That effort was supposed to address and solve the problem of escalating health care costs in this nation. Instead, it has and it will continue to cause significant financial, economic, and employment strains and crises on the nation:
- Rather than reduce the national debt, it will add significantly to the country's crippling debt problem:
- The head actuary of Medicare and Medicaid recently announced the results of his analyses which concluded that Obama Care will add more than $300 billion to the national debt in the first ten years of Obama Care vs. if it had not been implemented.
- Obama and the Democrats originally told the nation that Obama Care would reduce the national debt by $125 billion in its first ten years. However, this Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimate did not include all of the components and costs of the legislation that ended up being included in the final law, additional costs that were estimated to be about $105 billion by an Associated Press investigative report.
- A major component of the law that contributed to the false positive financials was the CLASS long term care program. However, this program was written so poorly and was so out of touch with reality that it resulted in offering long term care for much more money for much less benefits vs. other, private market long term care programs. Thus, the Federal government cancelled this ill fated program, wiping out the false $85 billion positive impact embedded in the Obama Care business case.
- At the time the law was enacted, there was estimated to be about 30 million Americans who did not have health insurance coverage (and 270 million who did). This legislation was supposed to significantly reduce this number.
However, the law was written so poorly that it created a situation where it will become less expensive for businesses to cancel their employee health insurance plans and pay a small Obama Care fine than to continue their health insurance programs. Thus, rather than reducing the number of Americans without health care insurance, many companies will likely cancel their employee health insurance and leave tens of millions of more Americans without coverage, the exact opposite of what Obama Care was supposed to do.
Companies that have already stated that this is a distinct possibility is AT&T, John Deere, Caterpillar, and McDonald's.
- If a company has over 50 full time employees, it either has to provide health care insurance coverage for its employees or pay a fine. Thus, companies that have less than 50 full time employees are unlikely to hire people and go over 50 and incur a substantial cost of health care insurance or pay the Obama Care fine.
Those companies that are a little over 50 employees are likely to reduce their full time work force and get under 50 full time employees in order to avoid health care costs. Thus, Obama Care will, and is probably already, contribute to our chronic unemployment and underemployment as companies struggle to avoid adding unnecessary costs to their business operations.
- The law was written so poorly that many Americans who could afford to pay for their health care insurance will get a free ride on the back of the Federal government and the American taxpayer because of how the law treats Social Security income. Thus, Americans that could pay for their own insurance will not have to, adding to the negative impact this legislation will have on our national debt.
- The law was written so poorly that it will impact Americans' decisions on marriage, retirement, etc. The details of how these impacts will occur have been discussed in previous posts.
- The law will impose almost 2,000 new rules and regulations on Americans. You cannot help but reduce liberty and freedom of choice when the Federal government and the political class have almost 2,000 more ways to control our lives.
- The law was written so poorly that it never took the time to understand the root causes of our escalating health care costs, causes that are listed below. If you do not know what is causing your problem, you have virtually no chance of resolving that problem. Obama Care is a case study in not understanding what is causing the problem.
- Since the political class and Obama did not understand the importance and contributions of the root causes to this problem, rather than come up with simple, elegant solutions, they took the tried and doomed-to-failure approach of creating a massive, inefficient, and ineffective government bureaucracy.
- Related to this failed understanding of understanding root causes was the simple fact that the Obama administration never did a "follow the money" analysis. In other words, if an American spends a dollar on health care, where does that dollar go and who gets the benefit of that dollar: doctors, hospitals, insurance companies, lawyers, etc.?
Until you can understand where all these dollars are going, ever increasing the nation's health care costs, you will never be able to control those dollars.
As readers of this blog know, it is very difficult, if not impossible, to name a Federal government bureaucracy that actually solves problems with a minimum amount of waste and fraud. These situations never occur.
So how do we solve this critical crisis for the country? Let's hypothesize what some of the root causes of our problem is:
- Americans eat too much.
- Americans eat too much of the wrong kind of food.
- Americans do not exercise enough.
- Americans smoke too much.
- Americans' average age is getting older as the Baby Boomers age, leading to more old age related diseases like dementia.
- The country is in desperate need for reasonable, fair, and compassionate tort reform in the health care field.
- Medicare and Medicaid lose between $90 and $130 billion a year to waste and criminal fraud activities.
- We have no idea where our health care dollars end up relative to doctors, hospitals, insurance companies, etc.
- The first four reasons listed above cannot be solved with increased taxation and increased government intervention in the market. These are public health root causes. They should be addressed as a public health crisis, not as a government bureaucracy crisis. Find reasons and methods to continue the reduction in smoking across America. Find ways to encourage America to start eating better and to start exercising more.
Why should we take on these public health issues? Consider some information from a previous post (June 14, 2011) we did on Obama Care:
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- In a March 1, 2010 article in Fortune magazine, an interview of Dr. Delose Cosgrove, CEO of the renowned Cleveland Clinic, revealed the following knowledge, from a leading expert in health care:
*Obesity accounts for at least 10% of the health care costs in the United States.
*Smoking, poor diet, and lack of exercise accounts for 40% of the premature deaths in this country.
*These same factors account for the 70% of the health care costs associated with chronic diseases such as heart disease in the United States.
* Smoking, poor diet, and lack of exercise account for 75% of the nation's total health care costs.
Thus, according to an expert's view, the root causes driving our high health care costs are public health related questions: diet, exercise and smoking. Rather than attack these true causes of high costs with a public health care effort, Obama Care basically constructed a massive taxation process and bureaucracy that adds complexity and taxation without solving the underlying public health causes.
Need more, consider the findings from the National Academy of Sciences, an independent Federal agency:
*The United States spends more on health care per person than any other country in the world.
*Despite the high expenses, life expectancy in the U.S. is less than the life expectancies in many other developed countries.
*Smoking and obesity are the primary factors driving the lower life expectancy, and likely higher health care costs, in this country.
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Thus, the experts realize how much incredible progress could be made by solving these public health issues. That is who should be providing answers, subject matter experts, not the political class.
- Americans, on average, are getting older. That is why we need a focused, comprehensive national initiative to solve the challenge of elderly diseases, especially dementia and Alzheimer's. As the Baby Boomers age, failure to solve these types of diseases will crash our health care system and bankrupt our country regardless of what Washington does.
- Many states have successfully and compassionately reformed their legal processes and laws in the health care field. These reforms have already dramatically reduced the cost of practicing medical and the associated health care costs in their states. They are proven remedies to the national problem.
Unfortunately, Obama Care gives minimal lip service to this remedy. It is probably a safe assumption that the legal lobbyists were out in force to prevent such tort reforms from making it into the final Obama Care legislation.
- We have already discussed the critical need we have to make government more efficient, effective, and fraud resistant. The wasting of hundreds of billions of dollars a year in government programs such as Medicare and Medicaid must end if we are to have enough resources available to grow our economy, handle our health care crises, provide tax relief, and increase freedom.
- I recently went for a routine blood test panel. Fortunately, my insurance company will cover the costs because if it did not, I would have had to pay $589 for a simple blood test. Outrageous. As I left, I did some simple math. I saw three technicians in the building while I was there. Let's assume that each technician draws four blood tests an hour for eight hours.
These assumptions lead to this company doing about 100 blood tests a day. This would come out to almost $60,000 in ONE DAY in revenue for this single blood testing facility. The basic question that needs to be answered, not only for blood tests but also surgery, $100 aspirins, etc. is: "Where did that $60,000 go relative to the blood testing company, the doctors, the insurance companies, overhead, taxes, etc.?"
Until you understand the flow of money, you will never know how to gain efficiencies in the health care system. Obama Care never followed the money and as a result, it will never solve the problem of escalating health care costs.
Two final steps would be implemented by the Untied States of Purple Presidency to finally resolve this problem. First, Obama Care would be repealed as soon as possible since it will not work, it is inhibiting job creation, and has divided Americans in so many ways for no reason.
The second step is to implement Step 28 from "Love My Country, Loathe My Government" which would put together a Manhattan Project type of effort to finally focus on real solutions. This effort would be comprised of a panel of experts from various disciplines that interact with the health are industry in this country to come up with a comprehensive and coherent approach to our health care problems. This expert panel would address the details to the solutions listed above.
Most importantly, it would leverage the expertise of smart Americans. Thus, it would minimize the participation of politicians and their lobbyists friends so that we do not re-implement Obama Care II.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” Albert Einstein
We invite all readers of this blog to visit our new website, "The United States Of Purple," at
http://www.unitedstatesofpurple.com/
The United States of Purple is a new grass roots approach to filling the office of President of The United States by focusing on the restoration of freedom in the United States, focusing on problem solving skills and results vs. personal political enrichment, and imposing term limits on all future Federal politicians. No more red states, no more blue states, just one United States Of America under the banner of Purple.
The United States Of Purple's website also provides you the formal opportunity to sign a petition to begin the process of implementing a Constitutional amendment to impose fixed term limits on all Federally elected politicians. Only by turning out the existing political class can we have a chance of addressing and finally resolving the major issues of or times.
Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at www.loathemygovernment.com. It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.
Please visit the following sites for freedom:
http://www.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com/
http://www.flipcongress2010.com/
http://www.reason.com/
http://www.repealamendment/
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