The eventual outcome of Obamacare would be a two-tiered medical system – one system for the wealthy, and another system for most Americans.
Obamacare health plans, Medicare and Medicaid recipients will get one
level of care akin to what socialized medicine affords in Britain and
Canada. Meanwhile, those with private insurance off the exchanges will
have a completely different experience.
It seems the new system is already taking shape, considering the
revelations that many of America’s best hospitals aren’t letting in the
Obamacare masses.
You see, the Obamacare plans are risky for insurance companies. They
don’t have good data on who will actually show up and buy plans. It’s
assumed by the biggest insurance companies that the clients in the
Obamacare pool are likely poorer, with larger medical problems. They
assume these are the people that couldn’t get insurance because of
preexisting conditions.
To hedge their risks, insurance companies are asking providers to
accept smaller reimbursements. Therefore, only the hospitals and doctors
that need business are accepting the smaller Obamacare reimbursements.
The best hospitals, the ones that don’t need more business, decide to
opt out, effectively shutting their doors to Obamacare patients.
A Dim Future
The system is so convoluted and byzantine that you pretty much need a
PhD to decipher it. First, the hospitals negotiate with insurance
providers. The insurers get reduced pricing from the hospital in
exchange for sending in large numbers of clients. These networks of
hospitals and doctors are the result of intense negotiations, and
they’re usually built out over years.
Now, as a result of Obamacare, things are changing. Most of the firms
assume the young and healthy people that are needed to balance the
Obamacare budget won’t show up. So they’re asking providers to accept
smaller and smaller reimbursements.
But if you’re the Mayo Clinic, the Cleveland Clinic or Cedars Sinai,
for instance, you just don’t need to accept smaller reimbursements – or
you can’t afford to. So you opt out. This is also how Medicare works,
and it’s no coincidence that if you walk in the front door of the Mayo
Clinic, you’ll be greeted by a sign that says “We don’t accept
Medicare.”
A Watchdog.org study of the top-tiered hospitals found they’re not
easily accessible to the Obamacare insurance exchange participants. For
example, in Ohio, the Obamacare exchange includes a dozen insurance
companies – yet the state’s premier hospital, the Cleveland Clinic,
accepts only one of those dozen firms. If you’re buying on the exchange
in Ohio, make sure you read the fine print!
Last year, I had a cardiac ablation, and I wanted to go to the best
hospital in the country for the procedure. I chose Cedars Sinai in Los
Angeles and had an excellent experience. They treat you like you’re
taking a trip to the spa. But if you’re buying from the exchange in
California, you’ll find that only one insurer is accepted by Cedars.
So if you want the best doctor, stay out of Obamacare. Want the best
specialists? Stay out of Obamacare. Want the best hospital? You get the
picture. Sadly, this same advice is true for Medicare, which is
suffering the same fate. Medicare, which all Americans must participate
in by government edict, is facing drastic reimbursement cuts to provide
money for Obamacare.
Of course, the changes won’t all come in a day or even a year. But
Medicare Advantage Plans – which are highly rated by the seniors that
participate in them (such as my Mom and Dad) – are targeted for
extinction by Obamacare. It’s proving the old adage that you can’t have
something for nothing.
Foolish people believe that the siren song of socialism will pay in
the end. But if you want the best medical system in the world, it costs money.
If our country doesn’t want to pay for it, then it will morph and
change until we have a sub-class healthcare system. And in the end, the
wealthy will get great care even if they have to leave our shores or
hire concierge doctors. It’s sad that Obama’s socialism is sacrificing a
once-great system on the altar of false equality.As Always The Plain Truth!
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