The Devastation That Is Obama Care, February Update, Part 3: Universal Studios and Doctor Shortages

Okay, I thought I could get the latest Obama Care disasters into two posts but, unfortunately, it is not possible, the impacts of Obama Care are that bad:

• Americans are losing their jobs as a result of Obama Care.
• Americans are losing substantial working hours and wages as a result of Obama Care.
• Americans are losing their health insurance coverage as a result of Obama Care.
• Americans are paying more for their existing health care insurance as a result of Obama Care.
• Hospitals are cutting back services as a result of Obama Care.
• The growth of the economy is being curtailed as a result of Obama Care.
• Younger Americans are being forced to subsidize the health care needs of older Americans.

All for a program and piece of legislation that has no chance of being successful since it never understood the root causes of our escalating health care costs.

The following hopefully sums up the latest insanity coming out of the Obama Care disaster:

1) Universal Studios in Florida recently announced that it would be terminating its health care insurance program for its part time employees. Now, granted, the program was not very robust, it cost part time employees $18 a week in salary to a maximum $5,000 health care benefit. However, for part time employees, it was probably better than what most part time employees can get for health care insurance these days.

Why did Universal cancel this program? A spokesperson explained when making the announcement: “We’d like to have the option to continue offering coverage plans but the ACA [Obama Care] doesn’t offer that kind of flexibility.” Thus, thousands more Americans will be losing their health care insurance coverage as a result of Obama Care.

2) I would never want to deny any human being of quality health care. However, another crisis is coming to the forefront as Obama Care unfolds, the legislation failed to take into account a basic economic reality: if you create more demand for a product or service without increasing the supply of that product or service, you are going to have a very serious supply and demand crisis.

Which is exactly what is happening as a result of Obama Care. As the government pays for more Americans to have health care insurance (increasing demand) without having a plan for more doctors (keeping supply constant) you end up with a shortage of doctors and a likely decrease in quality, as explained in a recent LA Times article:

• The February 9. 2013 Times article reported that California is not gong to have enough doctors to satisfy the increased demand being caused by Obama Care.
• Only 16 of the California’s 58 counties meet the Federal government’s recommended standard of primary care physicians.
• Almost 30 percent of California’s doctors are close to the retirement.
• Some state politicians are proposing physician assistants, pharmacists, and optometrists be allowed to treat more patients and some chronic diseases and allow nurse practitioners to have independent medical practices.
• Of course, the potential for sub par care could develop as non-doctors start to act like doctors, which is what exactly doctors are saying relative to patient safety and increased costs to patients and the health care system as errors mount: “Patient safety should always trump access concerns,” Dr. Paul Phinney, president of the California Medical Association.

Again, no American should ever be denied health care. However, Obama Care and those who wrote it were incredibly ignorant of its impacts on the supply of doctors and made no provision to alleviate the problem it is now creating.

A California legislator summed up the problem quite succinctly: “We’re going to be mandating that every single person in this state have insurance,” Democratic state Sen. Ed Hernandez told the Los Angeles Times. “What good is it if they are going to have a health insurance card, but no access to doctors?” In other words, it’s a good news/bad news situation: you have health care insurance but you have no one qualified to give you health care.

3) As for a little retrospective from a subject matter expert regarding Congressional testimony I recently came across, Richard Foster, Chief Actuary of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services was asked what might happen to the national debt as a result of Obama Care during a congressional hearing back in January 2011.
Rep. Tom McClintock (R-CA) asked Foster whether the White House’s claim that Obama Care would bring down healthcare costs was true or false. Foster, who reported chuckled at the question, replied, “I would say false…more so than true.”

Oh well, just another three reasons why Obama Care is doing the exact opposite of what it is supposed to do because the writers of this legislation never understood the underlying, root causes of the problem.

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.reason.com/
http://www.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w