Carpal Health Care Syndrome
The narrowing of choices and health care services.
The narrowing of options for health care services under Obamacare has been discussed before:
- Not only can’t you keep your doctor, you may not even have a doctor
- Doctors, doctors everywhere, but not a one to see you (under Obamacare exchange coverage)
- Obamacare: Good luck finding in-network doctors
The New York Times writes, More Insured, but the Choices Are Narrowing:
In the midst of all the turmoil in health care these days, one thing is becoming clear: No matter what kind of health plan consumers choose, they will find fewer doctors and hospitals in their network — or pay much more for the privilege of going to any provider they want.
These so-called narrow networks, featuring limited groups of providers, have made a big entrance on the newly created state insurance exchanges, where they are a common feature in many of the plans. While the sizes of the networks vary considerably, many plans now exclude at least some large hospitals or doctors’ groups. Smaller networks are also becoming more common in health care coverage offered by employers and in private Medicare Advantage plans.
Insurers, ranging from national behemoths like WellPoint, UnitedHealth and Aetna to much smaller local carriers, are fully embracing the idea, saying narrower networks are essential to controlling costs and managing care. Major players contend they can avoid the uproar that crippled a similar push in the 1990s.
“We have to break people away from the choice habit that everyone has,” said Marcus Merz, the chief executive of PreferredOne, an insurer in Golden Valley, Minn., that is owned by two health systems and a physician group. “We’re all trying to break away from this fixation on open access and broad networks.”
No one could have seen this coming.
Now let’s time travel back to the Era of Delusion:
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“We have to break people away from the choice habit that everyone has,” said Marcus Merz, the chief executive of PreferredOne, an insurer in Golden Valley, Minn., that is owned by two health systems and a physician group. “We’re all trying to break away from this fixation on open access and broad networks.”
Yes. We have to force people down chutes, into their holding pens.
Too much of that “choice” goin’ on dow-in thar…
Here’s a flash…
I have completely open access. My “network” is as wide as the Mississippi.
I will not comply.
Members of Congress and their staffs get free coverage and open networks.
I have four children and two faced life threatening illness. Our Pediatrician once told us to start thinking
about funeral arrangements for our youngest. But, both children survived and are doing well. If someone had told me that I could not take them to the medical school for specialized treatment – I would have spilled bureaucrat blood.
I hear you. Bless your heart.
Happy to hear there was a happy ending for your kids, Musson.
I can’t wait for the Lena Dunham video:
“My first time dying was amazing! It was this line in the sand. Before I was a Girl … shilling for ObamaCare … Now I was a Woman and a corpse. I voted for Barack Obama! (goofy smile)”
That particular quote struck me as particularly sickening as well.
One of the many things the single payer crowd missed in Canada was that a doctors would be akin to a government employees and would have a contract that set the number of their patients. Many doctors would then decide to sign up the healthiest patients they could find whenever a slot opened in their practice since this would decrease their work load. Many chronically ill patients soon found themselves without a primary care physician and were forced to rely on ERs for their care.
That and more – PLUS the scandalous abusive non-treatment of Veterans through the sorry sub-standard corrupt VA system.
Obamacare must be bad when a Democrat declares there is NO such thing as Obamacare – no healthcare system at all – http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/senator-theres-no-such-thing-obamacare_786226.html
That would certainly fit the pattern of the Obama administration. Green businesses that go under in less than a year or two… illegalities, frauds, corruption, deficit spending, agencies and president abusing powers, lies and more damned lies.
Is there any record of Obamacare actually contracting with a doctor or actually paying anyone’s doctor bill?
More:
https://legalinsurrection.com/2014/03/maine-senator-theres-no-such-thing-as-obamacare/
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/374613/senator-theres-no-such-thing-obamacare-andrew-johnson
The singer has a lovely voice. She sings “Don’t worry about the price tag…” Isn’t that what it is all about, how much health care costs? If you are paying more for less, you are being ripped off. Who likes that? If you are getting insurance for the first time and are paying premiums and then can’t get the doctor you need in a timely manner, you feel cheated because you paid your premiums and you’re not getting the care you thought you would be getting.
Her eyes constantly rolling up to the corner seem to indicate she’s telling a big one.
http://etiquette-social-situations.knoji.com/how-can-we-tell-if-someone-is-lying-to-us/
The laundry baskets in the background were a nice touch. What total idiocy. I don’t know, Uncle Samuel. She doesn’t look bright enough to be lying. I’ll bet she bought the lies, hook, line, and sinker.
“We’re all trying to break away from this fixation on open access and broad networks.”
I wonder who the “we” includes. Somehow I doubt it includes the
victimscustomers of the health care system. If so, it sounds like the ideal “crony” business; they get the money, but don’t have to provide the service the customer is actually paying for. I suppose in Democrat-speak that counts as “reform”.There are several things at play here.
First, there is pressure from the Obamabanana Republic on their “insurance partners” to keep insurance costs low.
Second, there are ways they (the companies and their massa) can do that…
1. price controls (which are in play, limiting the pay-out for a given procedure or treatment; lower pay = lower quality as a rule)
2. limiting demand (people on ObamaDoggle will find they are only allowed certain things, or have the set of things they demand limited by their deductibles, etc.)
3. limiting supply (there are lots of places you will find no doctor within easy driving distance, so you will need to be REALLY in need before you use your “insurance”)
This was quite explicitly laid out in a paper by the CBO just recently.
Everyone I knew who supported the ACA or a single payer had one thing in common which was the belief of what they thought it was going to be. They had a very pie-in-the-sky view. They never did any research or read any part of the bill. It was going to magically be wonderful. At no point were they interested in anyone being negative about the what was really going to happen. Some people have to learn the hard way. Those evil insurance companies were going to get better and those over paid doctors were going to be more affordable. The bottom line is that if you want to see a doctor then pay cash or there won’t be one to see.
Choice is bad. Unless… Oh, never mind.
That video did not get the appropriate level of mocking it truly deserves.
Ask the ER staff at your local hospital how this is working out. I did a shift there as part of some training and WHOA… that free health insurance is worthy every penny they paid for it (but not what you I paid for them to have it for free).
HINT- no doctors will see these people. so they go to the ER.
Unsurprisingly, the comments were disabled for that lame video. It deserves more than a mocking – it deserves to be savaged.
Truly lame. It’s disturbing to think that anyone would actually be swayed by such a laughably bad video ~
Rick Santorum hit the nail on the head when he said is a clear indication of what we can expect from Obamacare.
Democrats are so willing to lie to make up the difference, rather then work to solve a problem.
Plus they have the willing lapdogs of the media to affirm their lies to the low information Americans.
FYI:
$1.2 Billion Obamacare Contract Pays Workers to Do Nothing
Check out this video of Obamacare contractors paid to do nothing, literally.
Read more at http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2014/05/12-billion-obamacare-contract-pays.html#2ujLO2UQodm8BfUF.99
“We have to break people away from the choice habit”
Really. I mean, that sounds like, I dunno, FREEDOM. Get over it! It’s just so 1776.
I don’t understand why networks are being shrunk so drastically. If you’re paying $X for a procedure, why would you care whether 5 or 500 people are willing to accept $X to do it? A large network is also a competitive advantage.
It isn’t a matter of “shrinking” networks per se. You have the wrong end of the stick. What happens is you have a total population of providers. The “shrinkage” occurs when you offer a penitence as payment under ObamaDoggle, and you only get a “narrow” slice of your population of providers who will take that crap.
This is at the heart of why some of us have been pointing out there is a BIG difference between some “health insurance” and actual “health care”. You can HAVE ObamaDoggle, and not be able to find anyone who’ll take it…or anyone you’d like, for sure.
“pittance” of course. Not “penitence”. Damn burst typing…
Actually Penitence works just fine for me. It’s all about overcharging (from jugears viewpoint) so there has to be some penance. And it sounds so close to penitentiary, so there’s that.
The financials are an interesting read. There was some kind of contest to produce videos, and this organization put how much $ into the video itself–anything?
http://www.guidestar.org/PartnerReport.aspx?partner=justgivews&ein=52-0888113
The Center also serves as the fiscal sponsor for the Young Invincibles, a national organization representing the interests of 18- to 34-year-olds and working to ensure that their perspective is heard wherever decisions about their collective future are being made.
The mission of the Center for Community Change is to build the power and capacity of low-income people, especially low-income people of color, to change their communities and public policies for the better.
Mr. Bhargava currently serves on the boards of the Discount Foundation, the League of Education Voters, The Nation editorial board, the National Advisory Board for the Open Society Institute, and Democracia Ahora.
More from the web-site of the parent organization that sponsored the video contest:
In recent years, the Campaign and its partners have won important improvements in the social safety net, protected critical retirement security programs from the chopping block, defeated numerous anti-worker measures and mobilized communities across the country to win historic health care reform. The Campaign has been widely credited with preventing anti-progressive forces from seizing the U.S. Senate through our work building a “firewall” with Latino, low-income and immigrant voters. Today, the Campaign is training more than 1,000 new activist leaders in swing states as we build a new movement for job creation.
http://www.communitychange.org/contact/careers/immigrant-association-director/