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Political Commentary>
Downsizing Medicare
March 28, 2010
What Obamacare is really all about is “spreading the wealth around”.
It is about stripping wealth from the remaining Traditionalists (the World War II generation) and retiring Baby Boomers on Medicare by making them pay more for treatment, and from “the rich” who will pay higher taxes—and handing their wealth to the uninsured, "special groups" and the unions, Democrat constituents all.
There’s no tort reform in this bill, of course, so trial lawyers still get their 20% cut of the healthcare system. And with millions more joining the pool of candidates to sue doctors, it guarantees a fertile field for future litigation.
The entire medical system will be unionized.
• new IRS employees to enforce the system
• untold numbers of bureaucrats—look what they will get to do
o establish “substance doctrine”
o create risk pools
o monitor the rules
o administer the new “pay-for-quality” program
o administer the government Secretary awards, loans and grants program
o administer the health insurance exchanges
o establish “essential benefits” and mandate coverage levels
o recommend more Medicare cuts than are in the bill
o establish interstate insurance compacts
o run the new Medicare HMO
o and more stuff I am sure that we don’t know about yet.
Obamacare is also about creating a system that is unsustainable. Only then can you justify ever-increasing taxes from ever more Americans.
But let’s look at what happens to Medicare from 2011-2015. It is no mistake that downsizing begins after the 2010 elections. (I have sprinkled in a few of the other cuts that affect care for everyone.)
• Cuts to long-term care (7/1/09)
• Cuts to inpatient psych hospitals (7/1/10)
• Medicare Advantage cuts begin (2011)
• Can’t use medical accounts to purchase over-the-counter medicines (2011)
• Cuts to home healthcare begin (2011)
• “Wealthier” seniors ($85k/$170k) begin paying higher Part D premiums, NEVER indexed for inflation (2011)
• Reimbursement cuts when seniors use diagnostic imaging (MRIs, CT scans) (2011)
• Cuts to ambulance services, lab tests, durable medical equipment (read wheel chairs, walkers and beds) (2011)
• No Medicare payments to physician-owned hospitals (guess they don’t want those nasty doctors trying to start hospitals) (2011)
• Penalties of 20% for trying to use medical accounts for “non-qualified distributions” (2011)
• No more buying powered wheelchairs unless seniors rent for 13 months first (2011)
• New cuts to long-term care hospitals begin (7/1/11)
• Additional cuts to hospitals, nursing homes and inpatient rehab facilities begin (Oct 2011)
• Cuts to dialysis treatments (2012)
• Transitioning Medicare to an HMO model (2012—so much for continuity of care or choosing a physician)
• New cuts to inpatient psych hospitals (7/1/12)
• Cuts to hospitals with high readmission rates begins (Oct 2013—so seniors, don’t get a chronic illness)
• Cuts to hospice begin (Oct 2012—hospice programs already run on a shoestring, so this basically means the end of hospice)
• $2500 cap on medical accounts (2013—no more tax deductible elective eye surgery, for example)
• Increase Medicare wage tax by 0.9% (2013)
• New 3.8% tax on savings/investments for those earning $200k/$250k, NEVER indexed for inflation (2013)
• Medical expenses deductible only if they exceed 10% of income (2013)
• Employers lose deduction for Part D retiree drug subsidy (2013)
• 2.3% excise tax on medical devices (2013)
• Cuts to hospitals that treat low-income seniors (2013)
• More cuts to home healthcare begin (2014)
• Payments to preferred geographical areas begin (2014—states that vote Democrat, I guess)
• Government imposed “essential benefits” and coverage levels begin (2014)
• Government Board submits more proposals to cut Medicare (2014—wait, didn’t the Democrats say that Death Panels would not exist?)
• More cuts to home healthcare begin (2015)
Employers must report how much we get in healthcare benefits in our salaries beginning in 2011, in anticipation of taxing them. A new tax of unspecified amount on all private health insurance policies is levied beginning Oct 2011 to pay for “computer efficiencies”. All private health insurance plans will be taxed as regular income beginning in 2014—except union plans, of course, which are delayed until 2018.
Did you know that in 2011 ALL of us begin paying for long-term care insurance? There is no indication how much it will cost or where the money goes or what it will be used for.
And of course the new legislation funds non-elective abortions. Kind of like medical marijuana here in Colorado, which is only prescribed to people who need it (wink wink). Which means, of course, that the government will fund all abortions. Think how long Planned Parenthood has waited for this cash cow to finally come home. Expect a government-subsidized abortion mill to open in your neighborhood soon.
Drug companies cannot pay its employees/officers more than $500,000 beginning in 2013. The minimum salary for a national league football player in his second year will be more than that!
All workers will have to pay higher taxes, despite Obama’s pledge not to raise them.
Seniors will not find as many doctors ready to cover their care, or they will have to pay out of pocket. Maybe after seniors become wards of the government our president will think better of them.
Better start taking care of yourself. Obamacare sure won’t.
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