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Doctors, doctors everywhere, but not a one to see you (under Obamacare exchange coverage)
Legal Insurrection ^ | September 15, 2013 | Professor William A. Jacobson

Posted on 09/15/2013 2:46:45 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

Death Panels by a thousand cuts.

No one could have seen this coming, no one.

From the L.A. Times, that hotbed of right-wing scare-tactics, Insurers limiting doctors, hospitals in health insurance market:

The doctor can’t see you now.

Consumers may hear that a lot more often after getting health insurance under President Obama’s Affordable Care Act.

To hold down premiums, major insurers in California have sharply limited the number of doctors and hospitals available to patients in the state’s new health insurance market opening Oct. 1.

New data reveal the extent of those cuts in California, a crucial test bed for the federal healthcare law.

These diminished medical networks are fueling growing concerns that many patients will still struggle to get care despite the nation’s biggest healthcare expansion in half a century.

Consumers could see long wait times, a scarcity of specialists and loss of a longtime doctor.

“These narrow networks won’t work because they cut off access for patients,” said Dr. Richard Baker, executive director of the Urban Health Institute at Charles Drew University of Medicine and Science in Los Angeles. “We don’t want this to become a roadblock.”

Welcome to the new normal.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Government
KEYWORDS: deathcare; deathpanels; medicine; nothealthcare; obama; obamacare; romneyagenda; romneycare
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
I have it on good authority that under Obamacare, you can keep your same doctor and your rates will go down about $2,500. This must be just some little California glitch that will soon work itself out.

Excuse me a second. I think that is my free Obamaphone ringing again to let me know my free EBT Card has been refilled, or my free Section 8 Housing voucher is ready for pickup, along with my free public transportation passes, and my new free Medicaid ID. They say it won't be necessary for voting, though, so those wonderful people running the country up at Obama's Stash are keeping things very simple for us.

America! Is this a great country, or what!!??

21 posted on 09/15/2013 4:52:40 PM PDT by Gritty (Nobody wants to hear about American exceptionalism when the issue is American ineffectualism-MSteyn)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

When the state owned press reports that everything is wonderful individuals will think “I must be the only one who’s unhappy.”


22 posted on 09/15/2013 4:55:05 PM PDT by VerySadAmerican (".....Barrack, and the horse Mohammed rode in on.")
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To: Pearls Before Swine

The other benefit of Indians opening medical clinics - there are reservations scattered across the country. Even small ones in the East could find large customer bases. And the private medical care paid by gringos could subsidize decent medical care for Native Americans, versus the Native American health services today where they jokingly say not to get sick past March due to lack of funds.
And unlike building a refinery, medical practitioners could relocate to the reservations in a matter of weeks or months.


23 posted on 09/15/2013 5:21:20 PM PDT by tbw2
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To: Pearls Before Swine
Another poster pointed out that Indian Reservations are exempt from many laws, as we've seen with casinos. It would be ironic if the depressed reservations became new enterprise centers.

Excellent idea. Another irony would be the people who have suffered under the administration of the Indian Health Service (IHS) might be the salvation of the rest of us.

24 posted on 09/15/2013 5:40:27 PM PDT by Stegall Tx (I guess I'll have to give up teaching and get a real job in the Spring.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Can't you just see Carnival and Disney running five day "wellness cruises" to the Caribbean? Get all your tests done, see a real Doctor, prescriptions written, and filled at foreign ports of call with cooperating expat pharmacists, all in a relaxing atmosphere at a fraction of the price back home.
25 posted on 09/15/2013 6:18:21 PM PDT by hinckley buzzard
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Death Panels by a thousand cuts. No one could have seen this coming, no one.

Someone did.


26 posted on 09/15/2013 7:41:39 PM PDT by Slings and Arrows (You can't have Ingsoc without an Emmanuel Goldstein.)
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To: jeffc
And is the Cali government selecting which doctors and hospitals will be available?

I believe the insurance companies decide that.

27 posted on 09/15/2013 8:17:16 PM PDT by Mike Darancette (The Presidency is broken.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Many of the best doctors are approaching retirement age.


28 posted on 09/15/2013 8:30:14 PM PDT by Mike Darancette (The Presidency is broken.)
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