Something happened today that perfectly illustrates why Obamacare is disastrous for the quality of our health care.
A little background first. Both my wife and I are health care workers. I am a dentist, and my wife is an occupational therapist. We both work in clinical settings, treating patients every day. I deal with many insurance companies. My wife works in a senior assisted living facility and works heavily with Medicare.
After graduating from OT school, my wife worked in several positions until she found her current job. She loves her current place of employment. Her coworkers are kind and caring, the patients are motivated and positive and she is fairly compensated for her work. At least she was till today. Today, at a company wide teleconference meeting, all of the employees were told that they would now have to work several holidays and many weekends without any additional compensation.
Why is this? Well, due to the decrease in medicare reimbursements legislated by Obamacare, the company stands to lose millions of dollars if they do not make their employees work more hours.
"So what, I don't have medicare. Why should I care" you ask? Well, you should care, and I'll tell you why. With reductions in Medicare reimbursements companies, like my wife's, will force employees to work harder, under less ideal conditions, with reduced pay and benefits. Many of the more skilled employees will quit, to work at other places that are fee-for-service, and do not have the same limitation on what they can charge patients. The quality of care will plummet as these skilled employees are replaced with unskilled, more inexpensive employees. Think this is only going to happen to seniors with medicare? Think again.
The Obamacare bill is so massive and convoluted that, over the next few years, literally every aspect of health care will be affected in a negative manner. This is a time when our economy is in worse shape than at any other point in our lives. This is a time when our population is aging, and baby boomers want to retire. This is a time when our deficit is so massive that every US citizen is responsible for $44,000 in debt. This is not a time to enact a jobs killing, health destroying, government takeover of our health care. And that is exactly what it is. Tell me one example of anything the government has taken over and done a better job of than the private sector. The only one I can think of is when we built the Panama Canal, 100 years ago.
Do I know and understand everything that is in the health care bill? Absolutely not. Did Senators Mikulski, Senator Cardin, Congressman Cummings or Congressman Sarbanes know and understand everything that was in the health care bill when they all voted in favor of it's passage? Absolutely not!. Do I, and thousands of other health care workers understand what the bill will do to ruin health care better than our Senators and Representatives? Absolutely. Did those Senators and Representatives pass this bill, ignoring the advice, wants, and needs of literally millions of Americans? Absolutely.
Do yourself, your wallet, and your health a favor on November 2nd, and vote against Senator Mikulski, Congressman Cummings and Congressman Sarbanes.
We also did OK with the Golden Gate Bridge and Boulder (now Hoover)Dam. But, your point is well taken.
ReplyDeleteThe best way to cause a shortage is for the government to tax and regulate it.
This reminds me of the saying that if you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in five years there would be a shortage of sand. If government regulation worked, health care would be the smoothest running industry out there since every aspect of the health care industry is heavily regulated. But sadly, health care is one of the screwiest industries.
ReplyDeleteWhat’s worse is that health care has gotten so expensive that everyone wants someone else to pay for it, either private insurance companies or the government. This means that insurance companies have transitioned into the business of cost pooling rather than risk pooling. Instead of paying for unforeseen and expensive treatments, most health insurance covers even the most routine check ups. This creates an incentive to over-consume medical services. Add to this a regulated supply of medical care providers and we have our current health care system.
Freemarket,
ReplyDeleteYour comment is the best, most accurate comment I have ever seen you post. You clearly understand the problem in health care and with health insurance.
Everyone wants it for "free." I could write a whole blog post with stories of patients who don't get treatment they need because it's not "free." They only want the "free" cleaning. Unfortunately, these people get infections due to untreated cavities spreading into their nerves, and end up going to the emergency room to get treated. The emergency room usually gives them antibiotics and sends them back to see me. Then, I have to treat them, because I ethically I must help someone with an infection in major pain (it also helps me sleep at night). Often patients try to get out of paying their bills for this advanced care (they can't get away with that in my office, though). Had they just paid a little bit up front to get preventive care (small fillings, etc), they could have completely avoided a $1000 root canal or extraction. Unfortunately, insurance companies and the government have trained patients that health care should be "free."
This will only get worse under Obamacare, as politicians (aka, Lawyers who think they know what's best for your health) fight to have more and more procedures covered. Depending on what lobbying group is powerful and has the most clout, various procedures will be covered of not covered. The decision making will be taken out of the patients and doctors hands, and put in the hands of politicians. And even more, patients will only want to get what is "free." As a result, yet again, the quality of our populations health with deteriorate.
You lost me at "Obamacare." I understand your frustration, but if you're truly interested in intelligent conversation and debate, rather than just stirring up an echo-chamber of like-minded folks, do you really want to toss rhetorical hand-grenades like "Obamacare?"
ReplyDeleteOh, the government did a pretty good job with the federal highway system. And fire departments used to be private. If you didn't pay insurance they would simply let your house burn down. I think most would agree that as a community we're better off all paying in to a system where everyone gets equal access to firefighters.
Anon 1:20,
ReplyDeleteI understand your point about "Obamacare" being rhetorical. I merely called it that because "Obamacare" has become the status-quo name to call it. I didn't feel like typing out "The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act." BTW, you know those tax cuts in 2001 that George Bush made... what do you call those? "The Bush Tax Cuts?" I bet you do. For now on, please call them "The Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001."
As far as the federal highway system, it is common knowledge that the infrastructure of our nations roads are crumbling. Many states have given/sold their roads to private companies.
About fire departments, due to the power of the unions in Baltimore Fire Departments, the City has an excess amount to pay towards pensions and benefits, that it cannot afford. They have stared rolling closures of various fire departments. Unfortunately, due to these closers there have been fires and injuries that could have been prevented. Think the government is doing a good job there?