"Americans will be asked to pay higher prices for the privilege of keeping their own doctors if they are outside the new networks. That could come as a surprise to many who remember the repeated assurances from President Obama and other officials that consumers would retain a variety of health care choices.... choice will probably be increasingly scarce"
Which fits in perfectly with is one-term of a presidency.
"Insurers hawk plans with less choice; Tighter networks could cut costs in new health market" by Reed Abelson, New York Times | July 18, 2010
NEW YORK — As the Obama administration begins to enact the new national health care law, the country’s biggest insurers are promoting affordable plans with reduced premiums that require participants to use a narrower selection of doctors or hospitals.
The plans, being tested in places like San Diego, New York, and Chicago, will probably appeal especially to small businesses that already provide insurance to their employees but are concerned about the ever-spiraling cost of coverage.
But large employers as well are starting to show some interest, and insurers and consultants expect that, over time, businesses of all sizes will gravitate toward these plans to try to cut costs.
The tradeoff, they say, is that more Americans will be asked to pay higher prices for the privilege of keeping their own doctors if they are outside the new networks. That could come as a surprise to many who remember the repeated assurances from President Obama and other officials that consumers would retain a variety of health care choices....
No surprise here.
Many insurers also expect the plans to be popular with individuals and small businesses who will purchase coverage in the insurance exchanges, the marketplaces that are mandated under the new health care law and scheduled to take effect in 2014.
Does the thing come with mental health because they are nuts if they think this thing that was force-fed us is going to be popular.
Also see: Opening Up the Health Care Bill
The Buts in the Health Care Bill
Stinks like a corpse already.
Tens of millions of everyday Americans will buy their coverage through those exchanges, a vast pool of new customers, including many of the previously uninsured, whom insurers expect will be willing to accept restrictions to get a better deal....
I don't think they will be feeling that way when you tell them they can't go to their own doctor.
And we know what the va$t pool of cu$tomer$ mean$ to the in$urance companie$, M$M.
The last time health insurers and employers sought to sharply limit patients’ choice was back in the early 1990s, when insurers tried to reinvent themselves by embracing managed care. Instead of just paying doctor and hospital bills, insurers assumed a greater role in their customers’ medical care by restricting what specialists they could see or which hospitals they could go to.
“Back in the HMO days, it was tight networks, and it did save money,’’ said Ken Goulet, an executive vice president at
The concept was largely abandoned after the consumer backlash persuaded employers and health plans that Americans were simply not willing to sacrifice choice.
But NOW YOU ARE, America!
Prominent officials like Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton learned to utter the word “choice’’ at every turn as advocates of overhauling the system.
Oh, they LEARNED to LIE, did they?
But choice — or at least choice that will not cost you — will probably be increasingly scarce....
No one is predicting a wholesale return of the classic HMO as an employee’s only option.But that is EXACTLY what you are GETTING, America!!
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And here is one reason why you can no longer believe in MSM polls:
"Health care overhaul winning new support
WASHINGTON — The health care overhaul gained popularity from May to June, according to a tracking poll.
The results suggest that the Obama administration’s promotion of the legislation may be paying off or that the public may be warming to the law as early provisions take effect.
PFFFFFFFFTT!!!
What SHAMELESS LIARS!!
The Kaiser Family Foundation poll....
You are kidding, right?
Related: The Boston Globe's Ghostwriters
The Massachusetts Model: 21st-Century Waiting Room
Give us a break, will ya?
“Overall, roughly a third of voters say that a candidate who voted for the health reform law will be more likely to get their vote, a third say less likely, and a third say it doesn’t really matter,’’ said the foundation, which studies and distributes information about health care policy....
How is that a GAIN in POPULARITY?
Well, now you know what a bunch of agenda-pushing bulls*** you are being fed on this issue, readers?
"Obama unveils new health care guidelines; No extra costs for preventive services" by Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Associated Press | July 15, 2010
WASHINGTON — From counseling for children who struggle with their weight to cancer screenings for their parents, preventive health care will soon be available at no out-of-pocket cost under consumer rules the Obama administration unveiled yesterday.
That means no copays, deductibles, or coinsurance for people whose health insurance plans are covered by the new requirements....
Many large company plans, which usually offer solid preventive benefits, will be exempt from the requirements for now.
Better preventive coverage is one of the goals of President Obama’s health care overhaul law, part of a shift to try to catch problems early, before small problems lead to costly and deadly diseases....
Better preventive care carries an upfront cost.
Not going to make Americans happy.
Premiums will go up by 1.5 percent on average, as spending for the services is spread broadly across an entire pool of insured people.
For individuals who are diligent about their checkups, that can mean considerable out-of-pocket savings.
As you are PAYING MORE for PREMIUMS?
For example, a 58-year-old woman at risk of heart disease could save at least $300 out of her own budget on recommended tests and services, ranging from diabetes and cholesterol screening to a mammogram and a flu shot.
Yeah, but SOMEONE is PICKING UP the BILL!!
Research has shown that people tend to skip recommended preventive care if cost is an issue, and even a modest copayment can make a difference. Cost-free prevention was one idea that received widespread support during the contentious health care debate in Congress last year....
Yeah, so DID a DECENT, SINGLE-PAYER SYSTEM and that went nowhere.
Oh, he BREAKS his promises to US, but.... aaaaaaarrrrgggghh!!!!
However, as employers make changes to their plans, many stand to lose the exemption, meaning they would eventually have to comply.
And then they will get another waiver.
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Also see: Doctor in the House
The devil, you say?
"Kan. doc convicted of conspiracy in pill mill case" by Roxana Hegeman, Associated Press Writer | June 24, 2010
WICHITA, Kan. --A federal jury Thursday found a Kansas doctor and his wife guilty of conspiring to profit from illegally prescribing painkillers to dozens of patients who later died, in a case highlighting medical treatment of chronic pain sufferers and prescription drug abuse....
Too bad he didn't just sign his name to a company study, huh?
The government accused Dr. Stephen Schneider of being little more than a drug dealer who didn't carefully monitor cases, prescribed excessive dosages and wrote prescriptions so freely he became known among some patients as the "Candy Man."
Government doesn't like competition.
Prosecutors said the couple did not alter their practices even after getting notices their patients were turning up in emergency rooms and at the morgue following overdoses....
That's where the printed paper left it.
The doctor's attorney, Lawrence Williamson, appeared red-eyed as he left the courtroom.
"We are absolutely shocked," Williamson said outside the courthouse. "These two people are totally innocent of these charges."
Williamson called it "a sad day for our justice system today." The defense plans to appeal.
"Dr. Schneider was practicing medicine -- he wasn't being a drug dealer," Williamson said.
What's the difference these days?
Kevin Byers, who represented Linda Schneider, told reporters so much of the case wasn't even about his client even if she was found guilty of more counts than her husband. Byers told reporters that even the judge once said it was an oppressive indictment....
Testifying in his own defense, Schneider said he only was trying to help and had been duped by some painkiller addicts. He told jurors he never meant to hurt or defraud anyone....
Excuses that seem to work for government.
Defense attorneys argued not only that the federal government was meddling in doctor-patient relationships, but said prosecutors had inflated the number of deaths attributed to Schneider's prescriptions by including patients who died while the Schneiders were in jail, patients who committed suicide, those who took illegal drugs and clinic patients he never treated or had treated months earlier.
That does NOT SURPRISE me either!
And that pair is small fry compared to this:
"the cases represent only a fraction of the estimated $60 billion to $90 billion in Medicare fraud absorbed by taxpayers each year"
Now we are talking some SERIOUS MONEY!
"94 charged in Medicare scams; Fraud totaling $251m alleged in several cities" by Kelli Kennedy, Associated Press | July 17, 2010
MIAMI — Elderly Russian immigrants lined up to take kickbacks from the backroom of a Brooklyn clinic. Claims flooded in from Miami for HIV treatments that never occurred. One professional patient was named in nearly 4,000 false Medicare claims.
Authorities said arrests made this week in Miami, New York City, Detroit, Houston, and Baton Rouge, La., were the largest Medicare fraud takedown in history — part of an overhaul in the way federal officials are preventing and prosecuting the crimes.
In all, 94 people, including several doctors and nurses, were charged yesterday in scams totaling $251 million. Federal authorities, while touting the operation, cautioned the cases represent only a fraction of the estimated $60 billion to $90 billion in Medicare fraud absorbed by taxpayers each year....
Officials said they chose Miami because it is ground zero for Medicare fraud, generating roughly $3 billion a year. Authorities indicted 33 suspects in the Miami area, accused of charging Medicare for about $140 million in various scams.
Suspects across the country were accused of billing Medicare for unnecessary equipment, physical therapy, and other treatments that patients never received. In one $72 million scam at Bay Medical in Brooklyn, clinic owners submitted bogus physical therapy claims for elderly Russian immigrants.
Patients, including undercover agents, were paid $50 to $100 a visit in exchange for using their Medicare numbers and got bonuses for recruiting new patients. Wiretaps captured hundreds of kickback payments doled out in a backroom by a man who did nothing but pay patients all day, authorities said.
This is what they SHOULD BE DOING -- not creating and framing patsy "terrorists."
The so-called “kickback’’ room had a Soviet-era propaganda poster on the wall, showing a woman with a finger to her lips and warnings in Russian: “Don’t Gossip’’ and “Be on the lookout: In these days, the walls talk.’’
And the government is always listening.
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