The first post in this month’s series can be accessed at:
Today’s bad news continues now:
1) On December 12, 2013, the Washington Post announced that its fact-checking Web site, Politifact, had named President Obama's claim that people could keep their health insurance plans if they liked them its "Lie of the Year." The reason for the “award” is pretty obvious: Obama in recent years has repeated many variations of the following phrase: "If you like your health-care plan, you can keep it." The problem was, it wasn't true, as many as five to six million Americans have already had their health plans terminated because the plans did not meet Obama Care's tenets and those policy holders got cancellation notices.
Thus, of all the lies that all politicians and other celebrities made in 2013, the President of the United States has been designated by one of his usually friendly media sources as really the “Liar of the Year.” It is never a good sign that you have good leadership at the helm when you have the premier liar, as measured by the Washington Post, in charge. Whiffs of Orwell’s Big Brother leader are in the air.
Makes you wonder what other “lies” this President is capable of if he is good enough to be liar of the year (e.g. Benghazi cover up, IRS targeting cover up, NSA spying cover up, crony capitalism cover up…). In any case, if Obama’s claims are the lie of the year, then Obama Care must be the lie of his entire administration.
2) On December 11, 2013 USA Today reported that the Oregon state government was an early and rabid supporter of Obama Care, setting up their own Obama Care health insurance exchange. However, in the first two months of offering private health insurance through the state exchange, only a meager 44 Oregon residents signed up for private insurance through the Cover Oregon exchange from Oct. 1 to Nov. 30.
This placed Oregon dead last among all states, according to that count of enrollees released by the Federal government. The paper went on to report that the tally doesn't include the nearly 10,000 Oregonians who've newly signed up for Medicaid.
But the 10,000 residents who signed up for Medicaid so far in Oregon is not a good number either, even though it is much larger. Those signing up for Medicaid are not financially positive numbers when it comes to the national debt, they will cost the American taxpayer more money as opposed to the 44 people who will actually be paying their full share and freight for private insurance. The Obama Care financial business case and promises of minimal impacts on the national debt are not valid if the ratio of Medicaid signups to private insurance signups is 10,000 to 44.
Now, Oregon enrollments for private insurance are up in the third month of the Obama Care rollout. The state reports that a total of 9,949 people had enrolled via the Oregon Obama Care exchange as of mid-December.
But again, from a Medicaid, financial impact, adding to the national debt perspective, it is not good news. As of mid-December, 9,219 Oregon residents had signed up for Medicaid and only 730, up from only 44 in the first two months, had signed up for private insurance plans. The Obama Care business case collapses if the ratio continues at this pace, almost 13 to one, Medicaid signups vs. private insurer signups.
3) In recent Congressional testimony concerning the many screw ups of Obama Care, Republican Senator Pat Roberts, Kathleen Sebelius’s friend and fellow Kansan, called for her resignation, something that is well past due, given her position of supposed responsibility in the Obama Care rollout and management:
“In short, Madam Secretary, I believe you were given advice, counsel and warning from experts inside your agency and out that the health care exchanges were not going to be ready. Furthermore, I believe to protect the administration, you chose to ignore these warnings, and as a result, you have put our entire health care system and one-sixth of our economy in jeopardy.”
“You have said America should hold you for — accountable, which is why today, Madam Secretary, I repeat my request for you to resign,” he said.
In the real world, people get fired for incompetence and are actually held accountable, especially when they waste billions of taxpayer dollars and unnecessarily endanger the lives of millions of Americans. Senator Roberts understands what should be done, obviously Obama and Sebelius still do not get it.
4) Consider an individual American family’s plight as a result of Obama Care, as reported by the Heritage Foundation on October, 23, 2013: “With His Premiums More Than Doubling, This Dad Would "Rather File Bankruptcy" Than Deal with Obamacare:
- Ben Neptun and his wife Charla are husband and wife and the parents of three children. They unfortunately saw their monthly health insurance premium go from $419 a month to $899 a month as a result of Obama Care.
- Since both parents work as home health care nurses, making about $23 an hour, this will be a terrible financial burden on their family budget: “We will absolutely go in a hole with this change,” Ben said.
- Blue Cross Blue Shield notified them of the jump in premium costs via a letter that explained the increased price was a direct result of the Obama Care requirements. At their total current family income level, they are unlikely to qualify for any Obama Care subsidies.
- The father claims that the family is healthy, non-obese, on-smokers, and none of the family members are on any kind of medication. Still, despite this healthy profile, their monthly premiums more than doubled overnight.
- The Heritage article correctly points out that if the family goes ahead and pays the higher premiums, then that’s $500 less that’s going into his family’s basic needs like groceries, savings, and his children’s college funds.
- The father is quoted as saying he would “rather file bankruptcy and do without health insurance” because “the fines are less.”
5) We have talked about the following unintended consequence of Obama Care before and how the advocates in the White House and Congress never saw this disaster coming but it is worth repeating again. The latest update on the likely severe doctor shortage was discussed in an article from a recent issue of Business Week magazine, “The Waiting Room Is About To Get Crowded.”
The article reiterates the now obvious fact that it is highly likely that the country will face a horrible shortage of doctors as a result of Obama Care. As an example of what is likely, the article describes what has happened in Massachusetts, a state that implemented its own version of Obama Care back in 2006.
Although the state has more doctors per capita than any other state in the union, the waiting times to see a doctor in Boston are the longest of any of the 15 cities surveyed by the survey company Merrritt Hawkins earlier this year. Doctors in Boston are booked more than six weeks out on average, almost double the city with the next longest wait time, Denver. About half of Massachusetts’ family doctors and internists are not even considering taking on new patients.
According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, by 2023 the U.S. will probably see 14% fewer doctors than what will be needed to meet demand. The wait time to see any kind of medical specialist is likely to be months.
This is the future of Obama Care. Fewer doctors to handle many more patients with no plan to alleviate the crunch. As we have said many times before, we do not want to deny medical care to any American. The problem is not with Americans wanting medical care, it is with Washington and Obama Care that have both completely ignored the likely shortage of doctors in the Obama Care legislation development. It is a piece of legislation that never understood the underlying root causes of our high health care costs and as a result, will 1) not solve the underlying root causes and 2) will cause a doctor shortage.
Another remainder that Obama care is like that old adage: the operation was a success (i.e. the individual has health care insurance via Obama Care) but the patient died (i.e. even with insurance they could not get medical treatment.)
6) One final thought on Obama Care regarding the cost of medical treatment. The whole reason to pass Obama Care was to reduce the cost of skyrocketing health care costs in this country. Over the past few months we have shown time and time again how this legislation severely misses the target on this basic objective, actually causing the cost of medical care to sky rocket for American families.
One aspect we have not discussed is the cost of generic medicines, a major budget item for Americans with an affliction. Will Obama Care reduce the cost of at least those medications? Apparently not, according to an article in the December 16, 2913 issue of Business Week, “Generic, But Not Cheap:”
- According to the article, the customer cost of the drug Digoxin, a medicine that has been around since the 18th century, has increased tenfold since August.
- It is one of about 100 generic and widely used medicines that have seen their end user cost at least double over the past year.
- Pembroke Consulting has found that the cost of more than a dozen generic medicines have seen at least a tenfold increase over the past 12 months.
- Some generic drugs have increased at least fourfold in price in just the past few months.
Now, no one is claiming (yet) that the increases are a result of Obama Care. However, Obama Care has apparently not kept the cost of generic medicines at least in a steady state. That in itself has to classify the legislation as a failure and a heavy additional financial burden to Americans.
So Obama is the liar of the year, the enrollment rate in Oregon is pathetic, families cannot afford the large premium increases, Sebelius refuses to the honorable thing and resign for the disastrous Obama Care operations, and the cost of generics is going up. And we are still not done with the Obama Care negative ramifications.
Before we get to tomorrow, may we suggest you visit our term limits website and join the effort to expel those from office in Washington those that allowed this horrible piece of legislation to take effect, because really, how much worse could it get:
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:
Term Limits Now: http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w
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