“Obamacare” : The Facts about the
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA)
Will Everyone Really be Insured?
No. According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), even if everything worked out as the
supporters of the law claim, there would still be 22 million Americans without
health insurance.
How will the newly insured be
covered? According to the CBO, 47% of the
newly insured will be covered under Medicaid or other government-sponsored
insurance. The states will be responsible for most of the expenses for these
new enrollees. This will add to the financial burden on the states and be paid
for by YOU, the taxpayer.
Will “Obamacare” decrease my premium
costs?
Since “Obamacare”
passed, healthcare premiums have increased from 10-22%! The CBO estimates that
the premium costs for a typical family of 4 will be $20,000 per year by
the year 2016. That’s how much you or your employer will have to pay. You may
be eligible to receive a subsidy from the government, but that money must come
from state or federal funds, and therefore, from YOU, the taxpayer.
Will
“Obamacare” decrease overall healthcare costs?
The only way
this law proposes to decrease overall healthcare costs is by restricting
patient access to tests and treatments (healthcare
rationing), or by decreasing
payments to doctors and hospitals, forcing many qualified providers to stop
seeing Medicaid and Medicare patients. Massachusetts has a similar plan to
“Obamacare”, and the average wait time to see a primary care physician
there is 48 days!
How Will
Medicare be affected?
Overall, over
$500 Billion dollars is scheduled to be cut from Medicare. “Obamacare” is
the ONLY healthcare reform plan being proposed that decreases benefits to
CURRENT Medicare recipients! All other plans, including those proposed by
Congressman Paul Ryan and Republicans, do NOT affect current Medicare patients.
Many services, such as hospice, home health care, outpatient surgery, will be
restricted. In addition, federal subsidies for Medicare Advantage will be
severely cut, leaving millions of Medicare patients unable to afford the
premiums.
How will
my doctor be affected?
“Obamacare”
directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services (now Kathleen Sebelius, NOT a physician) to determine, through
government bureaucrats, how doctors are allowed to diagnose and treat patients.
If doctors do not comply with their rules, they may not be paid, they could be
fined, or even put in jail! 45% of
physicians surveyed have said that they will stop practicing medicine if these
rules are allowed to go into full effect.
What are the “waivers”
I’ve heard about?
Because
the premium costs of the proposed government plans are so high, and the rules
that businesses have to follow are so extensive, many businesses have requested
“waivers” so that they will not have to participate in parts of “Obamacare”. Even the entire state of Nevada (Senator
Harry Reid’s state) was granted a waiver! Many small employers will stop offering health insurance to their
employees altogether, since the premium costs will be so
high. We may end up with MORE uninsured
after this law goes into effect!
Why did the American Medical Association support “Obamacare”? That’s
a really good question! The AMA only
represents 17% of physicians, most of whom are not actually practicing
physicians. So most of the physicians
affected by this law are NOT represented by the AMA!
So what CAN we do to fix the Healthcare system?
There are lots of
great ideas being discussed that use market-based
solutions rather than government bureaucracy to solve the broken healthcare
system.
To learn more, watch this YouTube video series:
To learn more, watch this YouTube video series:
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