Charles Krauthammer gave us all good advice when he suggested that we should ignore what President Obama says and concentrate on what he does. The reality is that very little that the president peddled to America when he was attempting to gain support for the Affordable Healthcare Act was true. Truth is always the first casualty with this president! And for good reason, no one has ever held him accountable for anything: not the press, not the Senate Democrats, not American liberals, and not the voters.
What is going to happen to many Americans in the next months and years is what people should be focused on. We might want to consider some of the following, because it may affect us all—one way or the other.
• As many as one-half of all American physicians may refuse to join the health care exchanges. Without physicians, it will be a very difficult task to make the exchanges work, and guarantees long waits to see a doctor.
• The White House and surrogates say a few people will lose their health care coverage. The estimate of a 5% cancellation rate would represent about 16 million people —or about one-half the number of uninsured that was initially used to justify this fiasco. Solely as a comparative tool, only 6 million Jews died in the holocaust. Each cancellation carries with it a story —and for some, a complete loss of medical insurance and inability to get treatment. And perhaps as many as a third of the population could be affected once the employer mandates kick in.
• The government gets to make the decision on the specifics of health care coverage each citizen will be required to purchase. An older woman may be required to purchase pre-natal coverage —a young man may be required to purchase coverage for geriatric care. The Affordable Healthcare Act does not distinguish between the needs of the young and the old, or the sex of the policy-holder, or the needs and desires of the individual. It is a one size fits all, like it program —because there is no leaving it.
• In order for the program to work, young, healthy individuals must purchase the government mandated insurance. Since most young people have no medical problems, and the penalty imposed is much cheaper than purchasing the actual policy, many will no doubt opt to pay the penalty. The fact that previous medical conditions cannot exclude one from purchasing health care insurance makes the decision to pay the penalty and wait until the need for health insurance arises —a no-brainer.
• Many physicians have indicated that they will leave the profession, because the new health care coding and justification requirements are odious. Without physicians, it becomes very difficult to obtain medical treatment. Right now, in many parts of the country, it is difficult to find a physician who will take on new Medicare patients. In my own personal experience, I contacted five physicians before finding one who would see me as a new patient —and that was as a healthy patient and before the Obamacare bill was passed. It will only get worse!
• It seems that the cost of replacing cancelled policies will be expensive —some will qualify for government supplements and some won’t. A lot of people will get free and many subsidized coverage —and many more will get to pay through the nose for replacement policies. And unless the government web site becomes completely operational, many may have lapses in coverage.
• And then there are the Sarah Palin death panels —well not really —well sort of. Federal bureaucrats will not exactly decide directly who lives and who dies. They will decide how much funding is taken from Medicare to make the health care takeover work. When, not if, they strip funding from Medicare, the elderly will die because they can’t be seen by a physician or hospital, or receive treatment for some terminal illnesses. Kind of sounds like a death panel to me!
• More and more physicians are deciding not to accept health care insurance at all, and tailoring their practices to cash paying customers. When the entire program is implemented, a full-blown medical disaster may very well await Americans. At that point it will be a little late for apathetic Americans to get interested!
“Fathom the hypocrisy of a government that requires every citizen to prove that they are insured … but not everyone must prove that they are a citizen.” Now add this “Many who refuse or are unable to prove that they are citizens will receive free insurance paid by those that are forced to buy insurance because they are citizens.” Ben Stein. Only our government could come up with a scheme like this!
President Obama once said “I’m going to change America as we know it.” And once Americans fully understand the implications of Obamacare, they will understand what has been done to a health care system which was once the envy of the world. At least once he will be guilty of telling the truth.
Have a good week. Bill Shuey is a freelance writer from Murphy, NC. He can be contacted at: washuey@brmemc.net.
