2016 Obamacare Issues (Real Ones)

Fresh year, fresh start and yep, we all know that Obamacare is neither necessarily here to stay nor are its provisions carved in stone [See NOTE:] which is an opportunity for consumers to give themselves a reality check and focus on the issues that remain critical for us--

Rising costs to consumers obtaining healthcare services in terms of copayments, coinsurance and deductibles, narrow networks of providers under plans in order for insurers to save money,

[we've seen burdensome premium increases in the private sector that this year hit Obamacare plans. Whether you're a democrat excusing them as an "adjustment" or a Republican noting that such increases were predictable, consumers were largely mute over the increases because the federal government picks up the slack for Obamacare enrollees through premium assistance and at least for this year, which is really all that health insurance is, a year-by-year choice, are satisfied though enrollment remains pitifully low in terms of the number of uninsured (47 MILLION!) headlines we were provided to justify the Act in the first place] ,

ever-increasing OOP maximum ($6,850 indivdiual-$13,700 family) even as salaries stagnate and unemployment persists in scary numbers, scarier because reductions in unemployment figures have largely been achieved by reducing the duration of unemployment benefits therefore throwing those people under the bus and no longer counting them as "unemployed,"

more nannying in the form of non-medical personnel reminders, surveys, scare tactics selling Obamacare covered preventive checkups to get people into the system as well as newer plans that even provide that first primary care or specialist visit designed to get people into the cascading series of referrals to the next and the next and the next doctor or procedure that are often contrary to what at least some medical personnel profess such as the Harvard/Dartmouth findings that "Screening mammograms don't prevent breast cancer deaths, study finds," http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-mammogram-screening-does-not-save-lives-20150706-story.html, though every health insurance purchasing American is paying for such screening mammograms under the Affordable Care Act every one or two years for women over 40,

health insurance that fails to adequately protect consumers from out-of-pocket medical costs, (CNBC, Dan Mangan, "You're Gonna Need to Dig Deep to cover these Health Bills," http://www.cnbc.com/2015/03/12/even-with-insurance-americans-have-trouble-paying-medical-bills.html, which is worsened by Obamacare's tradeoff of "preventive" finite costs with sufficient coverage of NEEDED medical services and care, mandated coverages that we all must pay for including double-dip coverage such as children's preventive care that we all pay for and then families pay for (again) with premiums for enrolling their children in health insurance plans,

further marginalizing the poor by considering them unworthy of healthcare (which according to Obamacare is dependent on health insurance) through provisions that solve the problem of the poor by EXEMPTING them from having to have health insurance and therefore perpetuating and worsening their barriers to health care because Obamacare reduces the amount paid to hospitals for treating poor people without health insurance based on the misconceived and since proven false assumption that such individuals would be covered by expanded Medicaid and therefore hospitals would be treating fewer people without health insurance, (it should be noted that some states are hopping on the expanded Medicaid bandwagon or considering it, which they should since the federal government foots the bill for most of the expanded Medicaid coverage),

inadequate provisions for going after health insurance fraud that costs untold billions of dollars each year and is just about exclusively perpetrated by healthcare providers rather than consumers, [Obamacare worsens the fraud problem with Obamacare payments that are fraudulent because of inadequate enforcement of verifying enrollees (their existence and their eligibility), excluding costs from the 80-85/20-15 discouraging greedy health insurers from using up their 20 or 15 percent flex money on pursuing and going after fraud since they'd rather use it on themselves instead of either establishing benchmarks for discovering and preventing fraud or including payments to individuals who discover such fraud],

incentivizing employers to REDUCE the benefits given to employees in the private sector in order for the government to improve the employer bottom line and increase taxes paid to the federal government thereby worsening the gap and weakening the partnership between American workers and their employers that used to include the idea that an employer wants a healthy workforce and that's why they provide benefits for individuals to maintain or regain health rather than pushing old-time sweatshop employer attitudes that are re-emerging today that begrudge worker pay, that foster hiring non-citizens, outsourcing jobs and begrudging employee benefits,

increasing the amount of money taken from American workers in order to finance government spending on Obamacare--taking from everyone who receives a paycheck two percent more (payroll tax) in order to finance Obamacare for at most 11 million Americans receiving Obamacare,

and weakening the American idea of choice by FORCING Americans to purchase a product that includes many optional finite expenses (preventive checkups) as MUSTS-includes that therefore raise the price of that product, whether or not it works for them and opening the road for health insurance companies to sell additional products to cover needed insurance coverages, the unanticipated, unexpected and financially crushing expenses for accidents, cancer and so on.

NOTE: Obamacare Not Here to Stay Nor is it carved in stone: The former we know from Republicans whose agenda has amounted to mainly: "Repeal Obamacare," and we know the latter from the Obama Administration itself that has shown that the IRS can change the Act (King v. Burwell--established by the state under section 1321) the Supreme Court can change the Act (States cannot be penalized for not expanding Medicaid, Hobby Lobby case which held that a for-profit family business can run its organization according to its faith and NOT provide contraception coverage, and the King v. Burwell case upholding the IRS interpretation of the Affordable Care Act providing health insurance premium assistance to individuals enrolling through any exchange--state or federally run).