Obamacare hurts more than it heals

Over a morning coffee conversation, an elderly Haddonfield resident shows her despair over the loss of healthcare insurance for her adult child. Her story speaks to what has been called the ’Trilogy of Lies’. Her son has lost the policy that was affordable and what they wanted, he’s lost the doctor he had been seeing. His and millions of Americans have had their insurance coverage terminated under the new Obamacare rules.

She relates days of being on the phone trying to track down the right person to hear her pleas and give her answers, only to be told another person or another agency is where she needs to go. She dutifully complies only to be told more contradictory information. Bottom line: no insurance coverage, it’s not affordable and he has no doctor; the opposite of what had been promised speech after speech and year after year by President Obama.

Maybe you can relate, maybe you have a similar situation, or you have had no disruption. Rest assured, the problem will be coming to you soon. The first wave of cancellations have been over individual policies not meeting the minimum standards of the new Obamacare rules. Group policies had been postponed for one year, but the above disaster for our senior will be replayed for millions of working Americans when their employers drop being healthcare agents and let their employees go onto the faulty heath care exchanges.

Millions of Americans have not been eligible for the exchanges of Obamacare and have been placed on Medicaid coverage. Anyone who has been on Medicaid or knows someone who has it, knows how inferior this coverage is. Doctors increasingly don’t accept Medicaid payment and the insured rely on Emergency rooms for their routine care. This is only the tip of the iceberg as it relates to Medicaid. The entire iceberg can be examined in Avik Roy’s book:  How Medicaid Fails the Poor

In his Forbes blog, Avik Roy recently wrote: “The administration likes to tout how many people who bought coverage received subsidies (78 percent).  But that can be a misleading teaser rate for people shopping for affordable health insurance.  For instance, according to government data released this week, 7.7 million people applied for coverage through completed applications on state and federal exchanges – but only 2.7 million were found eligible to enroll and receive financial assistance to buy a private plan – an overall eligibility rate of just over 35 percent.”

“Even if we look at just the population found to be eligible to enroll in a marketplace plan (5.1 million), the subsidy rate only goes up to just over half – 53 percent.  Nearly half won’t receive any assistance at all.”

Solutions are available but you need to get involved:

Repeal Obamacare and elect representatives that will do so.  November 2014 elections are critical!

Support the bill from Congressman, Tom Price Empowering Patients First Act (H.R. 2300) for Healthcare alternative. http://tomprice.house.gov/sites/tomprice.house.gov/files/HR%202300%20Empowering%20Patients%20First%2...

Give tax relief or direct assistance and provide portability for those who buy their own health care coverage, allowing individual Americans to take their insurance coverage from job to job.

Give seniors greater choice of doctors, private health plans, and services under Medicare.

Encourage portability of health insurance so that workers own their health care plan regardless of job or job status, and allow employers to decide how much they wish

To make the costs of health care more predictable and sustainable for providers, fix Medicare and Medicaid by allowing patients to choose coverage that best suit them.

Some quick Obamacare Facts and Figures (from Heritage.org):

Nearly one-quarter of all seniors rely on Medicare Advantage, the private health care option in Medicare. However, Obamacare makes such deep cuts to that program that half of those covered will no longer be able to keep the coverage they have.

New taxes on drug companies ($27 billion) and medical device makers ($20 billion), as well as new reporting requirements and regulations imposed on physicians, will make access to health care and services more costly and difficult for seniors under Obamacare.

Those who gain coverage will be enrolled in Medicaid, the welfare program for the poor, or in a health plan designed by the government.

The millions who remain uninsured will still depend on overcrowded emergency rooms for routine care.

$52 billion in new taxes imposed on businesses by mandating employers provide health insurance.

Keep posted to this blog for more updates on Healthcare and please respond and continue the dialogue.