 |
| Romanian hospital 2014 Photo courtesy: Digi24 on line |
There is an
option to opt out of the Humana managed care in Virginia and return to the
traditional Medicare/Medicaid plans but few patients understand the language in
the letter or are able to read it for themselves. This is one of the veiled
moves to strip Medicare of $719 billion dollars in order to help fund and
support the (Un) Affordable Care Act.
If you like
your rationing of care, you can keep your rationing of care. If you like the
loss of your well-trained physician, you can keep your third world doctor who
is yet to be licensed in this country.
If you
enrolled in a plan that fit your budget and your medical needs last year, the
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has proposed the rule to strip
that option from your list of choices, they are going to enroll you this year
by December 25 into a cheaper plan of their choice. Too bad you forgot to
choose a plan annually. They will select what is best for you, without knowing
your medical history, your financial situation, your current treatment under a specialist,
and maybe take away access to your favorite doctor who did not play by the new
government rules.
When the open enrollment ends, the
government would have effectively stuck you with a plan you did not want. Rep. Mark
Meadows from North Carolina wrote, “I sent a letter to CMS demanding
they immediately strip this provision from the pending rule and abandon any
future attempts to single-handedly choose Americans’ healthcare plans.” I am sure the bureaucrats will listen, just like
they listened when a majority of Americans asked them to defund ObamaCare. http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/dec/19/rep-mark-meadows-obamacares-christmas-surprise/
Because there is a “war on doctors,” as
Dick Morris so aptly described it, we will eventually have a sort of CastroCare
in this country that Americans are not prepared to deal with but will be forced
to accept it.
The double reimbursement for procedures
that doctors in a hospital setting receive when compared to doctors in private
practice, will eventually regulate doctors into a 8-4 hospital employment which
I witnessed recently when my mother was in a hospital for 8 days and I never
saw the doctor visit her once, she was treated by a nurse practitioner the
entire time. There was not much hands-on care, just robotic, computer-driven medical
care delivered by inadequately trained people. They were more concerned about
her falling out of bed and a lawsuit from a potential fall than anything else. She
was discharged without a proper diagnosis.
The forced electronic medical records-keeping
will make it more difficult and expensive for private practice physicians who
would be forced to spend a large part of their day on record-keeping and data
entry instead of treating the patient.
In addition to reducing doctors’ income, physicians retiring early
because they do not want to practice government-regulated medicine, Congress
won’t expand residency programs to train more doctors.
Residency programs are funded by Medicaid/Medicare which gives higher
reimbursement rates to teaching hospitals. Since the government refuses to pay
for more residency programs, Americans should prepare themselves for
substandard care delivered by nurse practitioners, nurses’ aides, and ER
treatment replacing high quality medical care.
Hospitals are busy buying up private practices of retiring doctors
in order to “capture their patients.” Most physicians are busy forming
Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) which combine multiple care providers
under a hospital umbrella which has better access to capital.
This will lead to a doctor passing the care of his/her patients
after the end of the shift to someone less qualified whom the patient has never
met.
I recall the EU-modeled socialized medical care in 2012 Romania
where I saw no doctor or RN anywhere in the large hospital in which my uncle
was a patient. His wife delivered all his care, meds, diabetic shots, bandage
changes, bed linens, bathing, towels, food, and trash removal. She was the de
facto medical person caring for her own husband who would otherwise die of
medical neglect in one of the largest hospitals in the capital. Incidentally,
the courtyard was littered with stray dogs and we had to pay 5 euros to the
gate guard to gain access into the hospital with five dingy floors and no operational
elevator.
Online magazine Digi24 reported on December 17, 2014 that patients’
rights are often trampled on by medical personnel who refuse medical services
unless the patients offer them personal benefits in the form of bribes. The
accompanying photograph published by Digi24 is visual confirmation of the
unsanitary conditions in some socialized medicine hospitals. http://www.digi24.ro/Stiri/Digi24/Actualitate/Sanatate/Ministerul+Sanatatii+intreaba+pacientii+Cat+de+multumiti+sunteti
According to Zoel M. Zinberg, associate clinical professor of
surgery at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, “The new breed of physician-employees
will split their allegiances between their employers and their patients.” The
employer’s goals of making money and saving a buck every which way and the
patient’s welfare will not coincide, and the physician will seldom be allowed
to use his best judgment in treating a patient. He continued, “Salaried employees
and independent professionals behave differently.” http://www.city-journal.org/2014/eon1218jz.html#.VJO-l_vj7J4.facebook
Dr. Zinberg cited a recent study in Health Affairs which found
that …”practices owned by hospitals had 50 percent more preventable admissions
than practices owned by physicians.” He concluded that “The days of the family
physician who made house calls are long gone. The doctors who would squeeze you
in for a visit on short notice and take your calls after regular business hours
are disappearing.” http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/33/9/1680
The less discussed issue of economic side effects of the
Affordable Care Act should not be overlooked. Casey Mulligan, professor of
Economics at the University of Chicago, in his speech
delivered to Hillsdale College on October 24, 2014, explained the three taxes in ACA, two taxes on full-employment and one on income. All three combined have a net effect on employment (3 percent less) and on Gross Domestic Product (2 percent less). He concluded, “If you like your weak economy, you can keep your weak economy.”
delivered to Hillsdale College on October 24, 2014, explained the three taxes in ACA, two taxes on full-employment and one on income. All three combined have a net effect on employment (3 percent less) and on Gross Domestic Product (2 percent less). He concluded, “If you like your weak economy, you can keep your weak economy.”
