Quote:

 

http://freebeacon.com/issues/californians-upset-over-lack-of-doctors-under-obamacare/

Californians Upset Over Lack Of Doctors Under Obamacare

YouTube (1 minute)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCpHpd4WXKg

BY: Washington Free Beacon Staff
April 4, 2014 10:01 am

Californians are expressing their dissatisfaction with California’s health insurance exchange, CoveredCalifornia.

Covered California’s Executive Director Peter Lee testified before a Congressional committee about the successes of Covered California.

“It takes, in our mind, three things for an exchange to work. It takes having affordable health plans delivering quality care, it takes effective marketing outreach, and it takes effective enrollment,” Lee said.

Sadly though, Californians newly enrolled in Covered California are facing the grim reality that the care they are receiving is neither affordable, nor quality.

Few doctors are accepting the new health insurance plans, Californians say.

One Californian woman told KPIX-CA, “This is not what we were promised.”

Lee admitted, “It’s been rocky, it’s been bumpy. And it will continue to be rocky and bumpy.”

Quote:

 

http://cnsnews.com/commentary/terence-p-jeffrey/will-government-tell-doctors-they-must-act-against-their-consciences

Will Government Tell Doctors They Must Act Against Their Consciences?

....There were 72.7 million Americans enrolled in Medicaid at some time during fiscal 2013 and 8.4 million enrolled in Children's Health Insurance Program. In 2012, 51.8 million were enrolled in Medicare (although some of these were dual-enrolled in Medicaid).

Before Obamacare is fully entrenched, the federal government has already become the paymaster for the health care of a large share of the nation's 318 million people.

Meanwhile, the number of hospitals has been shrinking — and in a definite pattern.

In 1975, according to the Centers for Disease Control, there were 7,156 hospitals in the United States, including 3,339 non-profit hospitals (which would include those runs by religious organizations), 1,761 local- and state-government run hospitals and 775 for-profit hospitals.

In 2010, there were 5,754 hospitals — about 20 percent fewer than in 1975.

Non-profit hospitals decreased by 435; local and state government hospitals decreased by 693 — but for-profit hospitals increased by 238.

As government increased control of health care through Medicare and Medicaid, non-profit hospitals decreased and for-profit hospitals increased....

Baldo

Apr 9 2014, 12:47 PM

Primary Care Shortage? Not For The Insured, Study Shows
April 8th, 2014,

Researchers posing as nonelderly adult patients made nearly 13,000 calls to primary care practices across Pennsylvania, New Jersey and eight other states between fall 2012 and spring of last year.

What they found may provide some comfort amid growing concerns of doctor shortages, especially as more people gain coverage through the Affordable Care Act, potentially straining the health system.

Dr. Karin Rhodes, from the University of Pennsylvania and a lead author on the study published this week in JAMA Internal Medicine, says when researchers said they had insurance, they were able to make an appointment about 85 percent of the time — on the first try, no less.

“Capacity exists. I think this is a very optimistic message,” Rhodes says, adding that researchers were usually able to get scheduled within a week. The median wait in Massachusetts was about two weeks.

Rhodes acknowledges the study did not examine the quality of care received, the accessibility for returning patients or the role of cost in determining patients’ real access to services.

Low-income uninsured face biggest barriers

Rhodes says the overall accessibility documented through the study is encouraging, but it varied based on what type of insurance the researchers claimed they had. Those calling as Medicaid patients were successful getting appointments about 60 percent of the time on the first try, compared to that 85 percent of the “privately insured.” When calling with Medicaid coverage, they only contacted providers listed as accepting Medicaid.

When Rhodes examined other national patient surveys and studies that honed in on community health centers, Rhodes found that Medicaid variation did not significantly impede access to primary care, although people had fewer choices of providers.

Dr. Andrew Bindman and Janet Coffman of the University of California, San Francisco, worry about how this will play out as more people gain Medicaid coverage. In an accompanying editorial, they emphasized that fewer doctors accept Medicaid and those that do only take a limited number of patients.

“Safety-net clinics provide a disproportionate amount of care to patients covered by Medicaid, which helps fill some of the void, but this approach is insufficient on its own, particularly for meeting the needs for specialty care,” they wrote.

Beyond those with Medicaid and the privately insured, availability dropped for those who said they were uninsured and couldn’t pay much out of pocket. Researchers were four times less likely to get in compared with those calling with Medicaid...snipped

http://capsules.kaiserhealthnews.org/index.php/2014/04/primary-care-shortage-not-for-the-insured-study-shows/

The was in Kaiser news which is a big supporter of Obama-care. The real test is not phony appointments which was probably paid for by Govt Grants.

The test of Obama-care is real access to doctors, real care received, the cost of the service, and the ability to received continuing care.

Quote:

 

http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-Texas/2014/04/08/Obamacare-Lawsuit-from-Houston-Moving-Forward

OBAMACARE LAWSUIT FROM HOUSTON MOVING FORWARD

KATY, TEXAS--A lawsuit filed by a Houston area doctor against the Affordable Care Act is moving forward to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. The lawsuit filed by Dr. Steven Hotze, founder of Hotze Health and Wellness Center in Katy, challenges the Obamacare law based upon the origination clause of the Constitution.

In referring to what is known as The Origination Clause, “Article 1, section 7 of the U.S. Constitution every tax bill, revenue bill has to start in the House of Representatives,” Hotze explained. “It can’t start in the Senate.”

In this exclusive interview below with Breitbart Texas, Dr. Hotze explains how the Senate took a Veterans Tax Credit bill that started in the House and stripped everything out of the bill, including the title, and substituted the Affordable Care Act legislation. “If the Senate can do that, then there is no origination clause, because, the Senate can turn any bill that came from the House into a tax raising bill, and that’s wrong.”

Dr. Hotze’s attorney, Andy Schlaffly told the Washington Times, “What’s nice about this case, Hotze v. Sebelius, is the trial court resolved all the procedural issues in favor of Dr. Hotze, so they got to the substance at the trial level,” said Mr. Schlafly. “That makes this case a stronger case than most of the other ones.”

Dr. Hotze noted in the interview that the 5th Circuit Court is the most conservative court in the country and this makes this lawsuit one of the most likely to survive long enough to make it to the Supreme Court.

The 5th Circuit Court will receive briefs on the case in April. Shortly thereafter, the court will receive amicus briefs from Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott and U.S. Senator John Cornyn in support of Hotze’s lawsuit. Oral arguments should occur by July 1st. The amicus briefs are expected to be joined by several other Attorneys General and other members of the House and Senate.

Quote:

 

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/rand-study-only-36-obamacare-enrollees-were-previously-uninsured_786689.html

RAND Study: Only 36% of Obamacare Enrollees Were Previously Uninsured

A study released Tuesday by the non-profit RAND Corporation found that only 3.9 million people have enrolled in the Obamacare exchanges--a much smaller number than the 7 million sign-ups touted by the Obama administration:

• 
  
• By our estimate, 3.9 million people are now covered through the state and federal marketplaces. This number is lower than current estimates of marketplace enrollment through the end of March from the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), perhaps because some of the [Health Reform Opinion Study] data were collected in early March. All HROS data collection reported here ended on March 28, and therefore missed the last three days of the open enrollment period, during which time there was a surge in enrollment.

The study also found that people gaining employer-provided insurance was the biggest reason why the uninsured rate has dropped in recent months:

• 
  
• Of those who were previously uninsured but are now insured, 7.2 million gained [employer-sponsored insurance], 3.6 million are now covered by Medicaid, 1.4 million signed up through the marketplaces, and the remainder gained coverage through other sources.

If the 1.4 million figure is correct, that means that less than 0.5 percent of the U.S. population gained insurance through the Obamacare exchanges. Of course, it's certainly possible that the Obama administration's estimates are closer to the mark. But even if that's the case, it's highly unlikely that more than 1 percent of the U.S. population gained insurance--that is, they were previously uninsured but are now insured--because of the Obamacare exchanges.

from post above

 

The study also found that people gaining employer-provided insurance was the biggest reason why the uninsured rate has dropped in recent months:

• 
  
• Of those who were previously uninsured but are now insured, 7.2 million gained [employer-sponsored insurance], 3.6 million are now covered by Medicaid, 1.4 million signed up through the marketplaces, and the remainder gained coverage through other sources.

Quote:

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2014/04/10/morning-plum-republicans-know-just-know-obamacare-will-destroy-country/

Morning Plum: Republicans know, just know, Obamacare will destroy country

As many have already pointed out, one of the most serious political problems Democrats face in 2014 is that Republicans are far more motivated by hatred of Obamacare than Dems are by their approval of the law. And some new polling just released by Pew Research captures this very nicely.

The poll’s basic finding: While a minority of Republicans say the law has personally impacted them in a negative way (39-52), Republicans overwhelmingly say the law is currently harming the country overall (69 percent) and say in even greater numbers (73 percent) that the law will harm the country overall. Republicans believe those things in far greater numbers than independents.

That perhaps helps explain the other key finding: Republicans are far more likely to say a candidate’s stance on the ACA will be “very important” to their midterm vote (64 percent) than either independents (45 percent) or Democrats (52 percent). The intensity is with the Obamacare-haters, which could help exacerbate the “midterm dropoff” problem Dems would already be facing.

Pew finds approval of the law among Americans is low (37-50), including among independents (34-53). But it still remains to be seen whether disapproval will translate into support for Republicans, and the unpopularity of the GOP repeal stance could, over time, mitigate the importance of generic approval-disapproval numbers.

The Pew poll’s finding of overwhelming GOP certainty that the law will hurt the country is generally mirrored in other polls. Kaiser recently found that only Republicans support repealing the law; and only Republicans want the debate over it to continue, while everyone else wants to move on.

The Obamacare Intensity Gap is a real problem for Dems. But the above helps explain why Republicans, too, face complications. They are constrained from advocating only for repeal, because the law’s provisions are kicking in for millions, and they are broadly popular. But they are also constrained from offering any meaningful alternative, because as Jonathan Cohn explains well, that would require supporting the tradeoffs necessary to accomplish what Obamacare accomplishes. Republicans either have to quietly back away from repeal or support ”replacing” it with something that looks a lot like Obamacare. Yet both are nonstarters because the base won’t allow for it to be anything other than an unremitting catastrophe.

Repeal alone is increasingly unsustainable. But replace isn’t an easy escape hatch. And backing off of repeal is heresy to the all-important base. Could Republicans win big in 2014 despite this dilemma? Sure, thanks to the map and the intensity on their side. But Republicans still face an Obamacare conundrum with no easy answer.

Quote:

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2014/04/08/with-midterms-looming-obama-administration-caves-on-medicare-advantage-cuts/

With midterms looming, Obama administration caves on Medicare Advantage cuts