Anyone who wants to see the end result of ObamaCare need look no further than the Massasschussets version of it, nearly identical in every aspect to ObamaCare.
When the Bay State passed its health-reform law in 2006, 9 percent of non-elderly adults lacked insurance; that’s now down to 5 percent. The law didn’t reduce expensive emergency-room use as predicted. Instead, emergency-room visits have climbed by 9 percent, or about 3 million visits, from 2004 to 2008. But it’s bankrupting the state, while the pressures on small businesses and on health-care insurers and providers continue to build toward the breaking point.
Health care now consumes 35 percent of the state budget, up from 22 percent in 2000. Patrick recently asked Washington for $473 million to help make the Massachusetts reform work — on top of the $1.2 billion in support the feds have already kicked in over three years, more than $3,000 per person in the state.
Whenever the federal help stops coming, the Bay State will have to either hike taxes further to fund its program, or start cutting benefits. Reimbursements are already so low under the state-subsidized plans (most of whose 152,000 enrollees pay nothing) that doctors are already refusing to accept new patients with that “coverage.”
Yet small businesses are clearly finding it necessary to dump their employees on the public health plans. The Boston Globe recently reported on a broker who helps firms do just that; his practice is booming. He’s seen about 90 business owners terminate their plans since April.
Increase use of emergency room visits – Check
Increase costs of medical care – Check
Force you into plans you don’t want – Check
Increase taxes and/or cut benefits – Check
Wonderful.
The Socialized medicine scheme has forced private companies out and those plans that you wanted to keep, and Obama promised you could keep, are slowly disappearing as one health plan CEO admitted.
…If the state keeps insisting on making health insurance a money-losing business, it “will ultimately force insurers to go out of business or leave the market.”
That’s been their plan. And it’s working.
AND….Mitt Romney voted for this.
“I’m the only one that got the job done. I got health insurance for all our citizens. We had 460,000 people without insurance. We got 300 of them — 300,000 of them — signed up for insurance now. I’m proud of what we accomplished,” he said at the time.
“When you actually look at the [federal] bill itself, it incorporates all sorts of Republican ideas,” said Obama on the “Today Show” Tuesday. “I mean, a lot of commentators have said, ‘You know, this is sort of similar to the bill that Mitt Romney passed in Massachusetts.’ ”
But Jonathan Gruber, an MIT economist who advised both Obama and Romney on health-insurance programs, told the Boston Globe that Romney’s healthcare reform effort as governor paved the way for national reform. “[Romney] is in many ways the intellectual father of national health reform,” he said.
I didn’t start this post out as a anti-Romney post but its hard to get around that fact when looking at his State and the Socialism he pushed on the citizens there.
Either way, our country is facing a disastrous road if ObamaCare ever gets fully implemented. But rest assured…it has begun:
Just days after the recess appointment of Donald Berwick, the controversial new head of Medicare and Medicaid, the Ovarian Cancer National Alliance posted the following grim news: for the first time in history, an FDA-approved anti-cancer therapy may not be covered by Medicare.
The CMS statute states that Medicare must cover therapies that are reasonable and necessary, while the FDA is instructed to approve drugs that are safe and effective. Because of the conflicting Federal coverage and approval requirements, there are some non-FDA approved drugs (called off-label drugs) that are paid for by CMS. However, with respect to Provenge, it appears that CMS is arguing that while the treatment is safe and effective, it may not be reasonable and necessary. For the first time, an FDA approved anti-cancer therapy may not be covered by Medicare.
See author page
This is a very big reason that I won’t be voting for Romney in the primaries in 2012. The man simply is not a conservative, despite his insistence that he is. To me, he is more like McCain, who follows the political winds, particularly when it is blowing in from the left, rather than sticking to principles.
As for the Taxachusetts version of Obamacare itself, it was just one more example, in a sea of them(note Canadian healthcare and the UK’s version), that showed it is not possible, and that all the negatives that our Congress and the WH were denying, will come to pass.
From the Washington Post:
Hmm. Death panels already?
Please also note the Swiss German Israeli and Irish national healthcare plans.
Also Curt aren’t you yourself covered under a government plan ? Is this simply a question of ” tis good for me…. but not for thee”?
No, I am covered under Blue Cross whose premiums come out of my paycheck. Anything else?
@Mr. Ryan, #3
Just what is it about those country’s national health plans that we should note? Or even care about?
Okay, I’ll “note” them, john ryan. Below ratings, according to CNBC’s Biggest Debtor Nations, originally released early this year and updated in April.
Ireland… single payer/two tier system, no government mandate
#1 in gross external debt to GDP
Switzerland… single payer with government mandate
#4 in gross external debt to GDP
Germany… single payer with government mandate
#14 in gross external debt to GDP
The US is #20 in gross external debt to GDP. But I’m sure you’ll help us climb that ladder along with your POTUS.
INRE Israel, completely different critter. The government mandate came around 1995. Israeli’s have four private insurance providers to choose from. The government collects their taxes, and pays the private insurers. In some ways, not to dissimilar to Medicare. Except that the electronic records are superior, and they don’t have generous malpractice laws. A doctor must be proven negligent.
They also have their budget problems, and they too have been busy implementing reforms. Why? Cash problems, of course. They had 23% poverty level, and 7.6 unemployment back then too. Of course, with ours, 7.6 looks downright inviting anymore… Guess that re’education campaign is working, and we’re to adjust to a new “norm”.
In public debt (as opposed to total external debt), Israel is 14th per CIA Factbook, with public debt that is 78% of GDP in 2009. In that same year, the US was 47th on that list. In comparison, that was the good ol’ days, pre Obama, but post Comrades Pelosi and Reid since 2007. Coulda been better if no one handed the keys to the nation’s piggy bank to those two, but nooooo. They are #36 on the external debt ladder.
I might also add that Israel’s individual income tax rates range from 10-45% of their income (higher than the US), and that doesn’t include their 16% VAT tax. The US is 15-35% (until Obama/Pelosi/Reid are done with us, that is) with no VAT tax (until Obama/Pelosi/Reid are done with us, that is… sigh).
So what were you all a’glow about, john ryan? See any fiscal wonderful’ness going on with their health systems and debt?
Healthcare is not a ‘right’.
And if we believe that which is stated below;
Then it stands to reason that any property, lawfully acquired through a man’s own hard work, cannot be appropriated from his person by government, to achieve the ‘rights’ of another, without violation of one’s own rights.
If Healthcare were a right, it would automatically necessitate the violation of another’s rights. That being the case, again I say, Healthcare is not a right. And as it isn’t a right, it means that Obamacare is nothing more than a giving of entitlements to some, at the expense of others. In short, redistribution of wealth.
Heh, almost want to thank John Ryan for the dribble he brings to the board. His one liners, most of the time, prompts our outstanding contributers to give us information we actually learn something from. 😉