Siouxland Republican Women

  Submitted by Carol Stalzer

PLAN B

Often when we make plans we include a “plan B” in case our first plan does not work out. Does ObamaCare include a “Plan B”?

Recently we have been hearing about the Federal Governments difficulty in implementation of this megalaw which is the takeover of 18% of the American economy. Last year 20 of the 42 implementation mandate deadlines were missed. By October of this year state-based heath exchanges are to be up and running, but only 18 states have signed on to run an exchange, and 25 states are letting the government bear the cost of set up and operation. This typically takes 2 -3 years to build these exchanges.

ObamaCare set aside $5B to fund a high risk pool to help people unable to obtain or afford insurance. The plan was to enroll 200,000 but just under 78,000 had signed up and the program was already way over budget. ObamaCare’s long-term insurance plan, the CLASS Act, was suspended in October 2011 by Secretary Sebelius who called it “totally unsustainable”. The chief actuary for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services calculated that the program would need more than 230 million participants-more than the U.S. labor force- to work financially. Also HHS has handed out more than 1,200 wavers (most to friends of Obama) due to the unfair burdens imposed by ObamaCare rules. And even though ObamaCare has not yet fully launched, cost estimates continue to climb.

It’s easy to see that ObamaCare is in trouble-but could this actually be the plan? Data shows the law will fail to achieve its core objectives of lowering costs and improving access. Insurance premiums are already increasing. Ironically, this may have been the design. By making private insurance unaffordable for everyone, it will become available to no one. All that will be left is government-centered, government-run, single-payer health care. Heritage Foundation health policy expert Bob Moffitt points out: In Jan. 2014 the US Office of Personnel Management will sponsor two national plans to compete against private health insurance in every state of the union. In our view this will establish the foundation of a government monopoly in health insurance.

What kind of care is ahead for all Americans? Scott Gottlieb, MD and Thomas Miller for the American Enterprise Institute write: There’s good reason to believe that in short order, the health plans sold in Obamacare’s heavily regulated, state-based insurance exchanges will degrade into something akin to today’s Medicaid managed care plans.

Medicaid pays doctors just 56% of what private insurers pay doctors. My husband and I last year found out first hand the difference between Medicare and private insurance reimbursement. Jim had a 40 min outpatient surgery. He was covered under private insurance at work and Medicare, and had instructed that the bill be sent to the private insurance. A few weeks after surgery he received a “patient responsibility” bill for $24,000.00, as Medicare had declined payment. After a call to the hospital business office, private insurance was billed. A few weeks later he looked up his insurance account on line, and found that they had been billed $124,000.00 and paid $117,000.00!

So what will happen to our hospitals and clinics when there is no private insurance to pay the bloated charges? Will it be that we’ll get what we pay for?