Your doctor’s massive pay cut.
Last week, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, MPAC, yet another government panel that you probably didn’t know existed, voted to impose massive payment reductions upon doctors who see patients under Medicare.
MPAC, established under Obamacare, exists to oversee cuts in Medicare and the panel’s actions have the force of law. Sparing you the arcane details, suffice to say that taking into account very low inflation, which is by no means a sure thing, general practitioners will see their Medicare payments cut by a third over the next ten years. It’s worse for specialists. Their payments will be cut by half.
What does this mean? Well, it’s pretty simple. Stay healthy in your golden years or else. Even today, it’s often very difficult to get a physician to take a new Medicare patient. When Medicare payments get slashed, many, if not most doctors, will refuse to see Medicare patients at all.
Once again, the government is meddling in the free market for goods and services and once again the results are disastrous. It’s called the Affordable Care Act. But calling something affordable is meaningless if there is no one around to actually provide it.
Nancy Pelosi has enough money to be assured that a doctor will see her in her dotage. But people of limited means – the poor – about which Ms Pelosi spoke endlessly while cramming Obamacare down our throats? They’ll take it on the chin – again.
Left to the devices of rich liberals the poor always take it on the chin.
Your line, “It’s called the Affordable Care Act. But calling something affordable is meaningless if there is no one around to actually provide it.” sums it up perfectly. Another excellent column. Seniors should REALLY be paying attention! This is one I’ll pass along.
Not going to make any difference for those of us that can’t afford what Medicare already doesn’t pay. Make too much for additional aid and not enough to afford premiums for suplimental insurance.
I agree with your article except this is on the other end of the spectrum. My fiance went to a visit to a urologist to just talk about his condition. He was charged $355 for the visit. Before that he had a cortozone injection and another very short visit 20 minutes or less and was charged $755.
How did we get to this point? How did we allow Government to grow so large and become so intrusive that it now threatens the very existence of our once great nation? Complacentcy, not wanting to offend, fear of being called out as uncaring and/or racist, wanting to feel good about ourselves and turning a blind eye to the ever increasing bureaucracy, size, scope and depth of our Government. We allowed little known agencies like the MPAC to exist and flourish unabated and unchecked with NO or little oversight. Now, we pay the price of our “feel good” guilt trip with agencies such as this, the Department of Education, Department of Energy, EPA and a hundred other federal agencies grow out of control and feel impowered by the progressive socialists that are currently in power.
obamacare is the gift that keeps on giving! It was intentional that the whole obamacare picture would be sprung upon us a little at a time. Why do you think it was over 2000 pages long and no time was given before it was crammed down our throats to read the thing? obama and his robots knew that if the TRUTH about obamacare was laid out before the public before it was crammed down our throats, it would never have had a prayer of getting passed. Instead he lied, nancy pelosi lied, harry reid lied repeatedly just as the alinsky manuel instructed them to do…tell a lie long enough and it becomes truth. Only now the real truth is coming out and it isn’t pretty. The gift that keeps on giving will only get worse if something isn’t done to repeal this monster! And be sure about this, the seniors will get the raw end of the deal because despite obama and the other robots telling us there were no death panels in obamacare, there is…it was never taken out,just reworded! This gift is a true trojan horse!
Since Medicare Supplement insurance policies (Medigap) are designed to pay the difference between the Doctor’s charges and the forecasted diminished payments from Medicare itself, does this mean that these policies will skyrocket in premium cost? I think so.
This is simply the another stage in the nationalization of the medical profession and the health care industry in order to drive the health insurance companies out of business since most seniors will not be able to afford the Medigap premiums. By forcing the seniors to accept health care from an increasingly limited number of doctors, there will be a desperate cry for the government to solve the problem by complete takeover of the industry with a “single payer” system – just more FALSE HOPE and CHANGE.
I hate the term “single payer” because it disguises the fact that it means a new Federal Department of Medicine that will create the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac of healthcare. Currently these institutions represent corruption on steroids that destroyed the US housing industry for the benefit of the poor, don’t you know. We can all look forward to healthcare rationing based on age (cost of care) and voting preference based on political demographics.
If the Socialists in the last 35 years can conquer the black and brown minority population in this country that represents a 70% to 95% vote in favor of the Marxist Democrats that promise an even greater welfare state, then the last frontier is the elderly population that consumes the majority of the health care cost who live in fear of access to proper health services. It isn’t fantasy to believe the elderly can become a reliable voting block for the Marxist Democrats, also.
The Marxist greed for power is straight from the pits of HELL. It is at the expense of the most successful wealth creation, civil society, in the history of mankind – as originated by the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution. These documents founded this nation with the unique promotion of “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” and with faith in the dignity and potential of every human being to thrive in every aspect of their life.
Please pardon additional comments.
As we all know, Marxism is not just a philosophy built on greed, envy and covetousness in the financial sector. It also enforces a mandate to achieve “social justice” via taxing and control of all methods of production of wealth for the benefits of its “collective” society. Why stop at nothing less?
It also demands fidelity to the dogma of NO individual religious liberty when contrary to the views of the State. The Marxist State requires adherence to a proper live style that promotes a so-called “healthy medical profile” to obtain or dispense health care. Why stop at nothing less?
What do you think will happen to the “health curricula” in the only surviving government schools from elementary to college institutions as well as medical schools and licensing criteria for doctors? Does State sponsored treatment of humans as just another animal that requires “domestication” for lowest possible health care cost come to mind? Why stop at nothing less?
Is it far fetched to imagine that State rules will govern the indoctrination of every phase of life from conception to death including choice of birth, parental control, diet, sex education and gender choices, trade and professional choices through State funded and controlled education – all in the name of proper physical, mental, and emotional health? I think not!
If your “health” is the responsibility of the government to maintain and control, you have become the property of the State, and consequently, a beneficiary of State rewards – as it sees fit.
Please remember there is an incalculable cost for the loss of Liberty as was endowed by our Creator.