The rest of the untold story

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Obamacare’s Burdens
Obamacare will impact virtually everyone. But no single group will carry a more onerous burden from the legislation than physicians. Two specific mandates included in the bill, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act, will translate into a spike in regulations imposed on physicians, and will inevitably widen the gap between a patient and his doctor.
President Obama promised that his bill would provide health care coverage for over 30 million uninsured Americans. Yet of these, nearly 18 million will be added to Medicaid, a poorly performing welfare program. One major problem with expanding Medicaid, explains Heritage’s Bob Moffit, is that it skews physician incentives at the expense of patients:
Physician payments in the major entitlement programs, Medicare and Medicaid, are already well below the prevailing rates in the private sector. On average, physicians in Medicare are paid 81 percent of private payment; physicians in Medicaid are paid 56 percent of private payment.

Because doctors are underpaid for the services they provide under Medicare and Medicaid, this system limits Medicare and Medicaid patients’ access to physicians, and contributes to massive overcrowding and waiting times in emergency rooms. To demonstrate this point, a survey conducted by Opinion Research Corporation recently showed that about two-thirds of primary care physicians reported that under this legislation, new Medicaid enrollees would not be able to find a “suitable primary care physician” in their area.
And what about President Obama’s promise to those Americans who were already insured? “If you like your health plan, you can keep it,” he said time and again. But under Obamacare, many companies simply cannot afford to continue to offer insurance to their employees, most of whom like their current health plans. These employees will be forced onto government rolls.
During the health care debates, Speaker Pelosi remarked, “we have to pass the bill to find out what’s in it.” Now that Obamacare has passed, more of these critical details are surfacing. And they’re not pretty. For example, the Congressional Budget Office just released new budgetary figures this week, bringing the total projected cost of the “reform” to a staggering $1 trillion.
We cannot afford this bill -- physically or financially. It comes as no surprise that 56 percent of Americans now favor repeal, and that number is expected to continue to rise. Not satisfied with waiting until the November elections, 33 states have already taken legal measures to combat the legislation.
Congress’ best option is to scrap the current plan and start over from scratch, and The Heritage Foundation is more than willing to help.
Read suggestions from Heritage’s Bob Moffit on better alternatives for reforming our current health care system (link in PDF).