We’ve been talking about the massive failures of the Exchange websites, which are part of the reason there have been so few completed applications where people actually obtain health insurance. But, what happens when people actually get the insurance? How do docs feel about this?
(NY Post) New York doctors are feeling queasy about ObamaCare — and many won’t participate in the new national insurance program because they fear they’ll go broke, The Post has learned.
“ObamaCare is going to send me more patients to see and then cut the payments to provide the care — that’s what’s going to happen,†predicted Donald Moore, a primary-care doctor in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn. “I will not accept it.â€
Moore claims that President Obama made a big mistake by requiring uninsured residents to obtain medical coverage from for-profit insurers through the ObamaCare health exchanges instead of through public health programs like Medicaid.
Under tremendous pressure to keep costs down and profits up, Moore said he’s concerned that commercial insurers will pay doctors less for patient visits and services than either Medicaid or Medicare.
Remember, part of this goes into the mandates and requirement imposed by Obamacare on insurance companies along with all the treatments and visits that will be “free”, meaning the insurance company picks up the tab (hence the reason that so many insurers opted out of the Exchanges). Many doctors will not accept the ACA insurance. Doctors have long been opting out of Medicaid and Medicare or refusing to accept new M/M patients. Most aren’t in business to lose money.
This will drive the ACA patients to community health centers, which aren’t exactly new (Los Federales started giving them money in 1965) but were expanded under O-care. Patients will mostly see patient assistants, rather than doctors. In a lot of case this is just fine. If you have the flu, do you really need a big visit to the doctor? And surely you don’t need to go to the hospital. But these non-profit centers, funded heavily by the Government, will start playing a bigger and bigger part, especially since there is already a doc shortage. Where’s this money coming from? It means the government, and by extension, the taxpaying public, will be picking up a larger and larger share. Look at Oregon
Yesterday I wrote about Oregon’s big success signing people up for Obamacare: The state had, in the course of 17 days, signed up 56,000 people for the health law’s Medicaid expansion. In one fell swoop, the state had cut its uninsured rate by 10 percent.
That is, however, only part of the story from Oregon. When it comes to private insurance, spokeswoman Amy Fauver said that it has not yet had any sign-ups.
That’s right, as of yesterday, there have been no signups for O-care in Oregon. Because their website is such a disaster, they went to paper signups. None have been processed and completed. On day 18. But, moving 56,000 to Medicaid is not a success. It means more and more people under the banner of Government, with the taxpayer picking up most of the tab. And these folks will get, unsurprisingly, substandard care. From an ever shrinking pool of doctors and medical centers.
Just to be clear, O-care opponents had been saying these same things would happen all the way back to before it was passed. No one should be surprised when these things actually start happening.
Crossed at Right Wing News and Stop The ACLU.
Only those who voted for Obama. Or those who wanted to wait and see. Those who are ardent Socialists and Obama Supporters (but I repeat myself) will still see this as a success.
The point of OCare will be to get more people on gov’t care. Leading to increases in funding for federal welfare and a decimation of for-profit insurers and doctors.
You are correct that it will harm for-profit insurers, hospitals, clinics and doctors. They are part of the reason that we in the US pay twice as much for healthcare as other advanced nations.
The projected costs of Medicare into the future are what drive the debt projections that are making Teabaggers wet their pants. Unless we find some way to reduce our per capita healthcare expenses to the level of our global economic competitors we will be in fiscal and economic trouble.
Progressive Presidents have recognized this for decades but conservatives deny the problem. An expanded single payer system such as Medicare for all would have been better but in this political climate the ACA was as good as could be done. The conservative plan is to scrap Medicare, give everyone a credit (voucher) for a small part of the expenses and send everyone to the insurance market.
So, when you see a puddle of water, you think drought. When you see snow, you think heat wave. When you see fire, you think blizzard.
You blame Medicare’s bloat as the problem with for-profit health care providers? The problem is that you don’t put the problem where it should be… with gov’t growth and expansion. Medicare is a gov’t program, not a private industry one.
No, progressive (read Socialists) have demanded Medicare and its follow-on expansions of debt, yet conservatives have wanted more private-side answers that don’t demand tax payers pay ever more.
It is fine that you are a true Socialist and you believe other people should pay for whatever you want, but America was built\created\defined by the idea that people are responsible for themselves. People can do more, live better when they are free to make their own decisions, have more of their property to do with as they see fit.
SOcialism has failed and is failing everywhere it has been instituted by those in power – who wish to remain in power over the powerless.
During the debate over Obmacare, it was noted by several outlets that in 2009, the average cost of insurance for a family of four from a private insurance company was a little over $1200. For Medicare, the same family of four cost over $1900.
We re seeing the same thing with Obamacare where premiums and deductibles are higher for most people.
Furthermore, when you talk with people in the healthcare industry, they will tell you that payments from a private insurer are made within 30 – 90 days. Payments from Medicare back to physicians are 6 – 9 months.
The facts are that government run enterprises are more costly and less efficient than privately run companies. There is a reason for this and it is called “profit.” Private companies have a legal duty to keep profits in line. The government doesn’t care as all it will do is, (like Jeffery advocates) raise taxes.
The well is running dry on taxes.