It’s stunning. What are we doing with Obamacare? There’s one thing for certain, while consumers are lulled into boredom, and the President has “moved on” to other business, insurance companies and the healthcare industry will continue to implement a law that promises the further erosion of already insufficient health insurance coverage for the ever-increasing costs of treating illness.
Did you catch his interview with Charles Barkley where in response to a question about the PPACA being called Obamacare he said, “I don't mind. And I tell you, five years from now, when everyone's saying, 'Man, I'm sure glad we got healthcare,' there's going to be a whole bunch of people who don't call it Obamacare anymore because they don't want me to get the credit.” (Search Charles Barkley interviews Obama.)
Are you kidding? I’m actually concerned that the President is delusional, defined by Dictionary.com as, “having false or unrealistic beliefs.” Is the President the ONLY ONE in the country who still believes that the PPACA, an Act designed to force people to get insurance based on the antiquated notion that having health insurance is equivalent to access to care regardless of the quality, the expenses involved or even the number of options under the health plan? Who on earth in their right mind still believes that the PPACA is about HEALTHCARE? It’s about HEALTH INSURANCE.
Actually, the success/failure of Obamacare has been reduced to a kind of dumbed-down joke merely measuring HOW MANY ARE INSURED? Sadly, even by this overly simplistic measure, Obamacare is a flop thus far.
For instance if you look up the most recent Gallup poll from 1/23/14, entitled “In US, Uninsured Rate Shows Initial Decline in 2014,” you’ll notice first that you’ll ask yourself, “A decline from when?” Actually the “DECLINE,” is from 17.3% of the population who was uninsured to 16.1 % of the population who is uninsured in January 2014. BUT, if you look at the graph included in the announcement, you’ll see that under Obama’s leadership the number of UNINSURED HAS BEEN HIGHER AT ALL TIMES THAN IT WAS IN JANUARY of ’08.( http://www.gallup.com/poll/166982/uninsured-rate-shows-initial-decline-2014.aspx)
In other words, we’re behaving as if we’re in “post-crisis” mode, allowing healthcare.gov marketing to redefine THE issue with Obamacare as one of enrollment AND we’re not even paying attention to the fact of how many people remain uninsured.
It’s a real hit to consumers who are paying attention and are already left scratching our heads regarding which patients are protected and which care is “affordable” under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act we were sold based on lies and incomplete information.
So what can we do? Pay attention and become a voice as present as those of the lobbyists for the other huge stakeholders in the healthcare industry, medical providers and health insurance companies. They’re certainly not getting “bored.”
The AMA website is currently encouraging physicians to, “Tell Congress: Pass PERMANENT SGR repeal now,” hoping to put legislation in place to prevent cuts to their Medicare pay.
And health insurance companies? They’re busy too. For instance, there is a cryptic portion of AHIP’s document, “A Roadmap to High Quality Affordable Health Care for All,” and that is under the section, “UNIT PRICE IS THE PRIMARY DRIER OF HEALTH CARE SPENDING. Health care spending is a function of both the price of health care services and their utilization by consumers. While the recent moderation in the growth rate of health care spending may be attributable to changes in utilization, the unit price of health care services remains persistently high.”
Got that? Utilization is how many healthcare services you, I and every other consumer uses, AHIP admits people are using healthcare services less (recent moderation in the growth…may be attributable to change in utilization) BUT how do you think they’re going to control the other problem, the UNIT COST, the price charged for specific health care services?
Since NO ONE will restrict healthcare organizations from charging whatever the market will bear, in my opinion the next huge wave of hits consumers will take is even more drastic measures “DISCOURAGING” them from obtaining health care. Because the ONLY way to limit unit costs if you won’t rein in what’s charged is to make people use the services even less. In other words, further reduce utilization by using the ONLY two methods insurance companies have, charge more or pay less.
To me, it’s obvious, since they won’t limit what we’re charged, controlling UNIT costs means that they must discourage the USE OF THE SPECIFIC treatment, test or drug and thereby reduce its cost. To me this will be done by further increasing amounts paid by consumers in the form of deductibles, premiums, co-insurance and co-payments, further lowering UTILIZATION by discouraging patients from electing care they cannot afford and this will be combined with REWARDING doctors (with $) for NOT TREATING certain patients, eg OUTCOME based care.
In my opinion, unless we develop meaningful consumer advocacy, we will likely continue the trend that we will pay more and have less say over our own treatments UNLESS we have enough money to pay for our healthcare needs out of pocket, or we’re scared into purchasing one of the most insufficient insurance products created to date, the Health Savings Account the plan that only works if you’re healthy OR wealthy (or your spouse has another health insurance plan that covers you). (See 1/12/14, “Bored with Obamacare,” http://conoutofconsumer.blogspot.com/2014/01/bored-with-obamacare.html).
The first step is to dismiss ads like that put out by healthcare.gov with a female kissing a male holding a heart advising to “Get covered,” including a sadly naïve comment by David R, “I did! No more worries.”
