In a 3-6-08 entry I spelled out one of the reasons for high health care costs in America. Our government, the same government that wants to fix health care, broke it.
To a large extent, the U.S. Government determines the number of doctors we produce every year. Obviously, the more doctors we have, the more competitive the business is, and the lower costs become. How does the government peg the number of doctors? The funding from the government determines the number of medical residencies available. Prior to 1997 the government budgeted $11 billion annually to fund 100,000 residents at $110,000 per resident. To save money in 1997, that was capped at 80,000 new residents per year. So, we created a shortage of doctors.
Now, Obama wants to make sure the 50,000,000 uninsured people have medical insurance. With the same number of doctors. Gee aren’t most doctors pretty busy today. How do they take on another 50,000,000 patients? Plus, many are approaching retirement age and the idea of more work for less money will push that decision up. Of the 50,000,000 uninsured over 10,000,000 are here illegally. Another 20,000,000 may already be qualified for Medicaid, but just don’t bother to qualify.
Remember when Jimmy Carter got in the oil business? He had the DOE setting allocations for everyone in the business. It raised prices and created false shortages. Reagan cancelled his policies the first month he was in office. Prices went down dramatically.
Here’s how it work with Obama Medical. Too many people seeking medical attention, too few doctors, nurses, and hospitals to provide the care.
Some bureaucrat will decide whether you get treatment and when and where. Even if you want to pay for your treatment, you can’t, as they have found in Canada. You just get your ass in line like all the illegals and deadbeats. Some ex-postal employee will decide your fate. Remember the Colorado governor, Lamm, who actually said the elderly have a duty to die rather than take medical care that could best be given to someone younger and more productive?
You want a reason not to vote for Obama, how about your life. Or that of your elderly parents or your children. I had to deal with those bureaucrats in the 70’s in the Department of Energy for allocations for gasoline. If you asked me to rate the top 100 jerks I met in my business career 99 of them worked for the DOE. Little Gods who couldn’t get hired to do anything else. Just think how big they would feel if they could deny you medical care that you need to stay alive.
Unless you are an illegal or a deadbeat, you probably don’t want the government deciding your live or die future. You better give this hard thought in November.
Let’s not forget about the insurance companies that have control over and decide whether or not we can afford the treatments and health care we need. If Obama gets elected, I’m sure the entire system will get worse and will as you suggest, be more difficult to get health care when we need it. According to my resent visit with my neurosurgeon, there is a big shortage with these specialists and a big part of it is because of insurance companies who decide the costs they will pay for these services, which almost makes it impossible for them to practice and return pay for their services.
Obamanomics will only add to this problem and we’ll continue seeing fewer and fewer doctors wanting to go into practice. Can you blame them and why would they want to go to school for 8+ years and pay hundreds of thousands dollars to get that education and then to be told by the insurance companies or Obama that they can not charge what their services are worth? The malpractice insurance cost that Doctors have to carry in order to protect themselves from lawsuits is more than they can afford. Instead of encouraging more doctors, we are doing everything we can to discourage them and in most cases, penalizing them.
I am currently fighting with CIGNA, my insurance company that my employer provides and I have paid the premiums for, for the past 33 years. Long Term Disability (LTD) is insurance you pay for that is suppose to protect you in the event you become disabled and are unable to work. Even though I have paid them a lot of money each and every month for several years, now they don’t want to pay my LTD, because they have determined I am not disabled and can return to work. Because my employer has outsourced this decision to CIGNA, my employer has said that it is not their decision to make a determination if I am disabled or not, it’s up to the Insurance Company.
Here’s the hitch, even though my doctors have determined I am disabled and I can not return to work, CIGNA evidently knows more about my condition than my doctors. What’s worse is, even though CIGNA has decided that I am not disabled and can return to work, my employer won’t allow me to return to work unless I am released from my doctors to return to work. So where does that put me?
It puts me back to where we started this conversation and that is, now I have wait for the insurance company to decide my fate and depending on when and what they decide, I’m paying my own way.
If they decide against my appeal, I’ll have no choice but to get an attorney to fight for my benefits. This is what we have now and if you vote for Obama, I can’t imagine what our health care and insurance premiums will be when he is in office. Take it from me; it won’t be good, even if you can afford the premiums, the bureaucrats will decide whether you get your health care needs and you had better read the fine print in your policies.