Previous months’ reviews can be accessed via the menu of choices on the right side of this page.
1) The NBC TV news affiliate in Charlotte, North Carolina recently covered a story affecting the pay of nurses at the Caromont Health hospital in Gastonia, North Carolina. Apparently, in the past, the hospital started hiring nurses in a special category that gave them a 25% pay increase but no health of other benefits.
This arrangement worked well for a lot of nurses, especially those that were covered by their spouses health care plans and thus, did not need duplicative coverage form their nursing job, preferring instead a 35% increase in salary. But alas, as a full time employee, working more than 30 hours a week, Obama Care says these nurses have to be given full health care coverage even though they do not need it or do not want it, preferring more cash in their paycheck.
The hospital determined that they could not afford to provide health care coverage and maintain the 25% pay premium so those nurses are being forced to take a 25% pay cut directly as a result of the Obama Care legislation. Just another instance where Obama Care is reducing the freedom of choice for Americans, forcing a one size fits all non-solution on every American’s life style and preferences.
2) Yesterday we reported on how the state of Oregon shut down its Obama Care health exchange website after failing to sign up a single customer, despite spending tens of millions of dollars. Well, not to be outdone, the Washington Post recently reported that the state of Maryland, which spend over $90 million on technology development including its website for Obama Care policies, is also being shut down. This comes six months after the state continued struggling to make the website for the state health insurance exchange to work.
Yes, six months of fixing, tens of millions of dollars wasted, and the state is going to give up and start over using a copy of the Connecticut’s more successful website. Unfortunately, Maryland’s Obama Care exchange received millions in Federal taxpayer dollars to build its exchange website so it is not just the Maryland taxpayer who got screwed by their incompetence, we all did. The most ironic thing about the whole affair was that this failed Maryland website somehow was awarded early innovator grants, grants that earned the effort even more taxpayer funding.
But the website crashed on the first day of open enrollment and Maryland officials were never unable to fix it. I wonder if they had to give back the innovator grants and if the Feds will go after them to retrieve the Federal taxpayer money they received. Also makes you wonder who n the world gave them awards for a website that never worked. Pathetic.
The budget breakdown of the waste, for a website that never worked, included the following details:
- $129.8 to create and host the exchange as a whole, not just the website.
- The website that’s already been tossed aside cost an incredible $91.7 million.
- Maryland spent $49.9 million on the development of the exchange, $11 million for hosting the website, and$3 million for website maintenance.
- The state also $8.1 million on a small business Obama Care exchange, which was never launched.
- Other costs outside of the massive budget included salaries at $6.4 million; advertising at $6.2 million; additional consultants for $3.2 million; training at $3.3 million; and a combined $13.3 million for navigators, assisters and call centers for those seeking help with the health care law and the shoddy state website.
3) One facet of the unfolding disaster that we have not talked about enough is that in order for the Obama Care financials to look reasonable, the president arbitrarily reduced the future Medicare budget by about $700 billion over the next ten years. Arbitrary in that he provided not mechanism or strategy for drastically reducing the costs without drastically reducing the benefits for our senior citizens.
Now those numbers and the grueling impact that arbitrary reductions is having on seniors is starting to come to light. In mid-April the Minority Report website provided an anecdotal list from various sources that showed how the Medicare reduction as a result of Obama Care is directly and currently making life more difficult for senior citizens:
- “Obama Care’s Medicare Advantage cuts will lead to benefit reductions of about $1,500 per beneficiary, according to a new analysis from a conservative think tank. The American Action Forum, founded by former Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Holtz-Eakin, said almost all Medicare Advantage beneficiaries will feel the effect of cuts to the program.” (“Study: Cuts To Medicare Advantage Top $1,500 Per Senior,” National Journal, 4/17/14)
- “Roughly 30 percent of Medicare beneficiaries—about 16 million seniors—use the privately administered Medicare Advantage plans.”(“Study: Cuts To Medicare Advantage Top $1,500 Per Senior,” National Journal, 4/17/14)
- Obama Care: $308 Billion In Medicare Advantage Cuts
MEDICARE ADVANTAGE CUTS:
CBO: ‘Medicare Advantage Rates… 156 [billion dollars]’ “Changes in outlays from direct spending… Medicare Advantage Rates… 2013-2022: 156 [billion dollars]”(Douglas Elmendorf, CBO Director, Letter To Speaker Boehner, P.5, 7/24/12)
CBO: “Our estimate of the interaction between the FFS provisions and payment rates for MA [Medicare Advantage] plans is $152 billion.” (CBO, E-Mail To Senate Staff, 7/24/12)
CBO: “The sum of those two effects is $308 billion.” (CBO, E-Mail To Senate Staff, 7/24/12)
- Kentucky Senior: “Following the last Medicare Advantage Program decrease in federal funding tied to Obama Care, my premiums doubled and I was faced with a $500 deductible that I didn’t have before. …this was sticker shock…” (Sen. McConnell, Constituent Mail, 1/18/14)
- Utah Seniors: “My husband and I have been personally affected by the recent healthcare reforms that resulted in $200 billion in funding losses to Medicare Advantage. Our medical providers informed us that they are no longer participating in our plan.” (Sen. Hatch, Constituent Mail, 1/27/14)
- Connecticut Senior: “Dorathy Senay’s doctor had some bad news after her last checkup, but it wasn’t about her serious blood disorder called amyloidosis. Her Medicare Advantage managed care plan … is terminating the doctor’s contract Feb. 1. She is also losing her oncologist at the prestigious Yale Medical Group — the entire 1,200 physician practice was axed.” (“UnitedHealthCare Medicare Advantage Cuts Doctors,” Kaiser Health News, 11/29/13)
- New York Senior: ‘Obama had said I could keep my doctor. Now they’re doing away with my doctor. They kicked him out! After 20 years, that’s not right’ “ObamaCare is making seniors sick. Elderly New Yorkers are in a panic after getting notices that insurance companies are booting their doctors from the Medicare Advantage program as a result of the shifting medical landscape under ObamaCare… [Dr. Jonathan] Leibowitz’s patients are furious. Alfred Gargiulio, who has cerebral palsy with a seizure disorder, has been seeing Leibowitz since 1993. ‘Obama had said I could keep my doctor. Now they’re doing away with my doctor. They kicked him out! After 20 years, that’s not right. We love Dr. Leibowitz,’ said Gargiulio.” (“Elderly Patients Sick Over Losing Doctors Under Obamacare,” New York Post, 10/25/13)
- Florida Senior: “The AARP managed care network [George Smith] had relied on for years will drop all eight of his and his wife’s doctors as of Jan. 1. ‘I couldn’t believe it. I have my house and car and everything insured through AARP,’ said Smith, 73. ‘I thought, “They are not going to drop me. I’ve been a member for years.”’ … Patients have received letters telling them to seek new physicians if they want to stay on the plan. Doctors … have learned that AARP plans will stop paying for their services next year.” (“Patients Scramble After AARP Medicare Advantage Plans Drop Providers,” Tampa Bay Times, 10/21/13)
- Kentucky Seniors: It’s “tough for seniors to have to find new doctors, especially for those who live in a rural area. It means traveling greater distances and spending more on gas. It is a sad thing when good doctors leave a plan because of funding cuts.” (Sen. McConnell, Constituent Mail, 1/31/14)
- New York Senior: ‘It hurts, it hurts inside and it’s a terrible feeling to think that you can’t get what you want’ “Doctors are getting bumped off plans and their patients are getting worried, Brennan reported. ‘I just can’t believe it because this is the man you rely on,’ heart patient Leonard Goldberg, 82, said. ‘It hurts, it hurts inside and it’s a terrible feeling to think that you can’t get what you want,’ Tony Molesphini, 83, said. ‘Nobody wants to die, me above all people,’ 79-year-old Jim Heffernan said. The three men with heart trouble say their biggest problem is losing the doctor they’ve had for decades, and they fear for their future. … They claim that they that this is a way of cutting costs which they have to do because they are getting a reduction in their reimbursement for the Medicare Advantage plans due to the Affordable Care Act,” [Dr. David Hess] told Brennan.” (“Doctors Dropped By Insurers As Affordable Care Act Rollout Continues,” CBS New York, 11/1/13)
- Florida Senior: “A Medicare Advantage plan that covers 35,000 beneficiaries in Southwest Florida is dropping at least 300 doctors and hard-to-find medical specialists from its Southwest Florida network… Cape Coral resident Joseph Ryan said his 92-year-old mother will lose access to her regular dermatologist, orthopedist and gastroenterologist, among others. He’s heard similar stories involving scores of doctors from others. ‘That’s an awful lot of doctors and an awful lot of people who are going to have to figure out what to do in January,’ Ryan said. ‘It’s not just one or two doctors.’”(“United Healthcare Dumps Doctors,” The News-Press, 10/18/13)
Sad, sad stories. We know now that the President lied when he said that you could keep your preferred insurance plans, your preferred, doctors, and access to your preferred hospitals if Obama Care was passed. Not only did all of those promises get broken but it looks like there is massive collateral damage of the same kind (lost access to preferred policies, doctors, and hospitals) in the Medicare arena as well. All because this President insisted on cooking the books and business case in favor of Obama Care.
That is enough depressing news for today (expensive useless websites, pay cuts for nurses, and trauma for America’s senior citizens), more to come tomorrow.
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