This is hard to believe, but Obamacare is already turning out to be much worse than originally thought. The lies they used to sell this perverse transformation of our economy are collapsing right and left.
President Obama boldly claimed, “If you like your insurance, you can keep it.” That was an important selling point because something like 86 percent of insured Americans are happy with their coverage. But it’s not even close to true.
Actually, as early as this September, between 1 and 2 million Americans could lose their insurance because their policies don’t comply with new regulations requiring “no lifetime limit on benefits.” Many seniors in Medicare Advantage plans will also soon be facing cancellation or reduced benefit levels. Scottsdale Mayo Clinic has already notified its Medicare Advantage patients that they need to get care elsewhere.
But it’s worse than that. The recently released regulations determining which employer-based plans will be “grandfathered” and thus not subject to onerous new regulations contained some more bad news.
They are so strict that, according to the mid-range estimate of the Department of Health and Human Services, by 2013, 51 percent of full-time employees will not be in the plans they have today, whether they like it or not. As many as 80 percent of small business employees will be in different plans. In all, 87 to 117 million Americans will soon be forced out of their current health plans by the “grandfather” provisions alone.
You may remember that soon after Obamacare was passed, several large companies, including AT&T, Caterpillar, John Deere and Verizon announced that they were taking write-downs from future earnings based on provisions in the law. Outraged that they were making Obamacare look bad, Rep. Henry Waxman summoned them for one of his notorious Congressional smack-downs.
The session was cancelled when congressional staffers were forced to conclude that “the companies acted properly and in accordance with accounting standards.”
Now these companies are looking at their options for providing employee health care in the coming “Brave New World” of fees, fines and mandates. There’s no question that health insurance will be more expensive with such added features as mandated coverage of “children” until the age of 26 and guaranteed issue, which gives people incentive to wait until they’re sick to buy insurance.
AT&T, for example, already pays $2.4 billion for employee health insurance and would be slated to pay much more. But if AT&T paid the $2,000-per-employee fine to avoid the “individual mandate”, that would cost only $600 million. The employees would presumably get a bump in their take-home pay and would be eligible to purchase highly-subsidized insurance through state exchanges.
Whether or not they were happy with their new government-controlled insurance, the influx of potentially millions of new patients into the exchanges would blow the economic projections through the roof. And there are a lot of AT&Ts out there, all of them making the same calculations.
Then there’s Medicare, which is scheduled for major surgery. The accounting numbers justifying Obamacare were pulled together assuming $500 billion in Medicare reductions. But nobody living on this planet honestly believes that’s going to happen.
The notion of cutting back on waste and fraud has been around forever, but Congress annually repeals its own cuts in provider payments.
Practically speaking, they don’t have much choice. Medicare is on course to become insolvent by 2016, meaning payroll taxes will no longer cover expenses. Long-term liabilities are estimated at $38 trillion. The baby boomers are set to roll into retirement and critical manpower shortages already exist in medicine. It is mouth-gaping, head-knocking stupid to plan on using fictional savings in Medicare to finance a new entitlement.
It’s obvious that Obamacare is going to cost many times more than projected. That’s why this is not just another policy debate. Adding Obamacare’s untold trillions to our current out-of-control spending and unmanageable debt will change the character of our nation forever. The opportunity society will morph into a dependency culture.
Time is of the essence because entitlements, once received, are almost impossible to rescind. We must repeal Obamacare now.
—
East Valley resident Tom Patterson (pattersontomc@cox.net)
is a retired physician and former state senator
victoria posted at 2:02 pm on Sat, Jun 26, 2010.
Obamacare was created because of the dire situation of health care and costs in this country. As usual, all I see here is your opinion as to why Obamacare won't work and no suggestions on how to fix the broken system that created Obamacare in the first place. Until you have somethng of substance to say, IMO, you can keep your opinions to yourself - without stated solutions to the problem, your opinons are meaningless.
Slabside posted at 2:35 pm on Sat, Jun 26, 2010.
As are yours Obamatard Victoria.[smile]
Accuracy posted at 3:54 pm on Sat, Jun 26, 2010.
Tom Patterson wrote in his column: "Actually, as early as this September, between 1 and 2 million Americans could lose their insurance because their policies don’t comply with new regulations requiring “no lifetime limit on benefits." Many seniors in Medicare Advantage plans will also soon be facing cancellation or reduced benefit levels."
Worse than that, health insurance costs will skyrocket on January 1, 2011. And of course, that will means that millions of American workers won't be able to keep the plan they have now.
Whether you are for or against ObamaCare and the government takeover of health care passed by Congress, this is what the Liberal media is not telling you about it . . . ObamaCare isn't just a health care bill. It's a government-run law that increases deficit spending, constricts your access to care, destroys your private health insurance coverage and fundamentally changes your relationship with your doctor.
Lawsuits underway to stop ObamaCare? There are about a half-dozen constitutional lawsuits underway already against parts of President Obama’s health care law, and there is the multistate case filed in Florida, joined by 20 states across America.
Masterrogue666 posted at 3:54 pm on Sat, Jun 26, 2010.
Victoria: I guess you have a problem comprehending the obvious. The SOLUTION you asked for is to return to the way things were. At least then, 86 percent is covered.
You want better medical coverage? Get a better education, become a more valuable assest to a company, and then you will get better benefits.
I should only have to worry about getting medical coverage for me and my family. I shouldn't have to help pay for those people that have no desire to better themselves. By the way, Obama wants ILLEGAL ALIENS covered as well. You wanted change, you got it. I just hope that country can survive Obama's one term. I don't think American's will give him a second chance. However, look what happened with Clinton....
Rich posted at 9:56 pm on Sat, Jun 26, 2010.
You obviously don't understand the problem, therefore you lack a solution. We have far too much. We can produce much more than we need. We live in paradise and can't apportion it. One way is insurance. Everybody pays in plus the salesman's commission, plus the companies' profit. When this grows to where an insurance company pracices medicine, then you have a problem.
aidenluke27 posted at 11:17 pm on Sat, Jun 26, 2010.
You guys should stop complaining cuz one the health care we have now isnt as good as it was supposed to be. also the law has just been signed give it a try u guys are too hard on democrats they went to college and we voted for most of these people.so if u want to say u have the right to choose tell that to ur congress men or state official. as for obama people are just tryin to make it look like america made a mistake he has done things to help us and we had a full 8 years of a terrible president and i will be so as happy as ever when a obama fixes bush's mistakes. You can find full medical coverage at the lowest price from http://bit.ly/9sfoMb obama has to put up with the wo0rld judging his every move and trying to fix the mess we are in we are lucky anyone wants to be our president. STOP COMPLAINING AND GIVE HIM A BREAK. i wanna see one of yall do what he sas done. some people are just so ignorant.
Butters posted at 12:32 pm on Sun, Jun 27, 2010.
Aiden, PUT THE GLASS DOWN AND STEP AWAY FROM THE KOOL-AID.
allamer posted at 6:15 pm on Sun, Jun 27, 2010.
Let's see: insurance that covers everyone but only paid for by some. Some of those who do pay will pay less because of discounts. Those without insurance won't pay until they get sick. So it's more people insured with less premiums being paid. Now, how is such a plan going to work? Oh, that's right! Uncle Sugar will take care of it.
Irons1 posted at 6:30 pm on Sun, Jun 27, 2010.
Is this all we are ever going to see from this publication anymore? Extreme right wing diatribes. Not only has it severely one sided but people like Patterson have only one interest, their wallet. These same articles about protecting his own status quo are all we see anymore. The insurance system was totally broken. I used to work in the field and can tell you that insurance is an organized scam. Yes, some companies will pay out benefits, others will find any way possible to avoid paying claims. But that's ok right? As long as it doesn't happen to you. Patterson agrees with this philosophy and it's obvious. The Tribune needs to release it's point of view, kind of like a declaration of principles. That way, those of us who don't think this way can not bother to check this website, nor patronize it's advertisers. If the tribune thinks this totally twisted, one direction only idea is the way to go, so be it, but come out and say it. Remember, it did go bankrupt once. I wonder why?
Masterrogue666 posted at 7:15 pm on Sun, Jun 27, 2010.
Correct me if I'm wrong:
Lets see....
" I will have the most transparent administration in history"..........big lie
"I will bring unity to the nation".....bigger lie
" I will end the practice of professional lobbyists running Washinton"......bwaahaaahaaaaaa
" We will post all pending legislation on the internet 72 hours before the vote"....a whopper of epic proportions.
"We will have the health care debate air live on CSPAN"...... The biggest out and out lie since "I did not have sexual relations with that woman"
" I will bring our troops home"....sane people knew this was just political fodder for the unhinged left.
SunWorshiper posted at 4:48 pm on Tue, Jun 29, 2010.
Let me be the first to say I have NOT read the purported 2200 pages to this bill (and I doubt those in DC did either). All I know is that I don't want it for me. So you say "you can keep what you have." Well, I don't WANT to keep what I have since "it" was the cheapest I could find when I was forced to retire 5 years before Medicare eligible (and "it" also is forced to treat a lot of people that aren't paying for all services. And not having heavy medical needs, I don't want my premiums to be based on someone who does have heavy medical needs (i.e. Dick Cheney comes to mind). Furthermore, I don't want my premiums based on all the illegals dumped in the system. If/when Obamacare is pushed on us, I still won't be Medicare eligible.
MasterRogue, you are correct. Go to whitehouse.gov and click on the Immigration tab. One of the first things they are touting is the fact they just got 11 million "poor" under medical coverage and that doesn't include the 4 million "immigrants" they tout. The way things are going the 12-20 million "illegals" now living among us will get coverage before the citizens...and we will be paying for it.
And, IMO, it is because of the illegals in the AZ healthcare system that Gov Brewer joined the suit with other states (because we lose Fed $$ if we cut-back existing levels of coverage over the next 4 years is what I understand the reqsoning). Like I said, I haven't read the 2200 pages.