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I’m a gov’t employee. Next month, the 2013 cost for health care plans will come out. Last time....it was roughly a four-percent increase over the previous year, and I’m expecting at least five-percent this year. This “cut” that the President chatted about....just ain’t there. I don’t know where the “cut” is supposed to be, but it’s not realistic and I doubt if it ever was realistic.

Yes, this was predictable. In the meantime, physician reimbursement has been cut markedly - forcing many to work for hospital corporations and give up trying to keep their private practices afloat. So prices go up, but the money increasingly goes to those who don't actually take care of patients.

Eventually, after they've ‘herded’ all the ‘providers’ into these hospital systems, they'll slash payments to the hospitals - and there won't be any alternatives. At this point you will see more and more efforts at cost cutting by hospitals - and the quality of care and scope of care will be seriously affected. Look at the UK. It's inevitable if we stay on this path.

I had a patient ask the other day why medicare only allowed a payment of about $30 for his extended specialty office visit. He's a business man, and said it ‘didn't seem fair’ for them to pay so little. If medicare is their 'insurance', I don't ask them to pay the difference. The point is that you could have docs work essentially for nothing, and prices would still rise under this system - while the quality of care and personal attention dropped. It's the nature of ‘centralized planning’ and expanding bureaucracies.