The Medicaid group used about 35% more health services, but they showed no clinical differences from the identical uninsured group across basic health measures like blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol levels that can be improved with the right treatment. The same was true comparing subgroups such as people with chronic diseases like diabetes. Health spending was higher among the Medicaid group, despite claims that using more preventative care and less emergency room will lower costs.
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Blog and News
"Docs4PatientCare.org is a politically neutral grassroots coalition of physicians. Use of any politically partisan terms does not reflect the position of Docs4PatientCare.org. We do encourage our speakers to express how they feel and we post articles based on their informative content only. Any politically partisan language used does not reflect the group as a whole. Specific party or political allegiances and opposition are not our intent. The goal of D4PC is only to advocate for effective and responsible health care reform."
The Oregon Trial - WSJ
Monday, May 06, 2013
A Temporary Insurance Program Foretells Exploding Obamacare Costs, Forbes
Thursday, April 11, 2013
An early ObamaCare health insurance program that has been operating for nearly three years is foreshadowing big problems to come with the larger health overhaul law. But this temporary Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan is running out of money, and the Obama administration has closed enrollment to any new applicants, saying it needs the money that is left to cover the medical costs of the 100,000 people already enrolled through the end of the year. The problems with this program are predictors of the costs that are likely to come when the full law takes effect on January 1, 2014.
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Is Your Doctor Really A Doctor? TownHall.com
Monday, March 25, 2013
The question regarding who is qualified to administer care is complex and is referred to as the "scope of practice". There are many integral contributors to the healthcare team. There are nurses and nurse practitioners (nurses with additional education and training), nurse anesthetists, nurse midwives, physician assistants, optometrists, chiropractors, psychologists, pharmacists, and the list goes on. These individuals play an important role in delivering healthcare to individuals every day but there remains one unalterable fact-they are not physicians. But, they would like to do the same things as physicians and their specialty societies have spent considerable time, effort and money trying to create the narrative that the care that they provide is equivalent to that which a physician administers. Generally speaking, that is just not the case.
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Health Insurers Warn On Premiums, The Wall Street Journal
Friday, March 22, 2013
Health insurers are privately warning brokers that premiums for many individuals and small businesses could increase sharply next year because of the health-care overhaul law, with the nation's biggest firm projecting that rates could more than double for some consumers buying their own plans. The projections, made in sessions with brokers and agents, provide some of the most concrete evidence yet of how much insurance companies might increase prices when major provisions of the law kick in next year—a subject of rigorous debate.
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Why Pay Physicians Anything At All For Providing Healthcare? TownHall.org
Monday, March 18, 2013
Placing blame for runaway healthcare costs solely on physicians is simply an attempt to divert attention from the real perpetrators. In his recent Time magazine feature story, Steven Brill painstakingly outlined how hospitals throughout the country are generating obscene charges and profits. Over 30% of healthcare spending is generated by hospitals, a large share of which goes to managers and executives; many taking home seven figure salaries. Ignoring this, the Patient Payment Reform Commission wants to give the hospital administrators, through the new ACO model, even more control by directing payments to them, effectively making them the gatekeepers of reimbursements. The false narrative that has been created for public consumption is that in doing so, savings are created by consolidating and delivering care more efficiently and effectively. So far this is simply false.
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To Save, Workers Take On Health-Cost Risk, The Wall Street Journal
Sunday, March 17, 2013
Last fall, two big employers embarked on a radical new approach to employee health benefits, offering workers a sum of money and allowing them to choose their health plans on an online marketplace. The employers gave workers a set contribution to use toward health benefits, and they could opt to pay more each month to get richer plans, or choose cheaper ones that might have bigger out-of-pocket fees, such as higher deductibles. "When people are spending their own money, they tend to be more consumeristic," said Ken Sperling, Aon Hewitt's national health exchange strategy leader.
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The Doctor Won't See You Now. He's Clocked Out, The Wall Street Journal
Friday, March 15, 2013
Big government likes big providers. That's why ObamaCare is gradually making the local doctor-owned medical practice a relic. In the not too distant future, most physicians will be hourly wage earners, likely employed by a hospital chain.
Why? Because when doctors practice in small offices, it is hard for Washington to regulate what they do. There are too many of them, and the government is too remote. It is far easier for federal agencies to regulate physicians if they work for big hospitals. So ObamaCare shifts money to favor the delivery of outpatient care through hospital-owned networks.
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Why? Because when doctors practice in small offices, it is hard for Washington to regulate what they do. There are too many of them, and the government is too remote. It is far easier for federal agencies to regulate physicians if they work for big hospitals. So ObamaCare shifts money to favor the delivery of outpatient care through hospital-owned networks.
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Connecting The Dots On Healthcare, TownHall.com
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
By now, most people have concluded that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA, Obamacare) does not reduce the cost of healthcare for the majority of Americans, and certainly does not protect them. Healthcare costs - both insurance and out of pocket expenses - have more than doubled for many and will continue to increase. What is difficult and confusing to most of us is attempting to understand how this all fits together and why.
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D4PC Endorsed Patients' Compensation System Introduced In Florida Legislature, HeraldOnLine.com
Thursday, March 07, 2013
In an effort to reduce skyrocketing healthcare costs and increase access to justice for medically injured patients, Sen. Alan Hays (R-Umatilla) and Rep. Jason T. Brodeur (R-Sanford) are introducing today bold new legislation which would replace the state's current medical malpractice system with a no-blame, administrative model.
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Anti-Obesity Programs Fatten Government, Investors Business Daily
Wednesday, March 06, 2013
New England Grocery Unions Face Grueling Obamacare Test, InTheseTimes.com
Monday, March 04, 2013
“It’s a nightmare” that has been created not by corporate pressure to cut labor costs, but by the fumbling bureaucratic requirements of federal health law, he says. Stop & Shop faces increased health insurance costs as high as $250 million over three years should all 40,000 UFCW workers continue receiving the same health care insurance benefits as under the current contract. The increased costs are mostly created, he explains, when the Obamacare requirement that medical benefit caps be eliminated prompts insurance companies to raise rates to cover the greater costs. “When we backed Obamacare, we were told that if we had good health insurance and wanted to keep it, we could," Charette adds. "What happened to that?”
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Health Industry Pushes GOP States Toward Obamacare, The Washington Examiner
Sunday, March 03, 2013
Republicans around the country railed against President Obama's health-care law for four years, but in recent weeks, GOP governors and state legislators have embraced some of the bill's provisions.
How did Republicans learn to stop worrying and love Obamacare?
In a word: industry. Hospitals, insurers and drug companies have lobbied in state capital after state capital, leaning on Republicans until they agreed to create insurance exchanges or expand Medicaid as Obamacare prescribed.
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How did Republicans learn to stop worrying and love Obamacare?
In a word: industry. Hospitals, insurers and drug companies have lobbied in state capital after state capital, leaning on Republicans until they agreed to create insurance exchanges or expand Medicaid as Obamacare prescribed.
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The New Obamacare Insurance Is Looking More Like Medicaid, Forbes.com
Saturday, March 02, 2013
Health Care and Politics Do Not Mix, Hal Scherz, MD in TownHall.org
Thursday, February 28, 2013
Make no mistake about it- the Obama administration’s Medicaid expansion plan at the state level is not about providing healthcare insurance coverage to those who do not currently have it, and it certainly has nothing to do with compassion. It is about control and dependency. It is about expanding the rolls of Americans who rely on government subsidized healthcare. It is about moving forward with the Affordable Care Act which will ultimately touch every American but will be controlled from Washington DC.
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Bad Medicaid Program Gets Worse Under Obamacare, Investor's Business Daily
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
States Can Cut Back On Medicaid Payments, Administration Says. The New York Times
Monday, February 25, 2013
The Obama administration said Monday that states could cut Medicaid payments to many doctors and other health care providers to hold down costs in the program, which insures 60 million low-income people and will soon cover many more under the new health care law. The administration’s position, set forth in a federal appeals court in California, has broad national implications as it comes as the White House is trying to persuade states to expand Medicaid as part of the new law.
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The Flaws Of Electronic Records, Philly.com
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
"We're in the midst of a mania right now" as traditional patient charts are switched to computers. "We know it causes harm, and we don't even know the level of magnitude. That statement alone should be the basis for the greatest of caution and slowing down." But the rush to implementation has produced badly designed products that may be more likely to confound doctors than enlighten them, he says. Electronic health records, Silverstein believes, should be rigorously tested under government supervision before being used in life-and-death situations, much like medical hardware or airplanes.
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States Seek To Redefine Who Can Provide Care, National Center For Policy Analysis
Thursday, February 14, 2013
As states expand health care coverage as mandated by the Affordable Care Act (ACA), they are likely to experience a shortage of doctors in attempts to treat an influx of newly insured patients. States are taking various measures to solve this problem, says the Los Angeles Times.
Take California, where state Senator Ed Hernandez says there will not be enough doctors to treat new patients.
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Take California, where state Senator Ed Hernandez says there will not be enough doctors to treat new patients.
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Massachusetts Works To Address the Nation's Highest Health Insurance Premiums, MassLive.com
Thursday, February 14, 2013
A study released by the Commonwealth Fund in December reported Massachusetts has the highest health-insurance premiums in the nation for private, employer-sponsored plans. The figures have political ramifications since Massachusetts’ system of universal health care, implemented under former Gov. Mitt Romney, was the model for President Barack Obama’s national Affordable Care Act.
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States Gear Up To Pitch Health Plans, The Wall Street Journal
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Supporters of the 2010 health law are looking to draft sports teams, pharmacies and political ground operations for their biggest marketing campaign yet: persuading millions of uninsured, hard-to-reach and skeptical Americans to sign up for health plans this fall. The scramble to promote enrollment comes as the law faces considerable opposition from many Republican governors who have declined to create state exchanges or expand their states' Medicaid programs under the law, citing the possible cost. In Congress, GOP lawmakers have introduced bills in recent weeks trying to repeal several provisions of the law, arguing that individuals and businesses will face unaffordable premiums next year.
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Will Your Doc Become Extinct Under Obamacare? FoxNews.com
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
There is a growing concern among consumers that they may not be able to see the doctor of their choice, or even keep the doctor they currently have, as a result of what’s happening with ObamaCare.
There are several recent trends, which are concerning and may be a sign the role of the doctor, especially in primary care, is changing as we know it.
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There are several recent trends, which are concerning and may be a sign the role of the doctor, especially in primary care, is changing as we know it.
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Wheels Coming Off, The New York Post
Monday, February 11, 2013
The central parts of ObamaCare don’t roll out until 2014, but the wheels are already falling off this clunker. The latest news from four federal agencies is that 1) insurance will be a lot less affordable than Americans were led to expect, 2) fewer people than promised will get insurance and 3) millions of people who have coverage through a job now will lose it, thanks to the president’s “reforms.” Oh, and children are the biggest victims.
The Affordable Care Act is looking less and less affordable.
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The Affordable Care Act is looking less and less affordable.
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Hospital Scandal Rocks Britain's National Health Service, The Advisory Board Company
Thursday, February 07, 2013
The New HHS Regulation Purge, National Review
Thursday, February 07, 2013
The Obama administration announced today — with no sense of irony whatsoever — a plan to purge unnecessary health-care regulations.
Has it occurred to them that they might start by turning off the spigot for Obamacare regulations, already numbering 13,000 pages and counting?
This latest effort is supposed to save $3.4 billion over five years, which is much less than a rounding error in the $2.7 trillion annual health-care economy.
And there are clear political undertones to the HHS announcement.
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Has it occurred to them that they might start by turning off the spigot for Obamacare regulations, already numbering 13,000 pages and counting?
This latest effort is supposed to save $3.4 billion over five years, which is much less than a rounding error in the $2.7 trillion annual health-care economy.
And there are clear political undertones to the HHS announcement.
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Obamacare's Exemptions From Insurance Mandate Will Leave Millions Uninsured, Investors Business Daily
Wednesday, February 06, 2013
Obamacare Buyer's Remorse, The Galen Institute on CNBC's "Kudlow Report"
Tuesday, February 05, 2013
Grace-Marie Turner talks with Larry Kudlow about labor unions and the health law. Labor union leaders were strong backers of passage of the health overhaul law, both because it fit with their political ideology and also because they believed they would be able to enroll millions of new health care workers in their unions. But the union bosses are now seeing more clearly how sweeping the impact of the law will be on unions as businesses – driving up their health costs and making union workers less competitive, for starters. Unions are facing the same costs and distortions as other businesses, and they are waking up to the law’s destructive forces. Many unions got waivers from some of the early provisions of the law, but there will be no waivers from this government take-over of one-sixth of the economy that hits with full force in 2014.
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The GOP's Obamacare Flippers, The Wall Street Journal
Monday, February 04, 2013
As D-Day looms for ObamaCare, one big question is how many states will sign up for its Medicaid expansion. The recent and spectacular flip-flop of Arizona Governor Jan Brewer is a case study in the political pressure and fiscal gimmicks designed to get states to succumb. It's also a study in the arcane and perverse ObamaCare incentives that are intended to gather ever more health-care spending under federal control.
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The Health Information Technology Scam, National Center For Policy Analysis
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Obamacare Highlights Top Hospitals-And Bars More, Investor's Business Daily
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Recent Posts
- The Oregon Trial - WSJ
- A Temporary Insurance Program Foretells Exploding Obamacare Costs, Forbes
- Is Your Doctor Really A Doctor? TownHall.com
- Health Insurers Warn On Premiums, The Wall Street Journal
- Why Pay Physicians Anything At All For Providing Healthcare? TownHall.org
- To Save, Workers Take On Health-Cost Risk, The Wall Street Journal
- The Doctor Won't See You Now. He's Clocked Out, The Wall Street Journal
- Connecting The Dots On Healthcare, TownHall.com
- D4PC Endorsed Patients' Compensation System Introduced In Florida Legislature, HeraldOnLine.com
- Anti-Obesity Programs Fatten Government, Investors Business Daily
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