"Obamacare"

[Rage Against the McKee]

Let's increase the supply of medical professionals to ease the demand.

Yeah, spending money to open more med schools and get more doctors out there would be a nice first step. We also should stop listening to everything the AMA has to say.

[john "teach me how to" dougie]

watch Jonathan Gruber squirm:

http://www.c-span.org/video/?323115-1/hearing-jonathan-gruber-marilyn-tavenner-health-care-enrollment

[kim carnes]

So I was reading an article yesterday about obamacare/Medicaid and how a lot of states are reducing their Medicaid reimbursement rates by like 50% in 2015 (i.e. to the point where pretty much no doctor will treat patients with Medicaid).  Anyhow, all the states making the biggest cuts are democratic states (New York, RI and Cali are making the biggest cuts), what's up with that?  Do democrats hate poor people?  Seems like they're really trying to eff them over pretty bad.  Thoughts?

[K-S-U-Wildcats!]

So it turns out that adding another 10-20 million people to Medicaid was not a great idea. But really, who could have predicted that? 

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/12/28/us/obamacare-medicaid-fee-increases-expiring.html?referrer=

WASHINGTON — Just as millions of people are gaining insurance through Medicaid, the program is poised to make deep cuts in payments to many doctors, prompting some physicians and consumer advocates to warn that the reductions could make it more difficult for Medicaid patients to obtain care.

The Affordable Care Act provided a big increase in Medicaid payments for primary care in 2013 and 2014. But the increase expires on Thursday — just weeks after the Obama administration told the Supreme Court that doctors and other providers had no legal right to challenge the adequacy of payments they received from Medicaid.

The impact will vary by state, but a study by the Urban Institute, a nonpartisan research organization, estimates that doctors who have been receiving the enhanced payments will see their fees for primary care cut by 43 percent, on average.

Stephen Zuckerman, a health economist at the Urban Institute and co-author of the report, said Medicaid payments for primary care services could drop by 50 percent or more in California, Florida, New York and Pennsylvania, among other states.

In his budget request in March, President Obama proposed a one-year extension of the higher Medicaid payments. Several Democratic members of Congress backed the idea, but the proposals languished, and such legislation would appear to face long odds in the new Congress, with Republicans controlling both houses.

Dr. David A. Fleming, the president of the American College of Physicians, which represents specialists in internal medicine, said some patients would have less access to care after the cuts. It would make no sense to reduce Medicaid payments “at a time when the population enrolled in Medicaid is surging,” he said.

Dr. George J. Petruncio, a family physician in Turnersville, N.J., described the cuts as a “bait and switch” move. “The government attempted to entice physicians into Medicaid with higher rates, then lowers reimbursement once the doctors are involved,” he said.

But Nicole Brossoie, a spokeswoman for the New Jersey Department of Human Services, which runs the state’s Medicaid program, said the increase was not meant to be permanent. “The enhanced rates will not be extended in New Jersey,” Ms. Brossoie said. “It was always understood to be temporary.”

The White House says Medicaid is contributing to the “largest coverage gains in four decades,” with 9.7 million people added to the Medicaid rolls since October 2013, bringing the total to 68.5 million. More than one-fifth of Americans are now covered by Medicaid.

But federal officials have not set forth a strategy to expand access to care with enrollment, and in many states Medicaid payment rates for primary care services, like routine office visits and the management of chronic illnesses, will plunge back to 2012 levels, widely seen as inadequate.

[renocat]

Low prpremium -- well kiss my butt and laudy-da. Obamaslick makes it sounf like he saved the middle class.  Hope you have a good banker if you get sick. total out of pocket is out of sight and most policies have a 50 percent co-pay on medicine. You will get really sick when you get your bill from the Doctor.  Thanks Obutthole.; President.

[star seed 7]

Low prpremium -- well kiss my butt and laudy-da. Obamaslick makes it sounf like he saved the middle class.  Hope you have a good banker if you get sick. total out of pocket is out of sight and most policies have a 50 percent co-pay on medicine. You will get really sick when you get your bill from the Doctor.  Thanks Obutthole.; President.

@nicname

[nicname]

Low prpremium -- well kiss my butt and laudy-da. Obamaslick makes it sounf like he saved the middle class.  Hope you have a good banker if you get sick. total out of pocket is out of sight and most policies have a 50 percent co-pay on medicine. You will get really sick when you get your bill from the Doctor.  Thanks Obutthole.; President.

@nicname

 

[K-S-U-Wildcats!]

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/06/us/health-care-fixes-backed-by-harvards-experts-now-roil-its-faculty.html?_r=3

For years, Harvard’s experts on health economics and policy have advised presidents and Congress on how to provide health benefits to the nation at a reasonable cost. But those remedies will now be applied to the Harvard faculty, and the professors are in an uproar.

Members of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the heart of the 378-year-old university, voted overwhelmingly in November to oppose changes that would require them and thousands of other Harvard employees to pay more for health care. The university says the increases are in part a result of the Obama administration’s Affordable Care Act, which many Harvard professors championed.

...

In Harvard’s health care enrollment guide for 2015, the university said it “must respond to the national trend of rising health care costs, including some driven by health care reform,” otherwise known as the Affordable Care Act. The guide said that Harvard faced “added costs” because of provisions in the health care law that extend coverage for children up to age 26, offer free preventive services like mammograms and colonoscopies and, starting in 2018, add a tax on high-cost insurance, known as the Cadillac tax.

[Dugout DickStone]

Suck it Harvard

[Fake Sugar Dick (WARNING, NOT THE REAL SUGAR DICK!)]

From our ivory towers we govern the unwashed masses.

[michigancat]

hopefully Harvard faculty will do the right thing and support single-payer next time

[Fake Sugar Dick (WARNING, NOT THE REAL SUGAR DICK!)]

Nobody with a brain wants single-payer. We currently provide it to the indigent and it's awful.

[K-S-U-Wildcats!]

Nobody with a brain wants single-payer. We currently provide it to the indigent and it's awful.

But just imagine how much better it would be it we put everyone on Medicaid and raised taxes by 20% (somebody else's taxes, of course).

[michigancat]

take money out of defense, the whole world becomes a better place.

[john "teach me how to" dougie]

take money out of defense, the whole world becomes a better place.

[Fake Sugar Dick (WARNING, NOT THE REAL SUGAR DICK!)]

take money out of defense, the whole world becomes a better place.

I vote we take it out of medicaid, wait a second.....obamacare!!!

I'd rather not trade my fabulous medical care for shitty doctors and less army. You'd think the keynsian progressotards would be all about military, because senseless extravagant government spending.

[Headinjun]

Nobody with a brain wants single-payer. We currently provide it to the indigent and it's awful.

I didnt know your parents and grandparents were poor.  Hope they paid in.

[Headinjun]

take money out of defense, the whole world becomes a better place.

I vote we take it out of medicaid, wait a second.....obamacare!!!

I'd rather not trade my fabulous medical care for shitty doctors and less army. You'd think the keynsian progressotards would be all about military, because senseless extravagant government spending.

Giving people a long healthy life with lifesaving care is not senseless. Giving out trillions in contracts for a bunch of tanks and planes we do not need is.

[Fake Sugar Dick (WARNING, NOT THE REAL SUGAR DICK!)]

Nobody with a brain wants single-payer. We currently provide it to the indigent and it's awful.

I didnt know your parents and grandparents were poor.  Hope they paid in.

It's amazing people aren't begging for widespread medicare, isnt it?  It's just so good it's irresistible!!!  I can't wait until I can ditch this oppressive BCBS PPO!!!!!!

[K-S-U-Wildcats!]

Nobody with a brain wants single-payer. We currently provide it to the indigent and it's awful.

I didnt know your parents and grandparents were poor.  Hope they paid in.

It's amazing people aren't begging for widespread medicare, isnt it?  It's just so good it's irresistible!!!  I can't wait until I can ditch this oppressive BCBS PPO!!!!!!

Remember when the libtards were holding up the VA as their awesome example of single payer in the US? Now it's Medicaid. Good upgrade, guys.  

[K-S-U-Wildcats!]

Harry can't Reid due to his eye injury. http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/reid-says-hes-doing-fine-has-not-been-able-read_824257.html

That's Ok, Harry - since when was it important to actually read the legislation you're voting on?

[nicname]

Everyone is wasting breath.  The republicans are fixing this and I'm certain that we'll have an outline by the end of the summer.

The candidates will have to have the outline in time to campaign with it.

Like this? http://www.nationalreview.com/agenda/371090/patient-care-act-vs-obamacare-reihan-salam

read and enjoyed. seems good to me on its face. interested in the objections seeing as it's from a (AFAIK) pretty conservative publication.

[Rage Against the McKee]

Everyone is wasting breath.  The republicans are fixing this and I'm certain that we'll have an outline by the end of the summer.

The candidates will have to have the outline in time to campaign with it.

Like this? http://www.nationalreview.com/agenda/371090/patient-care-act-vs-obamacare-reihan-salam

read and enjoyed. seems good to me on its face. interested in the objections seeing as it's from a (AFAIK) pretty conservative publication.

I just think that like Obamacare, this doesn't really solve the problem. Insurance companies competing for business is a good thing, but healthcare still costs and ungodly amount, and insurance companies are still going to have to charge a premium that covers it. We should be building new med schools, and subsidizing students so they can graduate with less debt. That way we get more doctors, less debt, and lower prices. We also should treat medical patents differently than patents in other fields. Maybe allow third parties to make generic versions from day one with a royalty due the patent holder, and allow the patent holder to collect for a longer period than current or something.

[Fake Sugar Dick (WARNING, NOT THE REAL SUGAR DICK!)]

Dems now seeking to delay penalties until after 2016 for those who didn't dutifully timely sign up for healthcare.

The abject consequences of "free healthcare" for the entitled lesser half keep getting in the way of election cycles. The only way to avoid it is executive unilateral re-writing of statutes (constitution fail).

[K-S-U-Wildcats!]

Obamacare - still hemorrhaging money and the state exchanges are dropping like flies.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/almost-half-of-obamacare-exchanges-are-struggling-over-their-future/2015/05/01/f32eeea2-ea03-11e4-aae1-d642717d8afa_story.html

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2015/05/hawaiis_205_million_obamacare_exchange_will_shut_down.html

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-04-24/oregon-may-shut-health-site-to-join-obamacare-exchange