eNews Commentary • Oct 2016 • Government Programs • Health Care Reform - Obamacare • Health Exchanges -Obamacare • Electronic Health Records • Health Surveillance • HMOs & Managed Care • Medical Practice Guidelines • Medical Records • National Health Systems

The Three Obamacares

October 5, 2016

 
**To receive this weekly commentary directly in your email, CLICK HERE.

 

What do you mean when you say “Obamacare”? Since people think Obamacare is imploding, we’ve created a better way to talk it: Obamacare I, Obamacare II, and Obamacare III.
 
Obamacare I is the coverage people obtain through the exchange. Everyone on the exchange applies to the Federal government to receive coverage through participating health plans. In short, Obamacare is a federal Medicaid program for the middle class.
 
Obamacare II is known to most people.These are the well-publicized sections of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) where most of the “imploding” is occurring:

  • Higher premiums and deductibles
  • 19 new taxes
  • Mandates and penalties
  • Nine exemptions and 14 hardship waivers
  • Obamacare co-ops
  • Healthcare.gov and state-based exchanges
  • Advanced premium tax credits (Obamacare subsidies)
  • Children on parent’s plan through age 26
  • Catastrophic insurance prohibited
  • Reporting of insurance status to IRS
  • Narrow networks
  • No exclusion for pre-existing conditions
  • Risk Corridors and Reinsurance – taxpayer- and enrollee-funded redistribution subsidy programs for insurers to cover their losses from costly patients for first three years

Obamacare III is unknown to most Americans – and it is alive and well. It is not imploding. Republicans advanced it with the passage of MACRA in 2015. Obamacare III implements the government takeover of the practice of medicine, including “payment reform” aimed at restricting access to care:

  • Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs)
  • Lump-sum and bundled payments
  • Pay-for-Performance initiatives
  • Quality reporting and “quality measurement”
  • Value-based purchasing (linking payment to government-defined quality outcomes)
  • CMS “Innovation Center” (500 employees)
  • Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB)
  • Surveillance systems
  • Penalties for hospital readmissions and hospital-acquired infections
  • “Population health” initiatives
  • National Strategy to Improve Health Care Quality
  • National prevention and wellness initiatives
  • Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI)

To better see Obamacare III look at the ACA’s Table of Contents – the first 11 pages of the law.
 
Every word of the ACA should be repealed, but repeal is not sufficient. Managed care corporations are exploiting patients and doctors for profit, health plans and hospitals are merging into monopolies, and Medicare has a $43 trillion unfunded liability. That’s why we’ve launched The Wedge of Health Freedom. Your donation today can help us grow it into a force for freedom!

Twila Brase, RN, PHN
President and Co-founder


P.S. BE THE WIND AT OUR BACK! Every gift large or small counts! Send a DONATION for FREEDOM today.