This Week’s Health Policy News Roundup Curated by Jane M. Orient, M.D.
ObamaCare fleeces the middle class to benefit a mere one percent, writes Ileana Johnson Paugh in Canada Free Press. U.S. Rep. Bradley Byrne (R-Alabama) said, “We took away the health care system that worked for 80 percent of the people of this country to fix a problem that we today know we fixed for only one percent of the American people. Only 3 million new Americans have gotten on this new health care plan that did not have insurance before.” The plan is socialist redistribution of wealth, Dr. Johnson writes. http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/69862
Besides those who get the subsidies, providing the political cover for ObamaCare, there are the crony capitalists who benefit from government healthcare spending and mandates. One example is vendors of electronic health records, who have received $28 billion from taxpayers. http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20150213/NEWS/302139932
Medicare Advantage Plans make millions disappear. In the first criminal case in south Florida to take aim at Medicare Advantage billing tactics, the indictment states that as a result of inflated risk scores Medicare made “excessive payments” of at least $2,114,332.33. Humana passed about 80 percent of that amount to one doctor’s medical center. The grand jury did not say what happened to the remaining money. The doctor, not Humana, is being held criminally responsible for claimed fraud, though Humana reimbursed the government for both the 80 percent and the 20 percent. http://www.publicintegrity.org/2015/02/13/16755/fraud-case-puts-spotlight-medicare-advantage-plans
Social Media:
Re: hospital mergers. ACA made me do it:
"The ACA made me do it.." MT @ddiamond: Providers say Obamacare incents them to merge & hospital mergers up post-ACA: pic.twitter.com/HZAzBLvK4d
— Martin Gaynor (@MartinSGaynor) February 12, 2015
ObamaCare = Medicaid
1st yr results are in: Obamacare has mostly been an expansion of the failing Medicaid program – not private coverage. pic.twitter.com/gjMiQh2UVJ
— Sen. John Barrasso (@SenJohnBarrasso) February 11, 2015
