Cost overruns devour under-populated ObamaCare program

It's already happening.

PPACA (ObamaCare) programs going overboard with costs.

Payments to providers will be cut down and that means the services will too.

I wonder if this was actually known by HHS & Co. and was designed to create a default "death panel" of sorts ?
Sure looks like that theory might have merits.

[color=cyan] "Death by scarcity of services" .....

No group in recent political history has been more thoroughly vindicated than ObamaCare critics, and none more discredited than its advocates, whose every estimate of the program’s cost was either a deliberate fraud or a stunning miscalculation. Look now upon the wonder of an early ObamaCare program that only drew about a quarter of the anticipated enrollees, but swiftly went bankrupt anyway.

From the New York Times:



The Obama administration said Monday that it was cutting payments to doctors and hospitals after finding that cost overruns are threatening to use up the money available in a health insurance program for people with cancer, heart disease and other serious illnesses.

The administration had predicted that up to 400,000 people would enroll in the program, created by the 2010 health care law. In fact, about 135,000 have enrolled, but the cost of their claims has far exceeded White House estimates, exhausting most of the $5 billion provided by Congress.

Under a new policy issued by Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services, “health care facilities and providers will get paid less” for providing the same services to patients in the federal program, known as the Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan.

In most cases, payments to health care providers will be capped at Medicare rates, which are substantially less than the commercial insurance rates they have been receiving. The new policy generally prohibits doctors and hospitals from increasing charges to consumers to make up the difference.

:shk:

well hardy har har

warnings about this have fallen on deaf ears until now.

but look at the bright side....
maybe providers actually find ways to improve efficiencies rather than just raise prices
( don't hold yer breath ! )

what will the Loony Luminaries do with this boondoggle ??

are YOU ready for another tax increase ?

source story
Cost overruns devour under-populated ObamaCare program

please read the entire article and comment on facts & merits

Maybe that old Cloward-Piven "strategy" is alive and well within the Liberal Mind ?

I think maybe so.

The Cloward–Piven strategy is a political strategy outlined in 1966 by American sociologists and political activists Richard Cloward (1926–2001) and Frances Fox Piven (b. 1932) that called for overloading the U.S. public welfare system in order to precipitate a crisis that would lead to a replacement of the welfare system with a national system of "a guaranteed annual income and thus an end to poverty". Cloward and Piven were a married couple who were both professors at the Columbia University School of Social Work. The strategy was formulated in a May 1966 article in liberal[1] magazine The Nation titled "The Weight of the Poor: A Strategy to End Poverty".

wikipedia

Cloward-Piven -- quietly creeping up on all of us !!

I think this crap is going to ultimately result in many physicians simply cutting their losses by refusing to accept half-assed insurance as payment or getting out of medicine completely. Costs of a medical degree and malpractice insurance aren't getting cut, that's for sure. Quality maedical care will just be much more scarce. Such a bad idea to begin with.

Obama Care is a complete disaster and is only going to get worse. And giving Muslims and corporations like Mc Donald's exemptions is blatantly unconstitutional. People who want nothing to do with Obama care will just claim to be Muslim on the paperwork and voila free of a nightmare in process. This will further decrease payments into the system.

This disaster is going to destroy the system that was in place that was known as the best medical system in the world as far as the level and breadth of capability. I am not saying that coverage was. However, with employer covered insurance and government programs people could get the care they needed. That won't be the case soon.

Employers are dropping their insurance and paying the penalty because it is cheaper for them. Especially since their insurance costs are skyrocketing. And other employers are cutting hours to 30 or less so they don't have to pay even the penalty. So, these people have taken a 25% cut to their income, lost thier employer insurance, and can't afford to pay the premiums as a private citizen that is going up anywhere from 80% - 200%+.

This whole thing is going to hit those most in need of a paycheck and insurance which will lose one or both or take a drastic cut in both i.e. lower paycheck and no insurance or insurance with less coverage. The people that can afford it will be fine. So, all those that thought this socialized medicine was going to be the next greatest thing next to sliced bread will find out the low information voters bought a bill of goods from the left that isn't going to produce.

All you had to do to see that every single part of the "Affordable" Health care act was a financial lead balloon, was use basic math we all mastered in the third grade. Politicians are jackasses, they are not doctors, they are not nurses, they have not mastered third grade math. They are simply jackasses frolicking around with other peoples money. The people that supported this bill are also jackasses who have not mastered third grade math.

You just have got to be a complete idiot to think that this was mathematically a good Idea.

reply to post by xuenchen


As much as I dislike the affordable care act and all of it's rosy predictions of cost ect..., I despise the medical/ insurance scam even more. There is something fundamentally wrong with a system that will overcharge those WITH insurance by the tune of 40% of the cost of a medical procedure. If you don't have insurance, After negotiations, hospitals will charge you only 60 to 80% of the cost that they stick to those with insurance. That tells me right there the pricing model of all of our healthcare is just screwed up.

I don't know when it happened, but the costs associated with health care have gotten out of control. Might as well sponsor a medical student in India or Costa Rica and hire them as your personal physician. Probably would be cheaper and better for you in the long run.

I'm not exactly sure of what this gobbledygook about cost overruns means, and frankly am too exhausted by all gobbledygook to care much anymore, but my personal experience (unfortunately, quite a lot of it lately with my dad being in a trauma ICU for over a month and for myself as well with other issues) is that the quality of care has gone up and the cost has gone down and the waiting time has lessened considerably at the local ERs. There 's not a lot of reluctance to "run tests" and when the bills come they're a lot lower. I've also read that the competitive American spirit is once again rising to do the best for patients at a decent cost. All anecdotal and hopeful, sure, but all I can say is that there's been a huge difference around here lately.

The best way to do something about all of this mess is simple.... Do nothing.

Non-compliance is a fantastic option. When 2014 rolls around and the IRS scum start demanding you disclose your health-related information, you do what comes naturally according to many. Be a do nothing American.

Don't even report your earnings in protest to the invasion of your privacy. That is what I intend to do.

They will learn nothing from me... I will no longer be a "voluntary" accomplice in the molestation of the American Public at their hands...

I will refuse in all righteousness.

Boba

reply to post by ~Lucidity

Really??? how much is the bill for a month in ICU? I haven't noticed any reluctance with tests ect.... We got fine service too. However costs are still WAY too High. The Hospital bill for my wife's appendix was $33,000 for 5 days of hospital. that's just the Hospital charges, not the Surgeon, anesthesiologist and other assorted bills. We still keep getting new statements coming in, I am guessing we will be close to $40,000-$42,000 when they are all in. The median household income for Michigan was $45981 in 2011. Call me silly, but I think that is WAYYY too much.

reply to post by pavil


Trauma ICU, and not nearly as much as I would ever have imagined with that level of care and that length of stay, and not nearly what you were billed (which though still a lot seems actually proportionately lower to me than when I had surgery a few years ago) or at the ridiculous levels of what line itemed out when our son was born 20 years ago. Again, I'm talking about the actual, line-itemed bill here, the one submitted for insurance paymen, before all the secret negotiations or what nott. WeI "paid" $3800 for a few years back for an MRI that wasn't nearly at the level of complexity of recent ones that are now ranging in the $1000 range and now don't seem to be so quick at including different doctors "reading" them for a total of a few minutes each yet each charging in the neighborhood of $500 per hour. Also little things like the $3500 I paid for a snake bite with anti venom for a half-day's stay a couple of years ago that doesn't nearly extrapolate out to the cost of this past month. All I'm saying is that I'm noticing a difference and it ain't all bad. Maybe others are too. The healthcare system needed reform, and though in my opinion this law doesn't go nearly far enough and is hardly perfect, it's a start, to at the very least some oversight, and this article appears to me to be pretty slanted. Thing is I've also read that prices are going down in different areas of the country at different levels, so some may not be having the same experiences.

reply to post by ~Lucidity


I would like to hear numbers, I can't fathom that a month of Trauma ICU would run less than our little 5 day stint. I'm not over exaggerating the bills, right now all the ones we have runs the tally to about $37,500. I hope everyone is well. I am talking about the bills for everything before insurance kicks in, not just the deductible, the amount you or the insurance company was charged for ALL of the care ect.

I work in healthcare, for a major company, at a major hospital, and the future is extremely bleak. I can't even begin to tell you the staffing problems that have already arisen as a result of this. Not to mention the other cuts we are currently making.

Originally posted by aravoth
I work in healthcare, for a major company, at a major hospital, and the future is extremely bleak. I can't even begin to tell you the staffing problems that have already arisen as a result of this. Not to mention the other cuts we are currently making.

I have one friend who already told his patients he's closing his office at the end of June. I know a few more doctors that are looking to get out and do something else. These guys are 50 and under.

reply to post by xuenchen


Its likely Obamacare will go down in history as
The biggest boondoggle ever!

Thanks Obama!