Sunday, September 22, 2013

ObamaCare's redistribution of health and death

Politics: ObamaCare's redistribution of health and death 

ObamaCare's redistribution of health and death

Image Credit: Fibonacci Blue via Flickr

Published by: Herman Cain on Sunday September 22nd, 2013

Herman Cain

The way ObamaCare works is disturbingly similar to the tax code. That is not good.
Most people and businesses clearly understand, now, how ObamaCare redistributes the cost of health insurance and the cost of health care. It does it with a plethora of rules, taxes and penalties.

But little attention has been given to how these same rules, penalties and taxes also redistribute health, sickness and death. Maybe it is because it's a sensitive subject, or maybe it might cause the PC police to declare a full attack on anyone who would use such provocative narrative. That's what happened, after all, when Sarah Palin was crucified by the mainstream media for correctly identifying "death panels" in ObamaCare.

Well, bring it on, PC police! The truth shall set some people free!

When the "death panel" (also known as the Independent Payment Advisory Board, or IPAB) decides whether you are allowed a procedure or not, they are deciding whether your chance of survival  is worth the cost in their opinion. If they say no then you die sooner than maybe later.

When the cost of insuring the uninsurable is spread across everybody that buys insurance,  rather than a dedicated subsidized pool, somebody's coverage is going to be denied or delayed because they are forced to buy less expensive insurance coverage if they cannot afford to pay more for their insurance. Just like minor car accident claims, people might ignore minor ailments to keep their rates from going up.

In my own personal case, a minor ailment wich I thought was acidity from coffee turned out to be stage four cancer. Because I was able to get diagnosed and treated on my timetable instead of the government's, and at the expense of my insurance coverage and my out of pocket expenses, my 30 percent chance of survival turned into now seven years of being cancer-free!

When someone is notified that their Medicare insurance will no longer cover certain medications, such as the cost of their insulin medication, that person is forced to choose between paying their bills or staying alive.

Many doctors have announced that they can no longer afford to take new Medicare patients because of cuts in Medicare payments to doctors. These patients can't just find another doctor who will take Medicare patients because chances are that they can't take anymore either. As a result, some people will not get medical assistance until their condition is an emergency from waiting too long, or until they are on their death bed.

Rural communities will be especially negatively impacted by a shortage of doctors who will see Medicare patients, because rural communities tend to have more Medicare-eligible patients. A majority of Medicare payments means most of a doctor's revenue is coming from Medicare payments made by Uncle Sam, which is not sufficient to sustain a financially viable medical practice.

As a result, doctors will relocate to more lucrative areas and people living in rural areas will have to travel farther to get medical care, or they will not be able to get treatment at all. Thus, illnesses will advance more quickly, thus reducing survival rates.

The U.S. tax code redistributes wealth and income, and one does not have to be rich to be subjected to our archaic, punitive and complex system. The more you make, the more they (the bureaucrats) take from you using the force of law. That's why we must change the law by replacing the tax code.

ObamaCare works in much the same way. It confiscates the entire cost structure and dynamics of our health care and health insurance system, as well as life and death decisions that should be made by individuals and their family members. ObamaCare also commandeers decisions that should be made by doctors, by denying payment for certain diagnostic procedures deemed unnecessary by, again, government bureaucrats.

Sticker shock causes people to wake up to the truth about the cost of ObamaCare, which is nothing like the promises made by its advocates. They can buy less insurance coverage with the same dollars, as most people will be forced to do, or pay more for the same coverage, or be forced to buy more coverage with more dollars to meet minimum requirements of ObamaCare.

But when people are denied or wait too long for a medical treatment due to rules, taxes and penalties, the medical condition can't be quickly reversed or cured after waiting on a bureaucrat to say yes or no.

If the government says yes, a person's chances of survival are already reduced. If they say no, well, you just might die sooner rather than later.

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