By Guy Benson
Tuesday, October 18, 2016
You already know that Obamacare is unpopular
with Americans, hurting
more people than it's helping, raising
costs, reducing options, and collapsing under its own weight -- causing the
White House to scramble in search of dubious schemes to temporarily paper over
its failures with tax dollars. Now you can add doctors to the long list of
people who are dissatisfied with the results of Democrats' reckless,
promise-breaking, partisan healthcare experiment and federal power grab. Via
the Pittsburgh Post Gazette this
week, a
large majority of American physicians believe the nation's health system is
on the wrong path:
A few weeks ago, the Physicians
Practice journal released its seventh annual national “Great American Physician
Survey” of its readers, which revealed doctors’ deep pessimism about trends in
healthcare delivery. One question asked
the 1,315 responding doctors to indicate, on a scale of 1 to 5, the degree they
are happy with the direction healthcare in America is going. The responses
averaged a dismal 1.86...The Physician Practice survey reflected those
frustrations: 40.5 percent said higher deductible payments and patient costs
“represent the largest barrier to patient care,” followed by the simple high
cost of care at 20 percent, for a total
of 60.5 percent pointing to finances impacting patients’ care.
The survey found that doctors resent "government
intrusion" -- the headline takeaway from the journal in which it was
published -- with frustrations mounting: "Because of continuing economic
and regulatory pressures, 72 percent found the profession more stressful and
less lucrative than in previous years, and a strong majority said they are
concerned about the direction that healthcare is headed." The poll found a plurality of physicians
calling Obamacare a "disservice" to the country, with slightly fewer
calling it 'mostly' good, despite flaws. Just 7.5 percent offered an unvarnished
endorsement of the law. Opinions of Obamacare may be colored by partisan
politics, but the empirical outcomes speak for themselves. More than six in ten
doctors cite lack of affordability as the number one problem for their
patients. The "Affordable" Care Act at work. And on that same theme,
here's the latest news for Michigan consumers:
If you get health care coverage
through the Affordable Care Act, you may soon be paying more. State officials have approved an average
price hike of 16.7 percent for individuals enrolled through the Affordable Care
Act. “It’s a big increase we haven’t seen. Last year was (a) 2.5 percent
increase. Compared to last year and what we saw the year before, (this is a)
pretty big increase. When you look at
other states that have announced their increases, North Carolina (is) 24
percent (and) Pennsylvania (is) 33 percent,” said Leslie Muller, an
assistant professor of economics at Grand Valley State University. The increase
was approved by the Michigan Department of Insurance and Financial Services.
More double-digit increases, as we've seen from coast to
coast. This effect will likely force even more younger, healthier consumers
away from the law -- which in turn forces insurers to either request even
bigger rate increases (which feeds the spiral), or stop participating in
Obamacare altogether, due to the massive losses associated with covering a
disproportionately less healthy "risk pool." This is the slow-motion implosion experts
have been warning about, borne out by waning enrollment projections. It's why Democrats from Bill Clinton to a
Democratic governor are starting to admit that the Obamacare has been an abject
failure on its fundamental purpose. And
it's why Obamacare defenders are trying to blame the GOP while pushing for even
bigger government "solutions" to "fix" the mess they
made. Republicans up and down the ballot
should be focusing on this issue in their campaigns, holding Democrats accountable
for what they've inflicted upon the country.
Pennsylvania Senator Pat Toomey is taking the right approach:
Toomey is also keeping the spotlight on this
administration's VA failures, about which the president is not telling the
truth:
Many on the Left would like to replace Obamacare with a
fully government-run regime, which would dismantle the employer-based system
with which most Americans are satisfied, and incur massive new taxpayer
costs. But the VA is a microcosm of the
single-payer model affecting men and women about whom there is a bipartisan
consensus to assist. It's badly broken,
rife with corruption, and still
costing veterans their lives. The VA
should be reformed and repaired on a small scale, not replicated on a mass
scale and forced on every American.
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