ObamaCare Comes Up Short

Get ready for major hikes in health-insurance premiums, notwithstanding all the promises from "The One."

From Obamacare shorts health insurers $2.5 billion:

Insurers will get far less money than promised from the federal government this year — and a few billion dollars less than they requested — to help pay for their sickest customers.

Insurers learned late Thursday [October 1, 2015] that they'll receive just $362 million out of the $2.9 billion in requested for 2014 for the program, according to an announcement by the Department of Health and Human Services.

That's because a program created under the 2010 Affordable Care Act hasn't brought in nearly as much money as it needs to pay out. As insurers enrolled more older, sicker Americans under the new healthcare law, they were promised some federal money to help cover their new costs, through a program known as risk corridors.

This shortage in funding ObamaCare was totally predictable, of course. People with chronic health conditions typically cost more in healthcare dollars. The cycle of life.  All the utopianism in the world can't change the natural order of the universe.

WHOA!

From Inova, which provides the majority of medical care here in Northern Virginia:

A note to our patients about Kaiser Permanente

As of October 1, 2013, Inova facilities and physicians do not have contracts with Kaiser Permanente to provide in-network services. That means that Kaiser members, including health insurance exchange plan members, will no longer be allowed non-emergency access to Inova facilities, physicians, or outpatient services. The only exceptions to this fact are: Kaiser members who require emergency care; any Kaiser member who is part of our lung transplant program; and any Kaiser member who was receiving inpatient care or recurring outpatient care at an Inova location before October 1, 2013.

With our five hospitals and 140 additional locations in northern Virginia, including urgent and emergency care centers, physician offices and physical therapy centers, Inova offers convenient access and choice to the communities we serve.

If you would like to rely on Inova for your health and medical needs and are able, please consider choosing a health plan that gives you access to Inova. We participate with many of the leading commercial insurance plans.

If you have any questions, please contact your benefits administrator, Kaiser member services, or your physician.

More details about the Inova system HERE.

 Fairfax Hospital is part of the Inova system:

Inova Fairfax Hospital is the largest hospital in Northern Virginia and the flagship hospital of Inova Health System. Located in Fairfax County, Virginia, Inova Fairfax Hospital is one of the largest employers in the County. The hospital campus includes the only heart institute in the region, the 156-bed Inova Heart and Vascular Institute, as well as the Inova Fairfax Hospital for Children. Northern Virginia’s only Children’s Hospital – largest Neonatal Intensive-Care Unit in the region, dedicated Pediatric intensive care, oncology unit, adolescent unit, cardiac surgery and pediatric surgery center.

The above change in accessing Inova will affect Fairfax County employees and retirees as well as innumerable others.

OBAMACARE FAIL

Forget the hope of those high-risk pools for health insurance:

Funds run low for health insurance in state ‘high-risk pools’

Tens of thousands of Americans who cannot get health insurance because of preexisting medical problems will be blocked from a program designed to help them because funding is running low.

Obama administration officials said Friday that the state-based “high-risk pools” set up under the 2010 health-care law will be closed to new applicants as soon as Saturday [February 16] and no later than March 2, depending on the state....

A delay in applying to a high-risk pool has been inevitable for some:

[T]he pools are open only to people who have gone without insurance for at least six months.

One of my dearest friends in my small circle of friends lost his health insurance (employer based) on January 1. The health insurance company stated that federal regulations precluded the company's viability to operate, so the company went under.

The end result for my friend: after decades of having health insurance coverage, he now is forced to go without any coverage for six months so as to be eligible for a high-risk pool.

Catch-22.

Obamacare is a scam, the goal of which is the redistribution of wealth.

Welcome to the gulag.

OBAMACARE REALITIES

Let us understand some of what ObamaCare requires by 2014, unless, of course, one chooses to pay the tax instead of ponying up for health insurance.

 I did research on the topic of availing this household of the "cheap ObamaCare policies" in 2010, shortly after ObamaCare was thrust upon our nation by Congress and the Obama administration. At that point in time, Mr. AOW was paying $584/month, and I, in the same age bracket, was paying $256/month for our separate private policies. The difference in those premiums is attributable to Mr. AOW's having pre-existing conditions even before his stroke [We have had health insurance all of our married lives, some 40 years], whereas I do not have any pre-existing conditions. Each of our policies at that time had an in-network deductible of $2500/year with a maximum of $5000/year in-network out of pocket. No prescription coverage whatsoever was included. 

Those ever-touted-by-the-Left "cheap" health insurance policies" mandated by ObamaCare and subsidized by the government in 2010 went begging, that is, people were not signing up.  It's easy to understand why if one considers the above.

So, how do those "cheap ObamaCare" policies scheduled to go in force in 2014 work?  What I have gleaned so far about taking preemptive action in advance of 2014....

Read the rest at Always On Watch.

The Broken Promises Of ObamaCare

If we don't put a stop to ObamaCare, the worst is about to happen as health care and health insuracne costs continue to soar.

HOW IS THIS A COMPROMISE?

Another bluff from the Administration of Smoke and Mirrors!

According to "Obama Revamps Contraceptive Policy:

President Barack Obama announced Friday that the administration will not require religious-affiliated institutions to cover birth control for their employees.

Capping weeks of growing controversy, Obama said he was backing off a newly announced requirement for religious employers to provide free birth control coverage even if it runs counter to their religious beliefs.

Instead, workers at such institutions will be able to get free birth control coverage directly from health insurance companies....

When one gets treatment under the coverage provided by a health insurance policy, the employer never directly pays for that treatment. Employees don't go to the employer's management office for their healthcare needs but instead to the doctor or other provider.

For example, when I had knee surgery in 2000, my husband's employer-based health insurance policy, which also covered me, paid for that surgery according to the parameters of the health insurance contract. My husband's employer didn't even know that I had knee surgery, either before or after the fact.

I can't see that Obama's "compromise" has been any real compromise. If employers are providing health insurance plans to employees and all insurance plans provide free contraception, then those employers with religious objections are still paying for access to something to which they object. Furthermore, Obama has once again dictated to a private company what that company's policies must cover.

OBAMA CARE AND FAMILY-INSURANCE PLANS

Much ado was made of Obama's warning health-insurance companies not to raise costs.

And I personally know of several people who supported ObamaKare because they believed that ObamaKare would help them to keep their children on the family's health-insurance plan until those children reach age twenty-six. Quite the attractive carrot for Obama's health-insurance reform, apparently.

Surprise! There's no such thing as a free ride!

From this June 27, 2010, article in the Washington Post:

It is among the top early selling points of the health-care overhaul -- a new rule that has particular appeal for middle-class, middle-age voters: Young adults who lack health insurance will soon be able to remain on their parents' plans until age 26.

But although Obama administration officials note that the provision will help millions, the benefit is proving less immediate than many families expect.

The administration's success in convincing dozens of insurers to comply with the provision earlier than the law requires has left many parents with the impression that their adult children will be eligible for continuing coverage far sooner than is likely to be the case, experts said.

Furthermore,

Many military families are also just learning that the young adult children provision -- and the rest of the overhaul -- won't apply to TRICARE, the Defense Department health plan serving 9.6 million active and retired service members and their families.

[...]

Many military families are also just learning that the young adult children provision -- and the rest of the overhaul -- won't apply to TRICARE, the Defense Department health plan serving 9.6 million active and retired service members and their families.

[...]

The years to come could bring further rude awakenings for parents as employers and insurance companies look for ways to offset the added costs of covering these workers' children longer into adulthood, experts say.

For instance, roughly half of employer-based insurance plans currently charge a blanket family rate regardless of how many children are included on the plan. But the survey by Mercer found that one in five are now strongly considering or likely to start charging on a per-child basis.

Similarly, while Mercer found that on average employers cover more than two-thirds of the cost of family plans, 16 percent said they are strongly considering or likely to require their workers to start contributing a greater share.

ObamaKare - smoke and mirrors, and utopian fantasy that cannot possibly be fulfilled.

And now that the bill has been passed, we who bear the burden of the costs of ObamaKare are finding out more and more of the ugly details. More such ugly details to come. Quite the reality check is looming.

OUR HEALTH-CARE SYSTEM AND THE NANNY STATE

The essay below relates an aspect of my personal experience in dealing with our health-care system when Mr. AOW had a serious stroke last fall. He remained in medical-care facilities from September 15 to November 25.

No doubt about it, when Mr. AOW was released from the inpatient hospital stroke rehabilitation center on October 16, he was unable to be cared for at home. In addition to being completely paralyzed on the left side (limbs and trunk), his sense of balance was completely awry: he could fall forward, backward, or to either side at any given moment. His brain didn't know what direction up was! He also suffered from mental confusion. For example, he said, "I know I'm in the hospital here in Virginia, but I feel like I'm in California."

In fact, in spite of the ninety days of coverage supposedly provided by the health-insurance plan the hospital refused to keep Mr. AOW any longer than two weeks or to release him to home. Instead, the hospital and the nursing home teamed up to release him only to a skilled nursing facility, which costs a minimum of $350 per day.

At both the rehab hospital and the nursing home, both of which were in-network facilities of Mr. AOW's health-insurance plan, I was repeatedly advised to obtain Medicare and Medicaid. This mandate, in spite of the fact that Mr. AOW was not eligible for Medicare at the age of fifty-nine and has always had health insurance for, lo, three decades!

When I pointed out to the hospital and the nursing home that Mr. AOW and I had too many assets to qualify for either Medicare or Medicaid, I was advised to liquidate all those assets that Mr. AOW and I had spent a lifetime accumulating, go bankrupt once those assets were consumed by medical care, and become beneficiaries of the Nanny State. By the way, all assets were on the table, including retirement accounts (IRA's).

Looking back, I realize that both the hospital and the nursing home anticipated that Mr. AOW would always be a resident of the nursing home, never mind that he was admitted there for stroke therapy and not as a long-term resident.

After Mr. AOW made substantial progress after several weeks in the nursing home, the day arrived when I informed the health-insurance company and the nursing home that I would be bringing Mr. AOW home in a few weeks. The representative from the health-insurance company again advised me to seek out Medicaid coverage. Talk about having their needle stuck!

Once we established that Medicaid was not an option and that I was indeed determined to bring Mr. AOW home, I was threatened: "We'll have to report you to adult protective services."

So, how did I bring Mr. AOW home without getting arrested? I had in place the necessary paperwork: complete power of attorney and the advanced medical directive, both of which documents gave me conseiderable legal power. I also had on my side our family physician, who was willing to sign the release orders. This last is very important! Had I not placed Mr. AOW under the care of the family physician, the nursing-home physician could have refused to release Mr. AOW, thus forcing us into bankruptcy.

Also of help was a bit of name dropping, specifically, the name of my husband's personal attorney, famous as "the attorney of attorneys." Were he called in, he would own the nursing home by the time he was finished! At that point, the nursing home, recognizing the kind of legal proceedings they could be up against, agreed to starting the necessary paperwork for Mr. AOW's release from the nursing home. The one requirement: that Mr. AOW receive occasional visits from a registered nurse.

I have learned there is some truth in what some of my older relatives used to say: "Once I go into the hospital, I'll never come back home." Hospitals and nursing homes do have the power to hold patients and their families hostage.

Via the necessary legal documents and before illness strikes, arm yourself in advance so that you don't become a victim of the health-care system's trying to push you and your family under the care of the Nanny State. Believe me, the health-care system will try hard to push you in that direction!

And what would have happened under ObamaKare?

Health Care Alert: Canadian Socialist Leader Meets with Dems

One of the most overlooked stories of the week is the leader of Canada’s socialist New Democratic Party Jack Layton linked the future of his country’s universal health care system to President Obama’s public health care program in a Washington speech Wednesday. The Washington Times story is here.

Many conservative groups have pointed to Canada’s universal health care system as a reason to keep the American health care system in the private sector.
Americans for Prosperity Foundation's campaign, for example, launched an ad campaign last week featuring a Canadian woman named Shona Holmes who was
diagnosed with brain tumor and says in the ad the only way she survived was by seeking treatment in America.

Mr. Layton’s trip comes at the beginning of an aggressive effort to ramp up grassroots support for President Obama’s health care plan by Organizing for America. While in Washington, Mr. Layton met with Democrats on Capitol Hill as well as White House Communications Director Anita Dunn.

In the run-up to Mr. Layton’s visit, his party sought fundraising solicitations using an image of an economy-class plane ticket from Ottawa to Washington for the Canadian leader. In the bottom left corner it said: “SUPPORT OBAMA’S FIGHT FOR UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE. PROTECT MEDICARE BACK IN CANADA.”

Michelle Malkin writes about CanadaCare and accurately questions
whether CanadaCare killed "The Parent Trap" actress Natasha Richardson here.

The reality is Obama and the liberals have no good intentions here. It is about power and control of Americans--and keeping it. If they truly cared about YOUR healthcare, then they would have passed the Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act of 2009 (ORIGINALLY INTRODUCED IN 1997) a long, long time ago. I repeat: this bill was first introduced in Congress in 1997 and has been delayed and never voted on for 11 years.

DO YOU THINK CONGRESS REALLY GIVES RAT'S BEHIND ABOUT YOU?!

THEY COULD CARE LESS, OTHERWISE THIS BILL WOULD HAVE BEEN PASSED.

HEALTHCARE FOR ALL AMERICANS OR "OBAMACARE" IS ABOUT THE PERMANENT POWER GRAB OF LEFT-WING POLITICIANS OVER THE SECOND MOST PRECIOUS PART OF YOUR LIFE.

THEY ALREADY TOOK YOUR FREEDOM AND SOME OF YOU STILL DON'T EVEN KNOW IT.

WHITE HOUSE TURNS HEALTH CARE INTO ECONOMIC ISSUE

Here it comes, the urgency of health care reform. Americans still don't get the fact that socialized or universal health care is no good. Again, sounds great on paper, I mean who wouldn't want want a child or the WORKING poor to be insured. We have programs that do this already. LEAVE IT TO THE STATES. Obama is doing it again Alinsky's Rules apply. Create urgency and identify with the sympathies of your audience.

DO NOT BE FOOLED. If you thought HillaryCare was horrid, wait until you see ObamaCare. If you think it hard to get approved for testing or an MRI NOW, wait until the government has to approve the test and then sends you to a sub-par facility with poor radiologists doing the reads.

Let's look at a couple of things, historically, here, the Obama way.

Most don't know that HAWAII HAS SOCIALIZED HEALTH CARE. I don't know why Obama keeps saying that his mother had to worry about paying bills--THEY WERE COVERED BY THE STATE. That is why he NEVER HAD TO HELP HER. That answers that.

From the Heritage Foundation back in 1994, when HillaryCare was on the table.

"Despite these advantages present in Hawaii, health insurance premium rates are escalating at a very high rate. This increase is occurring in spite of the rationing of health care by SHPDA, the State Health Planning and Development Agency, through its certificate of need process. For ex- ample, in 1991, the number of MRIs in the state of Hawaii was 1 to 1.1 million population compared to the national average of 1 to 100,000.

Without any political pressure, the Ha-waii Department of Health seemed to be happy with this arrangement even though many physicians were sending their patients to the mainland for MRIs because the total cost, in- cluding hotel and air fare for the patient and companion, was cheaper than getting an MRI in Hawaii. To the Hawaii Federation of Physicians and Dentists, it appeared to be more than mere coincidence that five new MRls were quickly approved by SHPDA through its CON process just when the Hawaii Plan began to be touted as a model for the rest of the nation.

Even with the additional MMs, the ratio is still only 1 to 400,000 population. In addition, the CON process, as well as the cost of land and development, has pre- cluded the construction of hospital beds in our state. For example, the national average for acute-care hospital beds per 1,000 population is 4.2 to 4.7, as compared to 2.1 in Hawaii. This has also resulted in a deficiency in the number of long-term beds available.

There are many occasions when all the hospital beds in the state are full and a 48-hour waiting list for admission to a major hospital is not unusual. Additionally, the shortage of long- term nursing beds often requires patients to remain in acute-care beds for several months awaiting placement. And despite this, published SHPDA plans reveal that their goals are to decrease the number of hospital beds per 1,000 even further.

Reports from the islands of Maui and the big island of Hawaii report a greater than 10 percent occupancy rate in their hospitals for three months out of last year, and there have been reports of physicians having to treat patients with critical illnesses at home because no hospital beds could be found. And despite this rationing of health care, the neighbor is- land and rural hospitals under state control run huge deficits because the state's Medicaid program is the most generous in the country.

In the nation as a whole, the number of nursing beds per 1,000 population for people over the age of 65 is 56, while in Hawaii it is only 18. Last year the Medical Tribune reported that Hawaii had the highest rate of PHYSICIAN EXODUS and EARLY RETIREMENT IN THE NATION.

Another indication that Hawaii's Prepaid Health Care Act has failed to contain costs is the newly instituted Health Quest Program, which was introduced after Hawaii received a waiver from the federal government, in which first the indigent population of Hawaii, and later in Phases 11 and M most of the rest of the population, will be assigned to a primary care provider and will not be allowed to see any other physician unless that primary care provider agrees.

It also states that advanced nurse practitioners have to be included as primary care providers, so we may have a situation in which a patient will be assigned to a Health Maintenance Organization and be UNABLE to see ANY physician, let alone a specialist, unless that nurse refers the patient.

The Clinton health care proposals contain similar provisions which would expand the role of nurse practitioners in the delivery of health care, so people all over this nation may be confronted with this same situation whereby they can get to see a physician only if the nurse recognizes that they are sick enough to warrant it.

In conclusion, Hawaii has had most of the components of the Clinton health care proposals in effect since the enactment of its Prepaid Health Care Act in 1974. It has failed in its two major goals of 1) decreasing the number of Hawaii's population that were uninsured and 2) curtailing the ever-rising costs of health care delivery. In order to control spiraling health care costs, it has just instituted its Health Quest Program, which will severely ration care and deprive most of the citizens of our state of their right to be treated by the physician of their choice.

In light of this information, the American people and members of Congress should think long and hard before enacting a health care proposal which shares so many features of Hawaii's Prepaid Health Care Act. This is especially important when you consider that most of the statistics about Hawaii's health care delivery system come from three sources: HMSA (Hawaii's Blue Cross/Blue Shield), Kaiser Permanente, and the Hawaii Depart- ment of Health. These three would seem to have a vested interest in making the system look good. We should not base a national health system on data provided from a state which have not been independently verified.

ALL OF THIS MEANS UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE IS ANOTHER WAY TO BANKRUPT THE USA AND DELIVER POOR HEALTH CARE TO AMERICANS. GOVERNMENT CAN NOT RUN ANYTHING GOOD, SO WHY ON EARTH WOULD YOU HAND THEM YOUR HEALTH CARE?

GO BACK UP AND REREAD THE HIGHLIGHTED SECTION, SLOWLY. READ IT, UNDERSTAND IT, OWN IT.

OB/GYN CRISIS: THANK EDWARDS & CO

NYC IS ONE OF THE MEDICAL CAPITOLS OF THE FREAKIN' WORLD. BUT THERES A OB-GYN CRISIS HERE. NYPOST:

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the Medical Society of the State of New York both say that, with malpractice-insurance premiums rising, the dwindling number of OB/GYNs who can afford to practice has become a crisis, particularly for risky patients such as older women or those with medical conditions.

"The impact of these rate hikes is tremendous," said Donna Williams of ACOG. "We're seeing many OBs who aren't willing to stay in practice because they just can't afford it."

Nationwide, malpractice-insurance premiums for OB/GYNs constitute about 5 percent of expenses, Williams said. In New York state, they are 36 percent.

According to an ACOG survey, in the past four years, rising malpractice premiums have led 8.7 percent of New York state OB/GYNs to stop practicing obstetrics; 12.6 percent have decreased the number of deliveries they perform.

And although the total number of births in New York City was down by 6,697 between 1995 and 2003, those requiring a Caesarean section - and a trained obstetric surgeon - rose by more than 3,000. At the same time, the city's supply of practicing OB/GYNs fell by 6 percent.

THERE'S LOT'S MORE - RTWT.

AND IT'S JOHN EDWARDS FAULT. MORE HERE.