • Considering fiduciary status for Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs)
  • Reforms to the Medicaid Drug Rebate Program
  • Reforms to the 340B drug discount program
  • Considering changes to HHS regulations regarding drug copay discount cards

 Lowering Out-of-Pocket Costs Immediate Actions

  • Prohibiting Part D contracts from preventing pharmacists telling patients when they could pay less out-of-pocket by not using insurance
  • Improving the usefulness of the Part D Explanation of Benefits statement by including information about drug price increases and lower cost alternatives.

  Further Opportunities to Reduce Drug Costs to Consumers

 More measures to inform Medicare Parts B and D beneficiaries about lower cost alternatives

  • Providing better annual, or more frequent, information on costs to Part D beneficiaries
  •  Insurance Contract Reimbursement for Consumers’ Rx
  • Share of Manufacturer Rebates.
  • Consumers Payers Drug Manufacturer Pharmacies
  • Pharmacy Benefits Manager Formulary Agreement
  • Copayment Network Agreement
  • PBM Agreement Payment for Dispensed Drugs Formulary
  • Rebates & Other Fees Premium Drugs
  • Money Contracting Dispensed Drugs
  • Prime Vendor Agreement Shipped Bulk Drugs Payment for Wholesale Drugs Distributor
  • Payment for Wholesale Drugs Shipped Bulk Drugs Distributor Agreement

 

Most physician do not know about this complicated system. All they care about is taking care of the patients. It is time physicians understand how ancillary providers have been   ripping off the patients. Somehow, the ancillary providers manage to blame drug prices  on physicians.

Finally, we have an administration that not only recognizes the problems but is not afraid to fix them.

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



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The Reason Congress Does Not Work

Stanley Feld MD,FACP, MACE

I have wondered why either house of congress has not done anything about healthcare reform in the past 6 months.

The reason is that both the Democrat and Republican leadership in both houses of congress do not want to do anything about Repairing the Healthcare System.

On July 2, 2018 CMS released a report on the performance of the health insurance exchanges and the individual Obamacare health insurance markets.  

“Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Releases Reports on the Performance of the Exchanges and Individual Health Insurance Market.

Reports show individual market erosion and increasing taxpayer liability.”

The CMS conclusions for 2017 were obvious in 2016. Obamacare is on a downward spiral.

In 2017 87% of enrollees were subsidized as opposed to 83% in 2016.

There was an alarming 20% drop nationwide in enrollees in Obamacare’s individual healthcare market without federal premium subsidies.

223,000 subsidized enrollees dropped their subsidized insurance.

These Obamacare enrollees dropped their insurance because even with subsidies their premiums became too expensive. Their average monthly premiums of the subsided and unsubsidized groups spiked by 21%.

Unsubsidized Obamacare enrollment dropped an average of 33% nationally. It dropped an astonishing 73% in Arizona. It is a wonder that neither Arizona senator wants to do anything about Repairing the Healthcare System. It is also a wonder that Arizona citizens continue to support these senators.

Obamacare is dead!

The Democrats are naturally blaming its death on President Trump. President Trump does not want to pour more money into this failed concept while forcing a greater payment liability on taxpaying  Americans.  He wants congress to do something to repair the healthcare system.

President Obama’s plan all along was for Obamacare to fail and be replaced by a single party payer system.

I have written about 20 articles on why a single party payer system is unsustainable and will fail.

http://stanfeld.com/?s=single+party+payer

I am unable to insert links and videos properly. Please insert the links for both into your browser. It is important to understand how the rookie representative view how the government works.

The British National Health Services System is a failure. Single party payer systems close to home are a failure.

For example The VA Health System is a failure. Medicaid is an unsustainable failure. It is unsustainable while offering inefficient care.

http://stanfeld.com/?s=Medicaid+failure

Medicare is a failure because it is unsustainable by the government. Seniors like it because they can get care that they could not afford otherwise.

However, seniors are getting wise. Medicare is becoming unaffordable to seniors. The government construction of Medicare premiums for Part B, Part D and Part F are costing seniors somewhere north of $16,000 a year in post tax dollars.

Medicare used to pay 80% of its approved fee. The approved fee is about 50% of the physicians’ fees. In 2018 Medicare is only paying around 50% of its approved fee. Seniors have to pay the difference.

This will drive seniors out of the Medicare marketplace.

There is a better way. I have gone into excruciating detail describing the better way.

http://stanfeld.com/?s=My+Ideal+Medical+Savings+Account

Newt Gingrich, when he was house leader, said my idea was a BIG IDEA. However nothing ever came of the big idea. The “big idea” empowers the people not the government.

Unlike many other politicians who have promised to take on the establishment and “drain the swamp,” Representative Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) 2012 is actually trying to do just that, and is taking some serious flak for his exposure of the Deep State and its agents on Capitol Hill.”

https://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/politics/item/29426-in-the-swamp-fearless-reps-expose-the-corruption-on-capitol-hill?src=ilaw

If you click on the newamerican link above you will have all the videos in one article.

In a video series entitled The Swamp, Massie, along with Representatives Dave Brat and Tom Garrett of Virginia, Ken Buck of Colorado, Rod Blum of Iowa, and Ted Yoho of Florida, are showing people “what happens behind the scenes in Congress.”

To date, there are four episodes, each running about 10 minutes.

Besides pulling back the curtain to reveal the names and tactics of those who really pull the legislative levers in Congress, The Swamp videos make it very obvious that, although there are 435 members of the House of Representatives, the key decisions are made by a handful of very powerful leaders bent on controlling the country and that the betrayal is bipartisan.

The first video introduces these non establishment representatives’ chief complaint.

https://www.facebook.com/TheSwamp/videos/1794302460864573/

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An average of 4,500,000 people have viewed these videos.

“Representative Blum responded, “Most all the decisions around here are made by a few people at the very top, without the input of any other congressional members or U.S. senators. That’s not good representative government, wouldn’t you say?”

 “I think both parties are engaged in a quiet deal that we will support our base, and if it leads to bankruptcy, okay, and you will support your base, and if it leads to bankruptcy, okay,” Representative Buck says in Episode 1.

In Episode 2, the perception of a two-party system where the two parties oppose each other and want to achieve different ends is shattered as leaders of Democrats work with their Republican counterparts to shove a bloated, unconstitutional omnibus spending bill through the House without giving members time to read the text of the measure.

https://www.facebook.com/TheSwamp/videos/1807501746211311/

<iframe src=”https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FTheSwamp%2Fvideos%2F1807501746211311%2F&show_text=0&width=560″ width=”560″ height=”315″ style=”border:none;overflow:hidden” scrolling=”no” frameborder=”0″ allowTransparency=”true” allowFullScreen=”true”></iframe>

“One of the most shocking revelations comes in Episode 3, when Rep. Massie details how the party forces members to pay “rent” for their committee assignments and chairmanships. If a congressman wants to sit on a committee, he is expected to raise a certain amount of money for the National Republican Congressional Committee, the body that works to elect House Republicans. There is an identical system on the Democrat side. In an interview, Rep. Buck told me this system has been in place for Republicans since the days of Newt Gingrich, and even longer for Democrats.”

https://www.facebook.com/TheSwamp/videos/1816800768614742/

<iframe src=”https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FTheSwamp%2Fvideos%2F1816800768614742%2F&show_text=0&width=560″ width=”560″ height=”315″ style=”border:none;overflow:hidden” scrolling=”no” frameborder=”0″ allowTransparency=”true” allowFullScreen=”true”></iframe>

Episode 4 of The Swamp was released just a few days ago and covers the consequences faced by those lawmakers brave enough to buck the system and call out the conspirators.

https://www.facebook.com/TheSwamp/videos/1831877993773686/

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There you have it. This is the complex definition of The Swamp.

The structure has been created whereby our representatives and senators do not represent the will of the people.

Congress represents the will of the vested interests. Anyone that understands this has to play ball or move out.

It will be very difficult for America to get a sensible healthcare reform bill for the benefit of the American people when this pyramid of power exists.

It looks like legislation is driven by money, not the will of the people. These four videos are essential to understanding the process. They must be watched.

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



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President Trump’s Drug Plan Is On Target

Stanley Feld MD,FACP,MACE

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trumps-medicare-rx-blueprint-has-a-tricky-wrinkle/    

President Trump’s proposal for lowering drug prices to an affordable range is on target.

I have received a several requests asking me to explain the administrations plan. The “media is the message.” The traditional media has once again missed President Trump’s message completely. I suspect the traditional media has missed President Trump’s message on purpose because of their bias against the president.

The traditional media jumped on Trump’s plan as a non-plan aimed to penalize the middle class for the benefit of the pharmaceutical industry.

Either the traditional media hates Trump and his administration so much that they are against everything he does or they have not read his plan with an open mind because it has too many words in it.

It is pretty clear that Nancy Pelosi did not read President Trump’s drug plan or if she did she did not understand it. She said:

“This weak plan abandons the millions of hard-working families struggling with the crisis of surging drug prices.”

Nancy Pelosi’s statement is otter nonsense.

Her statement is reminiscent of the statement she made about Obamacare;

“You have to pass the plan in order to see what is in it.”

Any thoughtful Democrat should be ashamed that Nancy Pelosi is their leader.

I picked the coverage of only a few of the traditional media, CBS news, The New York Times and the Washington Post’s. All the progressive leaning media are really echo chambers of each other.

Each media outlet missed the Trump administrations’ point. They all are looking through their progressive lens. They believe the only plan that would work is a single party payer system controlled by the government.

They also see a tired public looking forward for the government to take over the complicated issue of healthcare. They have not interest is looking at the unintended consequences of a government takeover of the healthcare system.

A single party payer system will not work because public dependence on bureaucrats and politicians has never worked.

Simple examples are the VA Healthcare System and Medicaid. Government controlled health plans such as the VA system became too inefficient, costly, corrupt and unsustainable. The quality of care decreased and consumer choice and input has been eliminated.

People would never know what President Trump’s drug plan is all about it if they just read about it in the traditional media. If they made it easier for themselves and just read the headlines, as some of my friends have, they would know nothing about Trump’s drug plan.

One must listen carefully and read the source material.

President Trumps YouTube

https://youtu.be/Cds8h9DbTdc

This is the official outline document of the steps that need to be taken to fix the broken drug plan system.

CBS new got it wrong right off the bat.

http://www.cbsnews.com/trumps-medicine-rx-bluprint-has-a-trickly-wrinkle/

“The Trump administration’s “Blueprint” to lower drug prices and reduce patient costs made one thing clear: The government will not directly negotiate with drug companies to secure lower prescription prices. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t proposing changes that would dramatically alter the way Medicare pays for some of the most expensive drugs, and in the process, potentially raise out-of-pocket costs for some of the country’s sickest patients.”

CBS News then brings up an issue that part of President Trump’s solution. The news agency criticizes the administration before it knows the administration’s solution.

A cornerstone of the Trump plan calls for all Medicare drug payments to be consolidated under Medicare Part D, the prescription drug plan for Medicare enrollees administered by private insurers. Under Part D, insurers and middlemen known as pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) negotiate with drug companies for discounted prices in exchange for the drug companies’ products being included in the PBMs’ list of covered drugs.

But drugs intravenously administered in physicians’ offices, such as chemotherapy and vaccines, are usually covered as a medical treatment under Medicare Part B. Physicians buy these drugs directly from manufacturers, and Medicare reimburses doctors for the drugs’ average sales price plus 6 percent.

A perfect example is the yearly flu shot. Most flu shots are given at local pharmacies and supermarkets for Medicare patients’ convenience.

Medicare Part B pays $120 for a $15 injection dose. How is that for a colossal waste of Medicare dollars?

Pharmaceutical companies are against the idea, partly because they generally are paid more under Part B than Part D.

Alex Azar, Health and Human Services secretary and former president of the U.S. division of pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly (LLY), has been touting the move to consolidate Medicare drug payments.

“Bringing negotiation to Part B drugs is such a potent way to bring down prices that PhRMA is already protesting the idea,” Azar said in a recent speech at the American Enterprise Institute in which he referred to the drug industry trade group called Pharmacuetical Research and Manufacturers.

Nonetheless, CBS points out a potential paper tiger to leave the message that the plan is no good. The “media is the message” even if it is a lie.

“But Azar and others have shed little light on exactly how this change would take place, leaving patients worried about the potential for astronomically higher out-of-pocket costs”.

The plan is there. CBS news has not read the plan.

“Medicare Part B presently creates incentives for doctors to purchase more expensive drugs to get a higher dollar profit”

This is a negative incentive that the President promised to eliminate. Physicians to not profit from higher drug prices. In the case of the flu shots pharmacies and supermarket pharmacies administering the flu shots profit.

“Azar said; it will create incentive for insurance companies and PBMs in Medicare Part D to negotiate discounts and lower prices and pass them on to patients.”

President Trump said he promises to eliminate the extreme profit the pharmacy benefit managers take from the system.

The New York Times took a different negative slant in order to criticize Present Trump.

“President Trump has the power to sink pharmaceutical stocks with a single jab about high drug prices.”

“But in a much-anticipated speech on the topic on Friday, Mr. Trump largely avoided the issues the industry fears the most, such as allowing Medicare to directly negotiate drug prices, or allowing Americans to import drugs.”

President Trump’s plan is to force pharmacy benefit managers to negotiate the best price for Medicare and patients with private insurance in a free market system and not in a government controlled system.

The government negotiates much lower drug prices for itself in the military and VA systems. The drug companies just cost shift and charge the rest of us a higher price

“Investors noticed: Stocks of major drug companies rose after his speech, as did those of pharmacy benefit managers, or the “middlemen” that Mr. Trump said were getting “very, very rich.”

Last weekend I asked a retired friend what he thought of the Trump plan. He said President Trump is going to make the drug companies and the pharmacy benefit managers very, very, rich.

This is regurgitation of the NY Times coverage from a well-educated man. The media is the message!

 

Time Magazine coverage was no better. It, too, was anti-Trump. Time Magazine did not bother to understand that the Trump drug program is a free market system without cronyism.

“ President Donald Trump’s long-promised plan to bring down drug prices would mostly spare the pharmaceutical industry he previously accused of “getting away with murder.” Instead he focuses on private competition and more openness to reduce America’s prescription pain.”

Why can’t the media discuss the facts and let us decide what will work or not work? What is wrong with competition? It works. Government control doesn’t seem to work.

“The administration will pursue a raft of old and new measures intended to improve competition and transparency in the notoriously complex drug pricing system.”

“But most of the measures could take months or years to implement, and none would stop drug makers from setting sky-high initial prices.”

I believe the public is starting to see how the traditional media does not want to understand President Trump’s proposal or how President Trump is going to execute on his promises.

“Trump called his plan the “most sweeping action in history to lower the price of prescription drugs for the American people.”

“But it does not include his campaign pledge to use the massive buying power of the government’s Medicare program to directly negotiate lower prices for seniors.”

Actually President Trump’s drug plan does use the massive buying power of the Medicare program to negotiate lower prices for seniors. He is doing it indirectly but through a free market system.

The traditional media’s prime focus is to criticize President Trump’s programs regardless of the facts.

In fact, with his drug plan, President Trump has published a blueprint that is going to change the metrics of how drugs are priced. His plan will make prices transparent to patients and physicians.

Patients will be given the choice to pick the best price. Physicians will be given the choice to decide if the price charged for new medication is worth the increase in price.

President Trump is going to eliminate the present failed system of pricing medication. It has not worked for consumers.

His blueprint cannot be evaluated in the context of the present pricing system.

I will describe the potential for improving the system with his blueprint in my next article.

All I can say at this point is let us see what is going to happen.

 

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



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The Healthcare System Needs Disruption

Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP,MACE

The announcement that Amazon.com, JP Morgan Chase and Berkshire Hathaway are forming a non-profit company to try to improve the American healthcare system caused some ripples in the stock market.

The mere specter of its disruptive potential was enough to send some investors scurrying away from large payer providers like UnitedHealth, Aetna and Humana.

The reason for the panic is obvious. These large insurance companies have been ripping off the healthcare system for decades. They have had their fortunes improved with Obamacare and its regulations. They are afraid they are going to lose their stronghold.

The three innovations, Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffet and Jamie Diamond are disruptors that might destroy UnitedHealth, Aetna, and Humana’s kingdom.

Mitch McConnell has supposedly taken Repeal of Obamacare off the agenda for 2018.

I believe Mitch McConnell doesn’t know what to do about Obamacare. He is hoping that it fails on its own. He has passed the budget that will force the government to cover the tremendous financial short falls the defectives in the structure of Obamacare is going to precipitate.

Only then will the public hear about Obamacare’s effect on America’s budget deficit.

The American taxpayer will be force to continue to fund this failed program.

Obamacare has failed because of its structure. It encourages over use of the healthcare system by sick people. It does not encourage consumers to be responsible for their health and healthcare dollars.

The Democrats and the Republican establishment have failed the American consumer again.

Bravo to three of America’s premier disruptors Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffet and Jamie Diamond.

If they bother to understand the elements of medical care and the reasons for the healthcare systems dysfunction they have a chance for success.

If they follow the previous attempts to repair the healthcare system by the government, healthcare insurance industry and hospital systems they will fail miserably just as these other institutions have failed.

“The industry certainly offers plenty of opportunities for reinvention, of course. Healthcare in the United States is expensive, and its quality varies wildly.” says Christopher Rowe, managing director at Korn Ferry.

Jeff Bezos has the best shot at reducing drug price significantly. The government cannot negotiate prices. The private carriers through drug benefit plans do a little better.

The military and the VA system do 30 to 75% better than Medicare Part D and the private sector.

Jeff Bezos knows how to market via the Internet. With the large cadre of consumer employees of Jeff Bezos Warren Buffet and Jamie Diamond, Mr. Bezos can probably negotiate the drug prices down by at least 50%. I’ll bet he can negotiate drug prices almost as low as the VA system and also provide the pharmaceutical companies an increase in reimbursement for their drugs.

Mr. Bezos usually eliminates most of the middlemen. He will be able to offer the medication at a 40 or 50% lower price than Medicare Part D and the private benefit managers and still make a sizable profit while providing a better quality of service.

He knows the customer is the consumer.

When it comes to the delivery of medical care and the use of technology in the delivery of medical care, I am not sure Bezos, Buffet and Diamond know who the real customers are.

I am not sure they know how to get around the stronghold the healthcare insurance industry, the federal government and the hospital systems have over the control of healthcare.

Many other corporations have tried to break the stronghold and have failed.

I will try to tell Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffet and Jamie Diamond what they have to do in my next blog.

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

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 Changing The Rules: It Is Just The Beginning

 Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP, MACE

A proposal to cut Medicaid payments to some insurers with excessive reserves stirs concern from healthcare insurers.

Progressive politicians refuse to believe that entitlement programs like Medicaid are not viable. Politicians should be looking at creative ways to structure the Medicaid form of insurance for both physicians and patients.

https://www.politico.com/states/new-york/albany/story/2018/01/22/proposal-to-cut-medicaid-payments-to-some-insurers-with-excessive-reserves-stirs-concern-206875

I have not written a blog lately because both the Democrats and the establishment Republicans in both the house and the senate disillusion me. Neither house or senate members are interested in being creative.

Neither body knows how medicine works.

These politicians have no interest in doing what is best for the people who elected them. They are only interested in maintaining power and extending their power over the people they govern.

The result will be to decrease to quality of care to patients forever.

In the meantime there have been news stories on how different corporate organization and big businesses are trying to take over medicine.

Many readers have noticed that emergency clinics are popping up in every city and town.

I believe these emergency clinics centers are in reality real estate plays waiting for so that big corporations, like Aetna; to buy them out in order to expand their plans to take over medical care.

It feels similar to the proliferation of small banks in the 1980’s. These new small banks’ plan was to grow and be bought out at a premium by larger banks in order to enlarge the sale premium.

When the defective program (Medicaid) is a failure one should learn from that failure. One should not continue to try fixes to the program (Medicaid) when each fix creates greater dysfunction.

One should institute another plan that might work. However, government officials continuously apply an additional patch that leads to more unintentional consequences.

This week New York State governor Andrew Cuomo put another patch on its failed Medicaid system. I predict this patch will lead to more unintended consequences. The result will be to make Medicaid coverage worse for its New York State’s Medicaid recipients.

Governor’s Cuomo’s initial mistake was expanding Medicaid at President Obama’s request. He then compounded the mistake by subsequently allowing illegal immigrants in the state to receive Medicaid coverage.

It is not wise to take a financially failed system and expand it. It is much better to change the system.

Now Governor Andrew Cuomo’s budget is proposing to cut Medicaid payments to certain health insurance companies with excess reserves, a move that is alarming insurers because of its intent and its ambiguity.

“The proposal, part of the $168.2 billion executive budget released last week, says that any Medicaid managed care or long-term care Health Maintenance Organization that has excess reserves across all lines of business would be subject to a prospective cut in Medicaid rates.”

 Why would an insurance company want to participate in these programs?

The immediate unintended consequence is that the insurance company that found a defect in the payment schedule for HMO’s and managed care would leave the Medicaid market.

The second unintended consequence is it would discourage companies from having incentive to make a profit.

“Under current law, all Health Maintenance Organizations are subject to minimum reserve requirements,” said Erin Silk, a spokeswoman for the Department of Health. “This policy will provide the commissioner with the discretion to make rate adjustments to plans holding reserves in excess of the statutory requirements for reasons that cannot be explained or justified.”

The state did not project any savings from this proposal.”

The state cannot run Medicaid without insurance companies being the administrative service providers. It is the same old story. This comes on top of a proposed fourteen percent tax on for-profit insurers as well as the state receiving a cut of the proceeds when a nonprofit insurer converts to a for-profit insurer as a result of the new tax law.

Governor Coumo wants this additional money because he thinks the insurance industry is going to have a windfall from President Trump’s new tax law. He figures the state will collect $640 million dollars more as a result of this move.

“There were 3 million New Yorkers enrolled in these types of plans in 2014, according to a report from the United Hospital Fund.”

The insurance industry gave the usual illogical reason for opposing Cuomo’s proposals.

These insurance companies are there to make money. They are not going to let Coumo out of his commitment. I believe they will walk away from providing administrative services for the states Medicaid insurance coverage.

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

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What Was John McCain Thinking?

Stanley Feld M.D., FACP, MACE

I remember when President Obama held a meeting in 2009 with congressional Republicans in the House and Senate to discuss Obamacare before its passage.

This was to get input from Republicans before the Democrats excluded Republican input and were ready to vote in their Democratic Party dominated house and senate.

John McCain offered a constructive comment to improve Obamacare. President Obama’s response was “John I won the election.”

 

Now that Obamacare is an unmitigated failure John McCain voted against a simple repeal of Obamacare.

John McCain ran for reelection in his Senate primary and again in the general election on the platform that he would repeal and replace Obamacare.

 Many forget that he almost lost his primary election to a Republican tea party challenger. He and the Republican Party outspent the tea party challenger.

 http://www.politico.com/story/2016/08/john-mccain-arizona-primary-ward-22751

During his Senate race, he was also anti-Obamacare.

 http://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/john-mccain-obamacare-arizona-224622

In fight of his political life, McCain hammers Obamacare

I think it’s a very strong issue,” McCain told POLITICO about his focus on Obamacare. “Eight of the counties in my state will now only have one [health insurer]. They’re looking at 65 percent increases in their premiums. They’re very upset.”

Why did he vote against the simple repeal? Is he a political hypocrite?

Does he hate President Trump so much that he will do anything to undermine his agenda?

Paul Ryan’s original bill allowed for an easy transition from Obamacare to a replacement bill.

Congressional leaders, especially John McCain, must listen to this lecture.

The traditional media critiques should listen to Paul Ryan’s lecture carefully and report on it fairly.

https://youtu.be/fQ2YIzqEnEY

 

His plan would eliminate many of the Obamacare punitive regulations and permit Health Savings Accounts to grow. It would stabilize the health insurance markets. Some Republicans in the House are still opposed to his bill. They wanted immediate repeal and replace. They could not comprehend Paul Ryan’s subtle strategy.

Speaker Ryan finally got a watered down version of his proposal passed and ready for a joint conference. The Democrats fought it all the way.

In the senate, the Democrats said no to any proposal President Trump supported.

Both Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi said it is the Democrats job to say no to everything in President Trump’s agenda. The job in their view is to destroy the Trump presidency.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/pelosi-struggles-to-call-trump-president-whats-his-name/article/2624485

Their plan is to destroy the Trump presidency with the help of the traditional media and the deep state. The deep state consists of Obama administration holdovers and anti-Trumpers in administrative positions. Some are career administrators. It is becoming obvious that they are also the leakers.

Chuck Schumer has done everything in his power to slow down confirming President Trump’s nominees. He has openly admitted this.

The members of the deep state have been leaking classified information to the press about President Trump’s administration. These are federal crimes. Secretary Sessions is starting to do something about catching these leakers.

President Trump has pledged to clean up the swamp. The swamp consists of the deep state plus many Democrats and some Republicans are both houses.

President Trump has the ability to confirm his nominees when both houses in congress are in recess.

By a strange sounding rule, both houses of congress can be considered in session when all the congresspersons are in recess.

Lisa Murkowski (R Alaska) set it up so that while the senate is in recess it is still in session. This is denying President Trump the opportunity to make recess appointments.

Senator McConnell did not do anything to stop her. It looks like the Republican establishment is also trying to destroy President Trump’s presidency.

Why would I think that?

President Trump has not had any cooperation from the Republican establishment to date.

President Trump pledged to clean up the swamp. All of the parties mentioned are the swamp that has hampered the growth of our economy.

I guess John McCain did his job for both the Democratic and Republican political establishment by voting against the simple repeal of Obamacare.

“The Senate GOP’s healthcare bill failure is a political debacle that will compound for years, and the first predictable fallout is already here:

“Republicans in Congress are under pressure to bail out the Obama Care exchanges, even as Donald Trump threatens to let them collapse.

The GOP needs to get at least some reform in return if it’s going to save Democrats and insurers from their own failed policies.”

 “Mr. Schumer may figure he can bludgeon the GOP into surrender because his press-corps buddies will blame the GOP for rising premiums.”

Let’s see what happens as a result of the swamp’s victory.

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

All Rights Reserved © 2006 – 2017 “Repairing The Healthcare System” Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP,MACE

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