Obamacare won't work as advertised

Note:  You might want to start at the Obamacare Index Page, especially if you arrived here by using a search engine.

Obamacare -- the latest attempt to nationalize the medical profession in America -- is simply not feasible.  Anyone who puts ten minutes of effort into researching the facts can come to the same conclusion.

Subsections:

Obamacare won't work as advertised.  The promised benefits will never come to pass.

Doctors won't work under these conditions!

Obamacare solves problems that don't exist and doesn't address problems we already have.




Obamacare won't work as advertised.  The promised benefits will never come to pass.

Why Obamacare won't work: Reason #4,566.  The crisis in health care is manageable — without the radical, extreme measures passed in the Affordable Care Act.  USA Today reports that just 5% of patients account for 50% of health care spending.  And just 1% account for 22% of the spending.

Uninsured top 50 million under Obama.  When President Obama took office in January 2009, 14.6% of Americans were without health insurance.  Abra-cadabra, presto-change and it is up to 17.3% or more than 50 million people who are without hospitalization insurance, according to Gallup.

More than half health care deadlines missed by Obama administration.  The Obama administration has failed to meet more than half of the new health care law's deadlines, from submitting plans for new, value-based Medicare purchasing programs to publishing criteria for determining the medically underserved.  A report requested by Sen. Tom Coburn, Oklahoma Republican, indicates that the Department of Health and Human Services and other federal agencies missed 18 of 30 deadlines since the Affordable Care Act was passed in March 2010.

Obamacare is Self Destructing.  The Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS) program, a new entitlement for long-term care that was long a dream of Ted Kennedy, was officially nixed by HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius last week.  "Despite our best analytical efforts, I do not see a viable path forward for CLASS implementation at this time," she wrote in a letter to Congressional leaders. ... After 19 months of trying to pull a rabbit out of the hat, Sebelius had to admit what critics had been saying all along — it was unsustainable.

Despite ObamaCare, Costs Continue To Soar.  As soon as the Kaiser Family Foundation's annual report on insurance premiums was released, ObamaCare defenders dismissed its most troubling finding:  Insurance premiums for family coverage shot up an average $1,482 this year.  Nothing to worry about, they said, it's just a response to higher health costs and bad forecasts.  But wait a minute!  Didn't Obama promise his signature health reform plan would lower insurance premiums?

What We Don't Know About Health Insurance.  Advocates for universal health coverage frequently claim that they're out to improve health and save lives.  Just one problem:  Despite the trillions of dollars we've spent on public health insurance programs, there's very little strong evidence to suggest that subsidized health insurance actually improves health.  Indeed, the push for universal coverage may be preventing other, more effective health measures.

All Entitlements Are Not Created Equal.  Now comes the newest entitlement — the Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act of 2010 (PPAHCA).  Per its name, PPAHCA promises three entitlements:  1) protection and high quality; 2) access to health care; and 3) care that is affordable.  ... PPAHCA does not protect patients:  it increases medical errors and constrains learning.  PPAHCA spends a trillion or more dollars we don't have.  No sane person would call that "affordable."  PPAHCA provides no care at all.  Indeed, it reduces care.

Let's Not Forget About Obamacare.  Democrats will often get irritable when some clingy philistine refers to Obamacare as "socialized medicine."  It's simply not a precise phrase for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.  In any event, it's not socialized yet, you ignoramuses!  Progress doesn't happen overnight.  No worries, though, recent signs portend that Obamacare will give us the state-run plan we proles deserve.  A new study published in McKinsey Quarterly claims that in 2014, the provisions of Obamacare will induce 3 in 10 employers to "definitely or probably" stop offering health coverage to their employees.  And we can only assume the companies have had the good sense not to read the legislation.

Opting out of Obamacare.  Even as yet another federal court ponders the constitutionality of Obamacare, the bad news about its impact just keeps on coming.  This week a report by the respected McKinsey & Co. found that at least 30 percent of employers are likely to stop offering their workers health insurance as a routine benefit once the federal law kicks in.

Government Death Panels Won't Kill You — Unless You're Sick And Weak.  ObamaCare supporters fervently believe that science will prevail in systems that are controlled by politicians.  It is usually the unstated assumption behind their arguments defending the Independent Payment Advisory Board.  They seem to believe it so blindly that they can't see evidence to the contrary even when it is right in front of their noses.

WHO Study Used to Justify ObamaCare was a Scientific Fraud.  Findings were skewed to show better performance from countries with socialized health care systems.

Top 10 Failures of ObamaCare After One Year.  President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act into law on March 23, 2010.  In just the year since, the law known as ObamaCare has already severely crippled the nation's economy and health care system.  Despite Obama's continued pride in his signature health care legislation, a new CNN poll shows that 58% of Americans disapprove of the way Obama is handling health care.

What is the worst thing about Obamacare?  It's almost impossible to say there is one worst thing — the list is just too long, from half a trillion in cuts to Medicare, half a trillion in new taxes, and mandates on individuals, employers, and the medical profession to follow Washington's rules.  Obamacare puts one-sixth of our economy under government control, and yet there's absolutely no evidence that the government will be able to manage this $2.5 trillion industry.

Runaway Trains of Bureaucracy.  ObamaCare will spawn hundreds of new bureaucracies, and every one of them will begin chugging down the tracks, picking up steam and finding new challenges that require broader powers and increased funding.  Each one will produce a billowing cloud of paperwork to justify its existence, and acquire Congressional engineers who believe its acceleration is a moral imperative.  Demanding restraint from any bureaucracy is considered an act of heartless cruelty to its intended beneficiaries.

Children Face Reduced Access to Coverage Under Obamacare.  While the Senate failed last week to pass a full repeal of Obamacare, the negative effects of the health care overhaul continue to build the case for scrapping it and starting over.  Americans were told that Obamacare would open the door to medical coverage for all children.  Those with preexisting conditions would become newly protected by a requirement that health insurance companies "guarantee issue" to all children 19 years old and under.  No child would be denied coverage.  But being able to get child-only coverage depends on the existence of child-only policies.  And under Obamacare, this is anything but certain.

Merry Christmas from ObamaCare.  ObamaCare is the gift that just keeps giving... whether you want it or not.  I just received a letter from my health insurance company informing me that they were "updating my plan to include additional coverage."  As a business owner, I directly pay for my own insurance, and last year I saw my rates rise significantly in anticipation of the new health care law.

Wasn't Obamacare Supposed to Stop Insurance Rate Hikes?  Kathleen Sebelius and the DNC would have you believe that Obamacare prevents rate hikes by cracking down on those demonic, profit-hungry insurance companies, and that repealing the law would allow insurers to once again run amok.  So, then, how to explain the news this month that Blue Shield of California was "seeking cumulative hikes of as much as 59% for tens of thousands of customers" this year?  Wasn't PPACA supposed to stop these supposedly abusive practices?

Who Decides?  The major difficulties of Obamacare are two.  Who decides how the healthcare industry should be architected or reformed?  Second, who's going to pay for it?  One thing appears to be true.  A Federal Government that can't pay the piper is in a poor position to call the tune.  To paraphrase Klein's Newsweek quote, "The majority of Americans are opposed to President Obama's health-care reform plan — until they learn the details — and then they become even more opposed when they realize the promised details cannot be afforded."  These are problems that won't go away, even if the decision is reversed by another judge.

The Littlest Victims of Obamacare.  It's time for America's youth to buckle up and take a rough ride on Reality Highway.  For the past two years, President Obama has promised our children the moon, stars, rainbows, unicorns and universal health care for all.  But the White House Santa's cradle-to-grave entitlement mandates are a spectacularly predictable bust.

Yes We Can Repeal.  The trouble with ObamaCare is that it cannot deal in the middle class.  The middle class already has health insurance.  Just like HillaryCare, the fundamental fact about ObamaCare is that the middle class is going to get stuck with the bill for the 30 million without health insurance.  If you don't understand that, I've got a bridge to sell you.  Leaving aside peace and justice and compassion and caring, the fact on the ground is that the 30 million don't need health insurance because they don't have any assets.  You can't lose your home to medical bills if you don't own a home.

The Progressive Mouse Trap.  Here is the essence of the "progressive" mousetrap in a nutshell.  The President and his party seized a vast amount of un-Constitutional power over the private sector with the health-care bill.  The bill is an absolute disaster, destroying jobs and driving up insurance costs, as the astonished members of the AARP just learned.  Its cost projections have already been revealed as transparent frauds, pushing us closer to discovering what happens when the dying red star of our federal deficit collapses into a black hole ... but all of that doesn't matter, according to the President, as long as half the population isn't clamoring for its repeal yet.

The Obamacare Disaster.  Earlier this year, Congress passed and President Barack Obama signed into law the "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act."  The act's supporters said it would achieve the long-sought goal of universal health insurance while preserving the high quality and freedom of choice that are the hallmarks of America's health care system.  Peter Ferrara says the act's supporters are wrong.  "Obamacare," he writes in the conclusion to this Heartland Policy Study, "is a disaster.  Rather than liberate the American health care system from bureaucracy and waste, it blankets it with more of both, suffocating innovation and destroying freedom.  The result is a system that is inconsistent with the freedom, prosperity, high living standards, and traditions of the American people."

The Unraveling Of ObamaCare.  We were told everybody had to be unconstitutionally forced to buy health insurance or the plan wouldn't work.  We were told health care costs would be lower, rates wouldn't rise and that if we liked our coverage we could keep it.  We were lied to.  The plan still doesn't work.  What we're seeing is ObamaCare revealed as the fraud that it is.  The waivers granted leave us with an "Animal Farm" version of health care in which everyone is equal, but the politically favored in an election year are more equal than others.

You Can't Keep the Plan You Have.  President Obama clearly hasn't visited a real doctor's office recently.  If he sat on my office couch, he would immediately discover that real patients are terribly worried about how dysfunctional and expensive all health insurance, public and private, is becoming under the new law of the land.  Of course, the problem of spiraling health-care costs and inadequate access to essential services was already happening before, but Obamacare is making it far worse.

Thanks, Mr. President.  Well, it's official:  President Obama has destroyed my health plan and those of two dozen of my employees.  Several media outlets are reporting this morning that Principal Financial, which sells health plans to the John Locke Foundation and nearly a million Americans, will exit the health-insurance marketplace.  The company is responding to the new costs and incentives created by Obamacare...

ObamaCare:  Will Someone Please Kill It Before It Kills Us?  A boondoggle is a "work or activity that is wasteful or pointless but gives the appearance of having or adding value."  That is a perfect description of HR 3590, disingenuously titled the Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act and colloquially known as ObamaCare.  The Act cannot do what its title promises. In fact, it achieves exactly the opposite what the president said it would do.

Kids 0, Insurance 0.  This week Democrats threw a six-month birthday party for ObamaCare — and the timing was only appropriate since it occurred at the same moment their reform annihilated a corner of the U.S. insurance market.

Hospitals vs. ObamaCare:  Care to Guess Who's in the Middle?  For those who knew at the outset that ObamaCare was a deliberate means to curtail American health care, drive costs up, and destroy the best health care system in the world, the headline in the Modern Healthcare supplement of August 9, 2010 will come as no surprise.

Media Nearly Silent as ObamaCare Proponents Drop Deficit, Cost Savings Claims.  It has now been five days since Politico's Ben Smith published a powerpoint presentation created by an amalgamation of powerful left wing interest groups, conceding that two of the central arguments for passing ObamaCare — that it will lower the deficit and will reduce health care costs — have failed.

ObamaCare:  Dream Turned Nightmare  Key provisions of the president's health care reform are about to take effect.  Don't expect any of it to be pretty. ... Tom Coburn of Oklahoma and John Barrasso of Wyoming are the only two members of the U.S. Senate with M.D.s, and their prognosis in the report, titled "Bad Medicin:  a Check-up on the New Federal Health Law," is far from good.

Creating A Crisis.  The White House unveiled Tuesday [6/22/2010] its patients' bill of rights.  It is grossly misnamed.  Though some of its provisions might help a few sick Americans, conditions will be far worse for most.

Massachusetts Meltdown A Model For ObamaCare.  During the health care debate, President Obama claimed his proposal was similar to RomneyCare, passed in 2006 in Massachusetts under then GOP Gov. Mitt Romney.  Unfortunately, RomneyCare portends a bleak future for the U.S. under ObamaCare.  Little by little, the system is falling apart in Massachusetts under the weight of ever-increasing costs.

Economic Myths, Fallacies and Stupidity.  Having one desire fulfilled means having another unfulfilled.  For example, there's no solution to our health care issues.  Congress' health care law simply substitutes its judgment on the delivery of medical services in the name of helping the uninsured.  The tradeoff is that Americans have less of something else such as fewer personal choices, less after-tax income and very likely a lower quality of medical services.

Goodbye, Employer-Sponsored Insurance.  Companies are discovering that it's cheaper to pay fines to the government than to cover workers.

Health reform threatens to cram already overwhelmed emergency rooms.  A chief aim of the new healthcare law was to take the pressure off emergency rooms by mandating that people either have insurance coverage.  The idea was that if people have insurance, they will go to a doctor rather than putting off care until they faced an emergency.  People who build hospitals, however, say newly insured people will still go to emergency rooms for primary care because they don't have a doctor.

Obamacare's Danger Signs.  Not one of its major programs has gotten started, and already the wheels are starting to come off of Obamacare.  The administration's own actuary reported on Thursday [4/22/2010] that millions of people could lose their health insurance, that health-care costs will rise faster than they would have if the law hadn't passed, and that the overhaul will mean that people will have a harder and harder time finding physicians to see them.

Obama's Failing Presidency.  So we come to ObamaCare, the program that, so we're told, will see him carried about in a solid gold sedan chair for the rest of his life by an eternally grateful populace.  The sneak appointment of David Berwick to run the thing makes transparent a fact that was brought up continually and just as continually dismissed during the health-care debate:  that Obama wants a duplicate of the UK National Health Service, the sole British feature that he admires.  And that's an interesting development.  Because, according to studies by British health-care specialists, the NHS kills up to 95,000 patients a year through incompetence, mistakes, and accidents.  This number is ten times the international per capita average.  It is the highest in Europe, and twice that of the U.S., with six times the population.

Capping Insurance Rates:  Engineered Chaos.  President Obama's new proposal to cap insurance premiums should be viewed with suspicion.  Governmental price controls never work.  In the seventies during the oil crisis, Nixon and Carter spearheaded substantial wage and price controls aimed at hedging the U.S. economy against rampant consumer price inflation and mass layoffs.  What happened?  Domestic oil companies simply stopped producing oil to shield profits from the price caps.  This reduced available supply as consumption continued to increase, causing a spike in prices.

Alice in Health Care.  Most discussions of health care are like something out of Alice in Wonderland.  What is the biggest complaint about the current medical care situation?  "It costs too much."  Yet one looks in vain for anything in the pending legislation that will lower those costs.  One of the biggest reasons for higher medical costs is that somebody else is paying those costs, whether an insurance company or the government.  What is the politicians' answer?  To have more costs paid by insurance companies and the government.

Brits' Dirty Laundry:  American health care is not British health care, at least not yet.  But if Democrats get their way, this country will rush to adopt a system much like the one that is killing people in Great Britain.

Systemic Failure.  A government that takes over 16% of our economy promising to bring us good health at a reasonable cost is an instrument doomed to failure and at a catastrophic cost.

Big Brother, can you spare a dime?  [Scroll down slowly]  No, it was scary then for the same reason it is scary now... Not because it is "health care" but because it is "nationalized."  [M. Stanton] Evans demonstrated in his 1976 lecture that government spending on social problems does not make them go away; it just institutionalizes them.  In fact, it ensures that the problems will never go away because the problems become a magnet for federal dollars, and thus there is an incentive for the problems to grow rather than shrink.

The Health Bill Is Scary.  I recently suggested that seniors will die sooner if Congress actually implements the Medicare cuts in the health-care bill put forward by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.  My colleagues who defend the bill — none of whom have practiced medicine — predictably dismissed my concern as a scare tactic.

Pelosi Health Care:  Drill, Baby, Drill.  The way I see it, the Democrat health care plan is like a dentist hustling to pick up some extra bucks.  Dr. Pelosi tells you to open wide and she, with her fingers and sharp instruments in your mouth, tells you about your "old filling" problem and says that you must have a lot of work done.  In fact, Dr. Pelosi's plan does not aim at just your old fillings, but at drilling every tooth in your mouth.

What the Failure of the "Massachusetts Model" Tells Us about Health Care Reform:  When Massachusetts passed its pioneering health care reforms in 2006, critics warned that they would result in a slow but steady spiral downward toward a government-run health care system.  Three years later, those predictions appear to be coming true.

Government-Run Health Care:  A Prescription For Failure.  A 69-part series, so far.

There's No Free Health Care.  Obama may be unaware, but there are three programs — in Maine, Massachusetts, and Tennessee — currently testing his idea of get-more-pay-less.  The evidence is already in:  Expanded health care coverage costs more, an awful lot more.  There are no known exceptions.

And You Thought This Was All About Health Care...  The all-consuming debate over health care has effectively sucked all of the oxygen out of the policy world leaving little room for discussion, let alone action on other major elements of the progressive agenda — or so it would seem.  The mammoth bills winding their way through Congress will certainly upend our health care sector, if they are enacted.  Little known, however, are several provisions that will provide an enormous pay-off to one of the Democrat parties most loyal constituency — Big Labor.

Clunker Health Care?  The Obama folks plan to end their Cash for Clunkers program Monday — and good thing, since it was rap idly falling into chaos.  By contrast, if Congress passes President Obama's plan for health-care reform, Americans may be stuck with it forever.  No matter how much of a "clunker" it turns out to be.  And, indeed, judging by the car-subsidy program, ObamaCare may well be just that — if not worse.

Why Obama's Health Plan Gets It Wrong.  President Barack Obama says insurance companies make you pay too much for health care.  He wants the government to "limit how much you can be charged for out-of-pocket expenses."  Sounds great — just make the insurance companies pay more, and then health care will become affordable.  After all, that's what insurance is for, right?  No.  When insurance companies pay the tab for everything — down to flu shots and sprained ankles — it makes health care more expensive for everyone.

The Slippery Slope of Health-Care Reform.  Those seemingly modest changes urged by the White House ... would necessitate a series of additional changes, each building upon the others so as ultimately to produce reform every bit as "robust" — and every bit as lethal — as the $2-trillion government takeover now being so loudly denounced in town halls throughout the nation.

Top 10 Reasons Obamacare Is Wrong for America:  [#1] Millions Will Lose Their Current Insurance:  President Obama wants Americans to believe they can keep their insurance if they like.  Proposed economic incentives, plus a government-run health plan would cause 88.1 million people to see their current employer-sponsored health plan disappear.  [#2] Your Health Care Coverage Will Probably Change Anyway:  Even if you keep your private insurance, eventually most remaining plans will have to conform to new federal benefit standards.

Impossible Promises.  Obama says his health care plan will cut costs and increase patient choice.  It won't.

Obama's Health Care Will Make It Worse.  One of the bewildering ironies of the health care debate is that President Obama claims to be attacking the status quo when he's actually embracing it.  Ever since Congress created Medicare and Medicaid in 1965, health politics has followed a simple logic:  Expand benefits and talk about controlling costs.  That's the status quo, and Obama faithfully adheres to it.  While denouncing skyrocketing health spending, he would increase it by extending government health insurance to millions more Americans.

Obama 'Impervious to Empirical Evidence'.  For months we were told that Obama's health care reform would save money.  Facts?  None.  Experience (on everything from Medicare to farm subsidies to the Post Office) and common sense tell us that if the government sets up a program and then chases the private sector out of business, it will cost more (e.g. for medical care, food or mail service) than it did before — and much more over time than was promised.

President Obama, Hawaii, and Dodgy Certificates.  On the island of Maui, there is only one acute-care hospital, the state-run Maui Memorial Medical Center.  For years, residents of Maui have complained that the hospital does not meet their needs — too few beds, not enough specialists, and long waits in the emergency room.  State bureaucrats finally cleared the way earlier this year for a small private hospital to be built, but only after scuttling plans to build a larger, more accommodating private hospital.  A larger hospital, they said, would have an adverse impact on "the existing health-care system."  In other words, it would compete too effectively with what is now a state-run monopoly.

10 Questions for Supporters of 'ObamaCare'.  The whole point of insurance is that the healthy buy it and thereby provide the funds to pay for the sick.  Demanding that insurance companies provide insurance to everyone at any time spells the end of the concept of insurance.  And if the answer is that the government will now make it illegal not to buy insurance, how will that be enforced?  How will the government check on 300 million people?

We Aren't Doctors, But We Know What's Best For You.  Democratic leaders say they are planning an August "offensive" but the reality is their government takeover of health care will increase the cost of Americans' health care, kill jobs, force millions of Americans to lose their current coverage, add hundreds of billions to the deficit, and let government bureaucrats make decisions that should be made by doctors and patients.  That is why more and more Americans are rejecting the Democrats' approach.

The Dangers of Fannie Mae Health Care.  There is no reason to expect a Medicare-like public plan to match the administrative efficiency of Aetna, Blue Cross-Blue Shield, Cigna, UnitedHealth Group, and WellPoint.  Medicare doesn't even try.  It outsources most administrative services to the private sector.  Turning to public plans like Medicare and Medicaid for more efficient administration is a fool's errand.

Government Health Care Won't Fly.  Let's look at the airline industry hypothetically as it would operate if the government had as much control over it as it does over health care.  To see how complex Medicare is we can turn to over 130,000 pages of regulations and penalties and contrast that with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulations numbering about 1,000 pages.

'Shock the Monkey' Healthcare.  [Scroll down slowly] To carry this analogy further, observe the neolib obsession with government-run healthcare.  On the surface, it makes no sense that people would consciously desire poorer service at a higher price, but that will be precisely the outcome.  With the exception of national defense (which is powered by patriotism rather than the economic bottom line), government cannot do anything better or cheaper than private enterprise in a capitalist system.  Neolibs, however, will continue to pull that lever in the hopes that this time, despite all evidence to the contrary, government will be the solution to our problems.

The Editor says...
 Wait a minute.  National defense isn't just "powered by patriotism."  National defense is authorized and mandated by the Constitution — medical insurance and medical care are not.

Obamaceuticals.  A reimbursement system that gives broader access to mediocre care as opposed to excellent care is not healthcare reform.

Democrats' Plan to Cost 23 Million Americans Their Private Insurance, CBO Says.  The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) reports that a government overhaul of America's health care system would cost at least $1 trillion and would mean the loss of private coverage for an estimated 23 million Americans, according to a preliminary analysis issued Tuesday [6/16/2009].

How Obamacare Will Change Your Life:  Much of what you have long taken for granted about health care and the way it should be delivered is about to change in ways that you definitely will not like. ... Public opinion surveys have consistently shown that most Americans consider access and cost to be the most important problems facing the system.  Perversely, the primary changes Obamacare will bring to you and your family will be reduced access to care and significant increases in its cost.

Congress' Unhealthy Care Plan.  The CBO says a government-run health care system would cause 23 million Americans to lose private coverage, cost $1 trillion dollars and still leave 30 million uninsured.

Obama's Government Health Plan Will Look Like Public Schools.  In a seductive overture to private health plan stalwarts, Obama says the government health care system will not be a mandatory substitute for private health care preferences, only an option.  Of course those who remain in a private system will face double jeopardy — covering their own private medical costs while suffering higher federal taxes to pay for somebody else's — in the same manner that private school parents, opting out of horrible local public schools for far better independent alternatives, must pay private school tuition while still shouldering ever escalating property and state income taxes to educate those poor wretches who cannot escape the government's incompetence.

The smothering embrace of nanny government.  [Scroll down]  Let's say you carelessly drop Ted Kennedy's health care plan on your foot, and it breaks your toe.  In the old days, you'd go to your doctor (or, indeed, believe it or not, have him come to you), he'd patch you up, and you'd write him a check.  That's the way it was in most of the developed world within living memory.  Now, under the guise of "insurance," various third parties intercede between the doctor and your checkbook, and to this the government proposes adding a massive federal bureaucracy, in the interests of "controlling costs."

The Myth of Low Cost Obama Care.  Our new President has set aside more than $600 billion dollars as a "down payment" toward remaking the US health care system.  As liberals search for a model upon which to base our new socialized system they look toward other countries whose populations and demographic realities are very different from ours.  It is very feasible to build upon the excellent, though admittedly flawed system we currently have by adopting changes that would reduce government mandated oppressive regulations passed on from Medicare to private insurance providers.

Government care is an oxymoron.  The surgery that Drs. Kennedy, Waxman, Miller, Rangel and Chief of Government-Run Medicine Barack Obama propose has been done in socialist countries all over the world.  Here, though, it's considered experimental. ... If the desired results are freedom of choice, timely access to care, high quality of care, flexibility, innovation — the things the vast majority of Americans enjoy today — plus any chance at reducing cost and bureaucracy, the proposals the Democratic surgical team is pushing are exactly the wrong things to do.

Hello GovernmentCare, Goodbye Personal Privacy.  In the newly released Obamacare plan, section 3102 titled "Financial Integrity" makes provision for state and federal governments to be able to investigate any medical care provider at any time.  This provision gives government the right to look at any record that a doctor has in his files and that means your private medical information.  Worse, they may do so without court approval, without a warrant, with no cause stated.

Senators Respond to Obama on Health Care.  Mr. Obama says his plan would allow Americans to keep private coverage.  But Republicans say once a government insurance program is created, it will eventually dominate the market, driving private insurers out of business.

Shelby: Obama will destroy 'best health care system the world has ever known'.  "When the government is involved more and more in the details," Shelby said, "and you start the one-pay deal and you got the government competing with private enterprise with all the incentives the government has and the power, they can destroy the marketplace for health care and it will be a mistake and the American people better be careful in what they want."

The Coming Of Zerocare.  It would be naïve to think that we are not going to see Obama and his Democratic majorities impose a form of National Health Care (NHC) as early in this term as he can.  We will most likely see this just prior to the 2010 Congressional elections in an effort to keep his majorities by "buying" the votes of non-tax-paying citizens but before the system collapses under the price tag of whichever format he chooses.

A Budget Plan Good Enough To Read.  The president seems determined to establish a government health program that's sure to elbow out private plans, rob patients of their power of choice, and Frenchify American medicine.  Our inevitable entitlement crisis, festering beneath the rug under which politicians have kept it for so many years, is entirely unaddressed in the Democrats' massive tax-and-spend plans.  Congressional Republicans have countered all this irresponsibility and deceptiveness with their own detailed budget.

Two Forms of ID and Your Colonoscopy Report, Please.  I am not ideologically opposed to EMRs [electronic medical records].  When done well, they are much more efficient and easier to read and use.  However, it can take months to train an office in EMRs.  And if the computers are down, everything stops. ... I recently heard an expert on television claim that gathering everyone's EMRs on one big government server will solve that sterotypical problem — the doctor with indecipherable handwriting.  I have to agree that some of these doctors must be writing with their feet.  However, I employed a much simpler remedy than taking steps toward socialized medicine.  I called the doctor and asked him what he wrote.  True, there are practitioners out there who should not be allowed anywhere near a pen.  But if my records are going to be sent to Barack Obama, I'd prefer they remain illegible!

Take Two Aspirin and Call Your Congressman in the Morning.  As a nurse, I am always concerned when the government announces it has plans for our health care, so I decided to investigate Mr. Daschle's ideas.  I read his book Critical: What We Can Do about the Health-Care Crisis. ... In the introduction, the Senator recounts for us the many attempts by the federal government, beginning with Harry Truman, to guarantee health care to all Americans.  Since none of these attempts have succeeded, Daschle diagnoses American health care as "broken."

Ruin Your Health With the Obama Stimulus Plan.  Republican Senators are questioning whether President Barack Obama's stimulus bill contains the right mix of tax breaks and cash infusions to jump-start the economy.  Tragically, no one from either party is objecting to the health provisions slipped in without discussion.  These provisions reflect the handiwork of Tom Daschle, until recently the nominee to head the Health and Human Services Department.  Senators should read these provisions and vote against them because they are dangerous to your health.

Fedzilla Goes Quack.  Legendary comedian George Carlin once joked that someone in the world has an appointment tomorrow with the world's worst doctor.  With President Obama ready to unleash Fedzilla to prey upon the nation's health care system, the American people may soon find Mr. Carlin's joke not so funny.  The first rule of medicine is to do no harm to the patient.  With Fedzilla as the nation's doctor, that rule will be tossed aside as Fedzilla brings irreparable harm, unnecessary pain, skyrocketing costs, and untold discontent to everything its bloated, unaccountable bureaucratic hands come into contact with.

Obama's LBJ Syndrome:  As Americans listen to the smooth assurances from President Obama that his health care plan would cost $634 billion over 10 years, a look back at how liberal assurances like these actually work out in practice is in order.  Specifically, let's take a look at the smooth assurances in 1965 from LBJ as to the costs he saw for Medicare.  Medicare, of course, was the liberal health care panacea for seniors enacted into law by LBJ and a Democrat Congress in July of 1965 and is a fixture of today's America.  So how much was Medicare supposed to cost the American people?  Promised a solemn LBJ:  $500 million a year.

Universal coverage?  First, look at the disaster in Massachusetts.  To much fanfare from both right and left in 2006, Massachusetts became the first state in the nation to require all residents to buy health insurance. ... Then Gov. Mitt Romney, a Republican, promised that "every uninsured citizen in Massachusetts will soon have affordable health insurance."  Yet just two years later, Romney's much-heralded "solution" — touted by many as the model for a national program — has become an embarrassing flop.

The Nanny State takes our choices away.  One of the key functions of modern government is to reduce, by law, the options people have, especially when they are facing challenges to survival.  A classic example of this is socialized medicine.  Like all socialist systems, government health care creates big shortages and surpluses, beyond the reach of market correction:  in this case, serious shortages of doctors, nurses and essential equipment, balanced by huge surpluses of administration and unspecialized support staff.

The Doctor Will See All of You Now.  Ted Kennedy and Barack Obama are planning that the new Democratic Congress' first order of business will be to extend the Massachusetts health-care mistake to all 50 states. ... If Kennedy succeeds in his goal of using the Massachusetts plan as a model for national health care, average Americans will no longer get immediate access to medical care.  They will have the long waits and massive new taxpayer costs that the Massachusetts plan has produced.

President Obama fiddles while health care burns.  After six months of trying to keep the concept viable, the White House is admitting what the old bulls of the Senate knew on day one.  It's too expensive and too socialist for the USA.  You can have universal coverage for 9 million healthy, wealthy, civic-minded Swedes.  Doing so in a country of 310 million doughnut-munching, upward-striving, liberty-loving Americans of every race and creed spread from Miami to Juneau is a non-starter.

ObamaCare's Prescription for Death.  In a free market health care system, the main barrier is financial, and that can be overcome far more easily than in the socialized system where lack of resources and centralized planning combines to close off all legal options.  That is why ObamaCare would not serve to expand American's access to health care, but rather close it down.

A glimpse into our Kafkaesque future under Obamacare.  For a taste of the Kafkaesque under ObamaCare, consider the 159 new boards, panels and programs in the 2,733 page Senate Health bill, as compiled by Senate Republicans.  These panels would be the face of ObamaCare for every aspect of every medical need of every American.  Now consider one citizen's prolonged run-in with the Social Security Administration, as described in a Wall Street Journal account of "the sometimes-Kafkaesque process debtors can face when challenging the validity of a claim."

White House to Unveil List of Free Preventative Services.  The Obama administration on Wednesday will unveil new rules specifying which preventive health services will be free to consumers under the new health law.  Cancer screenings, including mammograms and colonoscopies, as well as obesity prevention services, immunizations, blood pressure screenings and tobacco cessation services are among those that will be available to consumers without a copayment or other direct costs for consumers on new health plans after Sept. 23.

The Editor says...
 Nothing is free.  If you believe that your flu shot, mammogram or colonoscopy isn't going to cost anything because the government pays for it, you're an idiot.

You're a Liberal/Progressive if You Believe...  a health care bill which completely ignores billions of savings that would have been produced by tort reform, collects ten years of funding for six years of spending, separates billion of dollars in physician payments into another bill, and insures an additional thirty-two million people — Americans and illegals alike — is really "revenue neutral."

Remember Obamacare in November.  As an orthopedic surgeon, I've spent years witnessing the often slow and painful process of healing.  I've watched patients struggle to get well, facing down personal, professional and financial challenges while fighting to recover their health.  It's too bad healing in the real world isn't as simple as healing in the political world — where it appears that a simple shift in the wind of public opinion and a few million dollars in campaign donations mends everything.


Doctors won't work under these conditions!

... and any doctor who would is not a doctor you want to visit.

Worse Than Death Panels.  During the debate over ObamaCare, more than one critic charged that government panels would make life and death decisions affecting patient care.  Now it seems the Obama administration is contemplating something that is even scarier:  doctors would be given immunity from malpractice lawsuits, but only if they practice medicine according to government guidelines.  The pressure would be enormous.  Have you ever met a doctor who wanted to be sued?

ObamaCare: More Government, Fewer Doctors.  In its heavy-handed attempt to provide medical coverage to some 34 million Americans, ObamaCare is going to provide it to them for free.  But those "free" services are predictably going to increase the demand for medical care while simultaneously reducing the number of doctors available to supply it.

Your Doctor is Rude? Maybe this is Why.  What would you feel like if the government declared that your services were owed to the community whether members of the community could afford them or not?

The Coming Indifference of American Medicine.  In the New York Times, a recent article describes the migration of doctors from business ownership to shift workers.  In increasing numbers physicians are no longer entering traditional "private practice" but exchanging autonomy (such that it is) for a role as employee of hospitals, large "corporate" physician groups, or universities.

Texas doctors leaving Medicare hits record high.  Texas doctors fed up with Medicare's declining reimbursements dropped out of the government-funded program for the elderly in record numbers in 2010, according to new data.  One hundred and seventy-two doctors formally ended involvement with Medicare last year, the most yet in a surge of "opt-outs" that has claimed more than 450 Texas doctors since 2008.  Before 2007, the number averaged a handful a year.

Asclepius Shrugged.  What if doctors went on strike against a society which sought to hyper-regulate their practice of medicine, which created a nightmarish world of malpractice litigation that forced medical offices to spend giant sums on liability insurance, and which through Obamacare tried to remove medical judgment and independence in the practice and the business of medicine?  It is not a hypothetical question.  The Wall Street Journal in April reported that our nation will already be facing a shortage of 150,000 physicians in the next fifteen years.

Nearly One-Third of Doctors Could Leave Medicine if Health-Care Reform Bill Passes.  Nearly one-third of all practicing physicians may leave the medical profession if President Obama signs current versions of health-care reform legislation into law, according to a survey published in the latest issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Obamacare Endgame: Doctors Will be Fined or Jailed if they Put Patients First.  If Obamacare is completely implemented, doctors will no longer be practicing medicine.  They will instead become the drones tasked with deciding who gets the meager healthcare crumbs doled out by the bureaucrats who have the ultimate power over patient life and death.  Those who are deemed to have illnesses that require treatments which are not cost effective can expect a one way ticket to a hospice.

The 'Unintended Consequences' of Liberalism:  [Scroll down]  According to the Houston Chronicle, doctors in that state are "opting out of Medicare at alarming rates, frustrated by reimbursement cuts they say make participation in government-funded care of seniors unaffordable."  Again, only liberals believe doctors would be willing to lose money in order to make government health care workable.  That they won't is another one of those "unintended consequences" that apparently mystify those who consider themselves intellectually superior to the hapless dullards known as ordinary Americans.

Obamacare has a poison pill for doctor-owned hospitals.  Physicians at McBride Orthopedic Hospital had ambitious plans for their Oklahoma City hospital before Obamacare.  Two new operating rooms and a four-bed intensive-care unit were part of a multimillion-dollar expansion project that promised to bring competition and more health care choices to the community.  But once President Obama's signature was dry on the 2,409-page Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, so, too, was the McBride project.

It's Hard to Make a Doctor.  The academic requirements [start] early.  A child that falls behind in grade school or high school will not become a doctor.  For all the ambitious new college freshmen that choose the "pre-med" track, the majority do not make it.  The academic and financial demands through college, and the intense competition for medical school acceptance, insure that only the highest achievers will be successful.

Truth Is A Casualty Of The Final Push.  Tired of waiting for the major media to take note, here's a small sampling of whoppers we took from the president's speeches last week in Ohio and Virginia, plus his interview with Fox News' Bret Baier: ... "If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor."  That's if your doctor chooses to remain in the profession.  Unfortunately, our own IBD/TIPP Poll found that up to 45% would consider quitting if they're going to be dictated to by unaccountable bureaucrats who couldn't get into medical school.

To Repeat:  Doctors Could Hang It Up.  We were harshly criticized last September for an IBD/TIPP Poll that showed 45% of doctors would consider leaving medicine if a health care takeover passed.  A new poll has vindicated our findings.

Atlas Is Shrugging.  The headline in Investor's Business Daily, September 16, 2009: "45% of Doctors Would Consider Quitting If Congress Passes Health Care Overhaul." ... The problem with four of nine U.S. doctors saying they "would consider leaving their practice or taking an early retirement" is that "the number of doctors is already lagging population growth," reports Investor's Business Daily.

Fed-up doc:  I've had it.  Dr. Jacquelline Perlman, who's helped deliver hundreds of Brooklyn babies in her 12-year OB-GYN career, is calling it quits — and citing sky-high malpractice insurance and plunging income.  "I've decided to retire from obstetrics," said Perlman, 42.  "It breaks my heart.  Malpractice costs are a big part of it.  It's a very sad story.

The Doctors Are Out.  A recent IBD/TIPP Poll showed two-thirds of physicians opposing Congress' proposed reforms, and warning of dire consequences.  Now, a forum of prominent doctors has amplified those concerns.  Of 1,376 doctors responding in late August, 65% opposed Congress' reform plans; 45% said enactment would make them consider leaving their practice or take early retirement; and 67% expected fewer students to apply to medical schools.

Obama and the Practice of Medicine:  On the defensive because of an increasingly skeptical public, President Barack Obama has recently spoken extemporaneously about his health plan.  In doing so, he has revealed his lack of understanding about aspects of medical practice and the reasons for rising health-care costs.

Medicine and the New Slavery.  President Obama, by declaring medical care a right, may force doctors like me to work in his nationalized health service.  After all, if medical care is a right, the government may use force to insure that all people have that right.  But as every slave knows, "They can pretend to pay us, and we can pretend to work."  Besides being immoral, slavery was not economically sound in 1840, and it is not any better in 2009.

Doctors Fight Back.  The largest group of doctors in the country has made it clear that it is not comfortable with legislation that would twist the country's health care system into a Euro-style scheme that "threatens to restrict patient choice."  With 250,000 members, the American Medical Association has some heavy political clout and deep resources.  It will need to use everything it has if it is to help shield the nation from a health care disaster being engineered by Democrats and their constituents.

Doctors can write their own prescription.  There are more than 800,000 doctors in the United States, up from a half million only 20 years ago.  Each and every one of these professionals face a tidal wave of change whether or not Obamacare passes out of the Congress in the next 90 days.

How ObamaCare Will Affect Your Doctor:  At the heart of President Barack Obama's health-care plan is an insurance program funded by taxpayers, administered by Washington, and open to everyone.  Modeled on Medicare, this "public option" will soon become the single dominant health plan, which is its political purpose.  It will restructure the practice of medicine in the process.

The end of physician conscience protection in America?  No one wants the government telling physicians they must violate their conscience in the practice of medicine.  This is especially important regarding life and death decisions.  This basic principle securing the integrity of physician-patient relationships has been threatened of late.

Obama Administration Wants to Be Your Conscience.  The "conscience clause" was put in place by President Bush in his final days in office.  According to LifeNews.com under this rule "workers in health-care settings — from doctors to janitors — can refuse to provide services, information or advice to patients on subjects such as contraception, family planning, blood transfusions and even vaccine counseling if they are morally against it."

Survey: Many Doctors Plan to Quit or Cut Back.  Primary care doctors in the United States feel overworked and nearly half plan to either cut back on how many patients they see or quit medicine entirely, according to a survey released on Tuesday [11/18/2008].  And 60 percent of 12,000 general practice physicians found they would not recommend medicine as a career.

Obama to America:  Bend Over and Cough.  [Scroll down]  Democrats say, "If you like your plan and your doctor, you can keep them."  But won't some employers drop their employee plans, pay the fines and slough the costs onto the taxpayers?  And won't some doctors, as polls suggest, restrict their practices or quit altogether?

Florida Doctor Tells Obama Voters to Go Away.  A Florida man who had been referred to specialist Dr. Jack Cassell found this sign on the doctor's office door:  "If you voted for Obama, seek urologic care elsewhere.  Changes to your healthcare begin right now, not in four years."

Congressman Plans to File Complaint Against Anti-Obama Doctor.  An outspoken U.S. congressman is planning to file a complaint against the central Florida urologist who posted a sign on his office door warning supporters of President Obama to find a different doctor.

Anderson Cooper Takes On Alan Grayson Over Doctor's Anti-Obama Sign.  It was by no means surprising to see Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) come down harshly on the Florida doctor who posted a sign in his office telling Obama supporters to seek care elsewhere.  What was somewhat shocking was seeing CNN's Anderson Cooper take on Grayson Friday evening [4/2/2010] when the Congressman accused Dr. Jack Cassell of being racist.

Grayson:  Doctor shooing away Obama backers will deny treatment to blacks.  A doctor who posted a sign at his practice asking Obama supporters to seek care "elsewhere" will end up denying service to many African Americans, Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) said Friday [4/2/2010].

Obamacare's doctorless world.  In rural areas of the country, obtaining a doctor's appointment is practically mission impossible.  Even in cities such as Boston and Manhattan, it can be very difficult for patients to attain the medical care they badly need, particularly for Medicare and Medicaid patients.  From New York's Upper East Side to the heartland to San Francisco's Haight Ashbury, a striking physician shortage exists in this country.  The reasons for the dearth of doctors are complex, but one thing is certain:  The "health care reform" that President Obama ardently pushed down the public's throat and recently signed into law will not increase the scant supply of doctors.  In fact, it will make the problem worse.

Dr. Galt Won't See You Now.  After the recent passing of ObamaCare, the Florida urologist taped a sign to the door of his practice that read:  "If you voted for Obama, seek urologic care elsewhere.  Changes to your health care begin right now, not in four years."  Cassell will not refuse to treat patients, he just suggests that Obama voters go elsewhere.  He also notes that ObamaCare poses far more of a danger to his patients than his sign.

Arizona doctor says Obamacare will force him to close shop.  While it may be years before most Americans feel the impact of President Obama's health-care bill, a few patients in Scottsdale, Ariz., got a small taste of life under Obamacare last week when they arrived at their Dermatologist's office only to see a sign with the following taped to the front door:  "If you voted for Obamacare, be aware these doors will close before it goes into effect."

Dr. Jack Cassell:  Hero.  Jack Cassell is too much for some people.  He's the Florida doctor who told his patients to go elsewhere for treatment if they voted for Obama.  The message posted on his office door:  "If you voted for Obama, seek urological care elsewhere.  Changes to your health begin right now, not in four years."  It didn't take long for Cassell's Congressman, Rep. Alan Grayson, a Democrat, to say that he smelled racism.

Uh, so why did the AMA back Obamacare?  In passing Obamacare, Democrats not only didn't address a scheduled pay cut for doctors who provide Medicare services, but they also instituted new pay cuts for other Medicare providers (such as hospitals and nurses), which the Medicare chief actuary says threaten to reduce Medicare patients' access to care.  Simultaneously, the Democrats took money that could have been used to provide a "doc fix" and directed that it instead be spent on Obamacare.

Why Five out of Six Doctors Have Quit the AMA.  Sally Pipes, President of the Pacific Research Institute, has written an important article in Forbes analyzing new survey results demonstrating that 87% of medical physicians in the United States no longer view the American Medical Association as representing their views and interests.

The Doctor Deficit.  One of the marks of national health care is the waiting-list problem that plagues Britain and Canada.  Delays in treatment have caused suffering and, in some cases, death.  Soon, we'll be waiting for doctors too.

The Criminal Intent of ObamaCare.  [Scroll down]  The only sure way for a doctor, hospital, ambulatory surgery center, etc. to avoid being sucked under by this dangerous legal quicksand is avoid Medicare, Medicaid and SCHIP patients like the plague.  If a doctor simply declines to treat patients whose care is paid for by the government, he need not worry about landing in the penitentiary for unintentionally violating a law about which he knows little or nothing.

The President's Nun: Obamacare Scranton Scandal Explodes.  A mushrooming political battle over ObamaCare involving the White House, two incumbent Pennsylvania congressmen, three Catholic hospitals and a nun has just exploded in, of all places, Scranton, Pennsylvania.  Charges from the Scranton medical community of intimidation by the Obama White House and its allies are filling the air.

The Scranton Scandal: More Unintended Consequences of ObamaCare.  The Spectator has a very interesting but somewhat complex story about some closing hospitals in Pennsylvania.

ObamaCare 'Absolutely' Played Role In Catholic Hospital Sale.  A potentially explosive scandal has arisen after it became public that the sale of several Catholic hospitals in Pennsylvania was due in part to increased burdens imposed by the federal health reform legislation, according to the hospitals' director.  However, that message was quickly combated by the Catholic Health Association (CHA), an organization infamous for its role in helping pass the bill despite U.S. bishops' opposition, which attempted to dismiss the health law's role in the matter.

Obamacare will worsen the physician shortage Congress helped create.  There is a new disease spreading like a cancer in doctors' offices and hospitals throughout the U.S.  I have named it Doctor Unavailability Syndrome.  It is characterized by a rising shortage of doctors, both specialists and primary care, as well as the growing inability of the doctors we do have to take care of patient needs.  What good is a shiny new insurance card if there is not a physician available to see you?

Doctors aren't the only ones...
 CBO Confirms:  ObamaCare Discourages Work.  Congressional Budget Office director Doug Elmendorf said Friday [10/22/2010] that ObamaCare includes work disincentives likely to shrink the amount of labor used in the economy.  In a speech on ObamaCare's economic impact outside the health care sector, Elmendorf said that those effects will primarily be related to the labor market and "will probably be small."

ObamaCare: Flight of the MDs.  For all the times that President Obama promised "you'll get to keep your doctor" under his health-care reforms, he apparently failed to ask any practicing doctors.  A recent survey finds that countless MDs will respond to ObamaCare by limiting which patients they'll see.  The Physicians Foundation asked 2,400 doctors and American Medical Association members what they thought of the new law; a full 67 percent were against it.


 Obamacare solves problems that don't exist and doesn't address problems we already have.

Problems we don't really have:

"46 million people have no access to health care."  That's a lie.  The number of U.S. citizens who want medical care and can't get it is about five million.

"Democrats are the only ones offering feasible ideas."  That's a lie.  The Republican alternatives are simple and relatively inexpensive, but the Democrats are stonewalling them.

"The American people want something done now!  That's a lie.  Most people are satisfied with the system we have now.  In any event, they don't want the "big bang" revolution being assembled by the Democrats.

"The government will make health care more affordable and accessible."  That's a lie.  When has government intervention ever made anything easier or more affordable?  Private health care is far more efficient that government health care could ever be.


Good News! ObamaCare Covers The Young And Healthy.  One finding in the new Census Bureau report on health insurance has ObamaCare supporters cheering.  As one pundit puts it, "some 494,000 young adults, those ages 18 to 25, gained coverage, which seems to point to the ACA provision allowing children to stay on their parents' plans until age 26 that went into effect in the fall of 2010."  But is this much of an achievement?

Obamacare Based on Fraudulent Premise.  [Scroll down]  We've been through the phony numbers before.  Of that 40-plus million without health insurance, millions can afford it but choose not to buy it, mostly young people gambling on their good health.  Millions have access under existing government programs but decline to avail themselves of it.  Millions are not U.S. citizens.  Many others are misleadingly included in the uninsured category, though they are only without coverage for a part of the year.  Some experts have estimated that between eight million and 12 million Americans actually fall through the cracks, making just enough not to qualify for government programs but not enough to afford insurance.  But even they can receive emergency room care.

This Is No Reason For Reform.  Over and over we were told Washington had to take over health care because so many Americans lack insurance due to pre-existing medical conditions.  So how many fall into this category?  Try 8,000.  You read that right:  In this nation of nearly 311 million, the Democrats overhauled the world's best health care system to benefit 8,000 people.

ObamaCare:  Does It Cover 'Stupidity'?  Most Americans, up to 85 percent, already have health insurance and are satisfied with it.  Lacking health insurance is different from lacking health care — which, by law, emergency rooms must supply.  Millions go without health insurance by choice and not due to lack of resources.

America's Standard.  Those who wish to nationalize medicine point to America's low position in world health rankings.  But when a rich Saudi who could go anywhere for treatment chose, where did he go?  America, of course.

Dr. Washington.  The Census Bureau reported last week that the number of uninsured Americans jumped to almost 51 million last year.  Is this a reason to become panicked and reform the system?  No.

Understanding all the facts about the uninsured.  To support his sweeping makeover, Obama and other liberal Democrats repeatedly point to the 46.3 million uninsured Americans. ... A careful examination of the data, however, reveals that Obama and his allies are misrepresenting the problem of the uninsured.  Democratic plans would not come close to driving the number of uninsured to zero.  At best, about only 29 million would be covered.

$1T reform for 5%.  The Census is the source for the much-cited figure of 46 million uninsured. Yet the very same table plainly indicates that 9 million of those are not US citizens.  That leaves 37 million uninsured who are Americans.  But there's more.  In the same document, the Census also plainly states that "health-insurance coverage is underreported" in its survey.  When it cross-checked its survey results with the official Medicaid rolls, it found that 16.9 percent of those on Medicaid had claimed on their Census forms that they were uninsured.  That 16.9 percent amounts to 9 million people.

Frankenstein's Monster:  ObamaCare's 'Individual Mandate'.  [Scroll down]  As I've mentioned, this freeloader argument has been severely criticized on various grounds, including that it is factually challenged.  Shikha Dalmia ... notes that "uncompensated care costs only about $40 billion annually — or about 2% of the country's $2.2 trillion health care spending.  That's less than what department stores lose to shoplifting every year." ... There are many other factual criticisms, such as that people without health insurance impose no costs on others if they pay for their own medical care.

The uninsured:  A bogus excuse for trillions in new welfare spending.  Health insurance, so far, is not mandatory by law, and we've got 16 percent of the population -- 47 million or so -- without it.  Auto insurance is mandatory by law, and according to the Insurance Research Council, 14 percent of drivers nationwide still don't buy it.  Government can't make people do what they don't want to do.  And it can't change human nature.  Political freedom and capitalism work so well because they reflect the truth that human beings have free choice.  But this means individuals take personal responsibility.

ObamaCare: Kiss Your Access Goodbye.  President Obama and the Democratic Congress repeat a mantra so often that it has become a truism:  America's health care system is a scandalous failure, and it is absolutely urgent that we fix it now.  The mainstream media nod their agreement, and yet, the polls tell us something else:  Eighty percent of Americans say they are satisfied with the quality of their health care.

Alternative to Obamacare.  Without much fanfare, Sens. Richard Burr (R., N.C.) and Tom Coburn (R., Okla.) have become leading advocates of market-based health reform.  This week they will introduce their alternative to Obamacare.  It has no chance of passing in the current Congress.  But it does signify progress for GOP health-care reformers, who recognize that if Republicans are to improve their credibility on this issue, they must offer their own proposals for reducing costs and expanding coverage.

The Myth of the 46 Million:  Whether it's in political speeches, commentary, newspaper features, or hard news stories, the statistic of 46 million uninsured is one of the most-widely cited numbers in the health care debate.  It promotes the idea that nearly one out of every six Americans does not have access to health care and it plays into the arguments of those calling for massive expansion of government to fix the problem.  Yet the ubiquitous figure is highly misleading.

The Truth About Nationalized Healthcare.  It doesn't make sense to buy insurance when you are young and healthy if you are guaranteed access anyway when you are older and sicker.  And that's the problem.  The exchange between the two Democrats highlights the dirty little secret that not even Hillary will tell you about a universal government health insurance program.  The problem with our current system that mandatory national health insurance will solve is not that people don't get health care — it's that they don't pay for it.

Medical Care is a Successful and Growing Industry, not a Liability.  Shall we permit a successful, growing and productive industry to be destroyed, to be replaced with dozens of new bureaucratic agencies?  Bureaucrats and committees will then choose the care to be made available to you, and there will be no appeal.  Regulators will create a maze of new rules, thousands of pages of regulations, complicated forms, and red tape, for doctors and patients alike.  Long lines, impersonal cattle-car service, rationing, waiting lists, and increased costs are the inevitable result (think DMV, Post Office, $500 toilet seats).

No golden eggs to pay for Obamacare.  Obama also wants to ration health care, although he employs euphemistic language in discussing restrictive treatment guidelines of a kind that Americans utterly rejected when they were employed by health maintenance organizations during the Clinton administration.  He tried out some of these idea at a meeting of doctors the other day while repeating the canard about 46 million Americans being uninsured.  He did not explain that millions of these are illegal aliens, that others are qualified for Medicare or Medicaid and that still others can obtain affordable insurance if they choose.  That leaves about 10 million American citizens who at least temporarily cannot get insurance.

Health Care In The Good Old Days:  We were actually making some progress towards that when the Republicans controlled Congress.  Congressman Nathan Deal (R-Ga) chairman of the subcommittee on Health until the Democrats took control, pushed through measures reforming Medicare and Medicaid and actually began the process of saving money and being more efficient.  One of the first things Democrats did was strip these provisions out.

Busting Healthcare Myths.  One of the first myths [Sally] Pipes demolishes is the oft-cited statistic that some 46 million Americans lack health insurance.  Of those, 10 million make more than $75,000 a year and almost 18 million make more than $50,000 a year.  That means 38 percent of the uninsured likely make enough to afford health insurance but choose not to buy it.

'45 Million Americans' — Who Are Those Guys?  About 45 million Americans lack health care insurance.  Or do they?  A pro-"universal health care" television host recently cited this widely accepted "fact."  The number is bogus. ... 255 million Americans already have it.  Many millions more could get it if they wanted to.  And 89 percent of Americans are satisfied with the care they now receive.

President Obama: Health system a 'ticking time bomb.  President Barack Obama described the American health care system Monday as a "ticking time bomb" in need of a drastic overhaul -- and said that part of that fix must include the controversial public insurance option. ... "Make no mistake:  the cost of our health care is a threat to our economy," Obama said.

Obamacare and Las Vegas.  The casinos set the rules, they own the venue, and they put up the risk of capital.  Americans lose nearly $100 billion in gambling every year.  And in Las Vegas, it's all perfectly legal.  Meanwhile, according to the Weekly Standard, the ten largest health insurance providers earned about $8 billion in 2008 profits... combined.

Sign Of Times Under ObamaCare:  'The Doctor Is Out — Permanently'.  President Barack Obama's health care bill aims to achieve universal coverage while at the same time reducing costs.  In reality, this contradictory strategy will ensure that Americans enjoy less health care, of poorer quality, and from fewer doctors.  And while the full effects of ObamaCare might not be felt until Tax Day 2014, the promise of free health care to millions of Americans will begin to prove hollow long before then.


Here are the problems we do have but Obamacare doesn't address:

Interstate competition is prohibited.

Ambulance chasing lawyers make the practice of medicine more costly.

The plain truth about who owns the Democratic Party.  Speaking at a Northern Virginia town hall meeting, [Howard Dean] stunned many in the nation's capitol with these unexpected words:  "Here's why tort reform is not in the bill.  When you go to pass a really enormous bill like that, the more stuff you put into it, the more enemies you make.  And the reason the tort reform is not in the bill is because the people who wrote it did not want to take on the trial lawyers in addition to everyone else they were taking on and that is the plain and simple truth."

ObamaCare Whets Lawyers' Appetites.  It turns out the Democrats tucked away a little gift for one of their biggest constituencies, the trial lawyers, in Section 2304 of the new health care law.  It alters the section of the U.S. code that defines what "medical assistance" means for state government health care programs, including Medicaid.  That leaves states open to far more liability.

Trial lawyers love Obamacare.  President Obama made a big show about being open to some Republican reform ideas to rein in lawsuit abuse.  Those pledges — which Mr. Obama made twice in major public forums — were worthless.  The final version of Obamacare, as signed into law, is a dream come true for big-money plaintiffs' lawyers.

Healthcare Reform:  A Looming Policy Disaster.  Market-based solutions that reward personal responsibility and emphasize transparency in healthcare pricing, along with meaningful, nationwide tort reform are the only options that are ultimately sustainable and compatible with a free society.

Questions for your representative.  [Scroll down slowly]  Surely there's room for tort reform in a 2,700-page health reform bill or the 2,900-page so-called "reconciliation shell."  The verdict is in.  States with limitations on junk lawsuits have seen both an increased accessibility to care and a decrease in cost.  Howard Dean has admitted that Democrats ignored this because they didn't want to take on the trial lawyers.

Government Won't Allow Fair Competition.  Proponents of socialized medicine learned an important lesson from the 1993 failure of Clinton Care, and recognize that they must hide their agenda in the rhetoric of market competition.  Government is not going to take over insurance, they say; it merely wants to compete.

Obama, Heal Thyself.  The medical liability system as we know it is highly flawed.  It poorly compensates those injured, drives up the cost of health care by forcing physicians to practice defensive medicine for fear of being sued, and is driving good doctors out of practice.

The Costs of Defensive Medicine.  Many doctors feel the need to practice "defensive medicine" — the ordering extra tests, scans, consultations and even hospitalization — to protect against malpractice lawsuits.  Doctors say the hidden costs of the tests along with malpractice insurance and lawsuit awards are major drivers behind the soaring cost of care and account for up to 10 percent of health care spending.

Did someone mention malpractice lawsuits?

A Society that Venerates Lawyers More than Doctors.  Those of us who are not true believers in expanded government are certain of the following:  If the 1,990-page House Health Care Bill becomes law, the average American will receive worse health care, American physicians will decline in status and income, American medical innovation will dramatically slow down and pharmaceutical discoveries will decline in number and quality.  And, of course, the economy of the United States will deteriorate, perhaps permanently.

Competition.  In place of the variety of products that competition would generate, we would be forced to "choose" among virtually identical insurance plans.  Government would define these plans down to the last detail.  Every one would have at least the same "basic" coverage, including physical exams, maternity benefits, well-baby care, alcoholism treatment, and mentalhealth services.  Consumers could not buy a cheap, high-deductible catastrophic policy.  Every insurance company would have to use an identical government-designed pricing structure.  Prices would be the same for the sick and the healthy.

Liberals never learn.  Liberals have no shame.  They argue endlessly that what American medicine needs is more competition in health insurance.  There are thousands of insurance companies competing and the only barrier to even more spirited competition is government restrictions that prohibit them from competing across state lines.

Health-Care Reform Must Serve Patients, Not Lawyers.  As the Obama Administration faces the reality that some sort of compromise with Senate Republicans will be necessary to pass health-care reform, personal injury lawyers have launched a campaign of misinformation to protect their wallets.  The American Association for Justice, a special interest group for lawyers, would have Americans believe that legislation that limits how lawyers can gain from the legal system would hurt patients.  However, it is because of massive lawsuit abuse initiated by the trial bar that many Americans cannot afford health insurance.

Here's what is stopping tort reform.  In his Sept. 9, nationally televised speech before a joint session of Congress, President Barack Obama made news by saying that medical-malpractice litigation "may be contributing to unnecessary costs" in the U.S. health care system.  Since then, trial-lawyer advocates — including their lobbying arm, the American Association for Justice (AAJ), and various allied "consumer" groups such as the Center for Justice and Democracy — have been engaged in a fierce counterattack.

More about lawyers.

Obamacare Only Healthy for Lawyers.  Tucked away in the thousands of pages of the Democrats' health care overhaul bill are a number of gifts to the trial lawyers.  Which, by the way, are the Party's largest financial backers.

Tort Reform Is Key To Health Reform.  Though common-sense Americans have repeatedly raised the issue of tort reform while discussing health care legislation with members of Congress during town hall meetings this month, too many lawmakers and analysts still stubbornly insist that medical liability lawsuits do not contribute significantly to rising health care costs.  These lawmakers and analysts are wrong.

Health care run by trial lawyers.  Political power, rather than substance, is at the heart of the Democrats' proposed health care legislation.  Admission of that power-politics reality was the most significant occurrence in a very odd town-hall meeting Tuesday night [8/25/2009] held by Virginia Democratic Rep. James P. Moran.  It is now clearer than ever that plaintiffs' lawyers collectively are the political powerhouse running the health care show.

Questions for Obamacare Supporters:  Medicare costs skyrocket because it is a poorly mismanaged bureacracy.  It's cheaper to pay for private insurance coverage than to cover the medical costs.  Anybody have the answer to that?  We need tort reform because that's what drives medical costs up.  What about that?

Tort Reform Can Lower Costs Without Harming Health Care.  It seems that the president should be desperate to find some savings in his health care plan, as the Congressional Budget Office has said almost every Democratic Party idea increases rather than decreases spending.  Tort reform may very well be the ticket to heath care savings that President Obama is looking for.

Health care reform must include leashing trial lawyers.  President Barack Obama has often stated his belief that "health care reform should be guided by a simple principle.  Fix what is broken and build on what works."  Those are fine-sounding words, but the president muffed a recent opportunity to back them up with concrete action.

The president is asking everyone to sacrifice — except the malpractice litigators.
 Free-Riding Lawyers on the Obamacare Bus.  No one really knows how much time is wasted by doctors (and money by patients) on tests and procedures that do not actually help diagnose or treat any condition but do help protect doctors from the appearance of sub-standard care in malpractice lawsuits.  This practice is sometimes called "treating the chart rather than the patient" — making sure all hypothetical diagnostic bases are covered.

Why No Presidental Wrath Aimed at Trial Lawyers?  Everyone knows that President Obama has made health care reform his signature issue. ... Given Barack Obama's alleged passion, just why is it that the president has steadfastly refused to take on greedy trial attorneys, those ambulance-chasing barristers who are largely responsible for out-ofcontrol jumps in health care costs?  Even socialist wild man Howard Dean admitted that health care change without tort reform would be a meaningless charade.

My Healthcare Plan.  Liberals keep complaining that Republicans don't have a plan for reforming health care in America.  I have a plan!  It's a one-page bill creating a free market in health insurance.  Let's all pause here for a moment so liberals can Google the term "free market."

Why No Presidential Wrath Aimed at Trial Lawyers?  Given Barack Obama's alleged passion for containing health care costs, just why is it that the president has steadfastly refused to take on greedy trial attorneys, those ambulance-chasing barristers who are largely responsible for out-of-control jumps in health care costs?  Even socialist wild man Howard Dean admitted that health care change without tort reform would be a meaningless charade.

Demystifying, and Maybe Decreasing, the Emergency Room Bill.  Emergency room bills are notoriously high and perplexing; patients often are left feeling like captives who have few alternatives.  It is impossible to know how much the services will cost when you walk in the door.  The hospital bill, which arrives weeks later, may include seemingly inflated charges for things like Tylenol or an M.R.I.  Doctors who treated you may send their own separate bills, further complicating the payment process.

Trial lawyers:  Medical liability costs ONLY $56 billion per year!  Our medical malpractice system costs Americans, insurers, and the government $56 billion in increased costs every year. ... The trial lawyers' spin?  It ONLY costs $55 billion per year!

ObamaCare's Anniversary: Hospital Inefficiency.  [Scroll down]  America's third-party payer system, in which insurers or the government pays for health care instead of patients paying for it directly, is a big reason why hospitals remain inefficient.  "Because the consumer isn't paying directly, he doesn't have the visibility he has in other industries," Garnick said.  What does ObamaCare do to change this?  Nothing.


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