1. " Obama's Health care program will lower costs. Here the Huffington Post disagrees with the President. Insurance premiums have risen
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama told voters repeatedly during the health care debate that the overhaul legislation would bring down fast-rising health care costs and save them money. Now, he's hemming and hawing on that.
So far, the law he signed earlier this year hasn't had the desired effect. An analysis from Medicare's Office of the Actuary this week said that the nation's health care tab will go up – not down – through 2019 as a result of Obama's sweeping law, though the increase is modest.
Obama offered some caveats when asked in his news conference Friday about the apparent discrepancy between what he promised and what's actually happening so far. On several other topics, too, his rhetoric fell short of a full accounting."
2. OK so even the liberal Hufington Post is challenging whether Obamacare is lowering costs. What about our costs.. the premiums we pay.
"The Congressional Budget office says that yearly health insurance premiums are actually going to increase by about $2,300 each year as a result of the new law, but that estimate is probably far, far too low.
The truth is that rates are already shooting through the roof. Just consider the following excerpt from a recent article on Fox News….
Here is the terse reason CareFirst/Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Washington gave its subscribers for raising a monthly premium from $333 to $512 on a middle aged man who is healthy, is not a smoker and is not obese: “Your new rate reflects the overall rise in health care costs and we regret having to pass these additional costs on to you.” "
3. Doctors have been opting out of the Medicare system at an alarming rate lately as the system goes through a tumultuous year, leaving some accountants’ clients in a bind when they suddenly cannot get their medical bills paid.
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At the New York State Society of CPAs’ health care conference on Tuesday, Katherine Dunphy, director of congressional affairs at National Government Services, a major contractor for Medicare administrative services, described this nightmare scenario. While her company is not supposed to deal directly with Medicare patients, it often finds itself on the receiving end of calls anyway. Still, Dunphy noted that many Medicare patients do not take advantage of the appeals process offered by the program.
Dunphy mostly deals with doctor’s offices, which are having a hard time keeping up with the rapid changes in Medicare. The system is on its fourth physician fee schedule of the year, thanks to all the uncertainty and changes brought by the health care reform bill. Medicare has become a daunting system for many doctors' offices, and often not one that reimburses doctors quickly or highly.
While 97 percent of doctors still accept Medicare, according to the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, problems with Medicare reimbursement rates have frustrated many physicians and their accounts receivable staff. New York State has the highest number of doctors of any state in the country opting out of the system, according to Dunphy: “Every day we’re getting calls from doctors who are saying, ‘I can’t keep up.’” She noted that in some hospitals on Manhattan’s East Side, it is difficult to find a doctor in certain practice specialties who accepts Medicare.
The Medical Society of the State of New York recently announced that 1,100 doctors had left the system, including the society’s own president, who is also boycotting private insurance plans."
http://www.webcpa.com/.
So medical costs continue to rise. You pay higher premiums, more uninsured Americans and illegal aliens are covered and enter the system, ands doctors are opting out of the system. I know as apart of the medicare system, I pay more for my insurance coverage than I did and have already lost one doctor who left his general practice to set up a boutique medical business where all his patients pay $5,000 annually just to be a part of the client list. The thinking is that soon this option won't be open to doctors forcing more and more to retire. One of the criticism of Obamacare was that it would become more and more restrictive in what treatments the government would authorize. How difficult is it to understand that more people in the system with fewer doctors and more costs with less revenue does not mean a better health care system.
Is it reasonable to believe that President Obama and his administration could not foresee this? If it is then we must assume that he is not fit to be President. If President Obama knew that he was lying then clearly he is also not fit to be President.
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