The Silence of the Left (0care)

American Thinker ^ | November 3, 2013 | Clarice Feldman

[jazusamo]

There is widespread fury at the lies which were used to sell ObamaCare, a more than 2,000-page piece of legislation no one read before it was passed, a law opposed by the majority of voters which was crammed down our throats without a single Republican vote. The law essentially was a mishmash blank slate which left it to the administration's HHS head, Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to write as she pleased and the president to -- by Executive order -- pay off with exemptions and special treatment those cronies and rent seekers not already paid off in the legislative and regulatory process.

Whether this law will continue to pass judicial scrutiny remains to be seen, but what is obvious at this early date is that the press and the public figures who promoted it are lying low as the tsunami of voter rage builds.

If your only source of news is the major media, here are some facts they've kept from you:

1. Since July 2010 the Administration knew that at a minimum 40-67% of private health insurance owners would not be able to keep their insurance.

NBC's Lisa Myers broke the story, but both on air and in its published account NBC went to great lengths to bury her account of events that makes the president's repeated pre-election promise that if you liked your insurance you'd be able to keep it an outrageous bald-faced lie.

Here was her original report:

President Obama repeatedly assured Americans that after the Affordable Care Act became law, people who liked their health insurance would be able to keep it. But millions of Americans are getting or are about to get cancellation letters for their health insurance under Obamacare, say experts, and the Obama administration has known that for at least three years.

[okie01]

I had a 60 grand surgery last year for cancer. The knife man got about 3 grand.

I'm a dialysis patient. My wife is an accountant.

As a consequence, I generate medical bills every week (dialysis 3x). Plus, about six to eight related procedures per year. And I've got a heart condition, thus, a cardiologist.

I'm on Medicare and have a supplemental policy.

Yes, I'm one of those guys that everybody else is paying for. I'm sorry...but it wasn't my idea and that's the way it is.

The point is, though: My wife carefully reviews the detailed status of every medical bill I have. And what she's found is that a $60K medical bill might result in, say, around $30K of payments. Medicare pays an arbitrary amount that can range from 20% to 70% of an individual supplier's billing, the supplemental insurer will kick in exactly 25% of what Medicare authorizes.

As a consequence, the intrusion of government into the market has destroyed the concept of pricing to cost. Medical care is now priced to the proportion that the government will pay -- regardless of its actual cost or real profit margin.

The healthcare economy is a totally artificial construct.

[bert]

please ask your accountant wife........

what happens to the unpaid but invoiced amount?

how does the provider account ? it is an unpaid receivable . Is it then written off as a bad debt? How doees it effect the bottom line on the P& L?

Is the written off amount somehow a tax advantage?

[twoputt]

Great comments from my fellow Freepers.

Actually, it may never come up. At least when I’m around. Several years ago, at Thanksgiving dinner, someone started spouting off about global warming and we had to change our ways. I calmly questioned why the polar icecaps on Mars melted. “Was it because of all the factories and SUVs up there?” They never said another word.

Just have your facts and express them CALMLY. If they continue to harass you, then CALMLY tell them to stick the turkey leg where the sun don’t shine. And ask them to pass the cranberries.

[yldstrk]

oh bull crap

I have negotiated those bills down for clients

[okie01]

There is no medical bill that can’t be negotiated down — especially if you agree to pay cash; even over time.

[okie01]

You would have to ask somebody who is familiar with medical accounting. My wife is not.

But I imagine there are some rather large "adjustments".

[JustSurrounded]

My sister worked billing and insurance in a doctor's office for years. This is what so infuriates me. Insurance companies and medicare negotiate a payment schedule with the docs based on an agreed amount billed. As I understand it, if the doc charges less and the insurer or medicare gets wind of it, they reduce their payments to the doc to a percentage of that new lower charge. Docs can treat for free, but cash customers have to pay an inflated billing amount or all insurance payments to the doc are in jeopardy. I have never understood why this isn't racketeering or something. And fixing that alone would have gone a long way to helping the poor and uninsured.