MA hospitals sue state for losing money on MassCare (Obamacare preview)

Fox News Channel | 12/1/09

[pabianice]

Per Fox, Massachusetts hospitals are suing the state for huge losses under RomneyCare/MassCare. Fox says that under Mini-Obamacare, hospitals get as little as 40% of the money due them for the care they provide. Massachusetts is currently running a $3 billion deficit under MassCare, which was instituted in 2006.

If you like MassCare, you'll LOVE Obamacare.

[Reagan69]

Ok, now that Huck and Mitt are eliminated from running in 2012 ... guess who’s left standing.

Yep, standing brave, tall, confident... SARAH PALIN !

[albie]

Nice of FOX to tow the line on these stories. Too bad they’re the only TV media outlet to do so. What I have a hard time understanding is how the MSNBC’s of the world CAN ignore these stories! This is proof positive of what a full blown “Obamacare” would be like. $3 billion!? Multiply that by 50 states!

[DoughtyOne]

Only a Mhithead could love that health care plan.

They can call it a rose, but it still smells like Mhit!

[AppyPappy]

“Nice of FOX to tow the line on these stories.”

Pssst......** toe the line ** as in “put your toes on that line”

[Leisler]

Like all socialist/RINO systems, it’s designed to cheat someone, or most everyone. Who, especially a Harvard MBA/Lawyer, would sign on to such a system? Unless of course your public morals/ethics are so used to being corrupt. Or/and your are Mitt Romney, son of Romney of the Never Fought For America Romneys and you have some exalted delusion that America needs another corportists, RINO, Lawyer woose as President.

( I can’t wait until his boring, platitude dull., airport bookstore quality management, Tony Robbins meets America type book comes out. /sarc)

[rhombus]

Ah yes... the Gov in Mass is all so powerful that the legislature merely quivers when the Gov speaks (and other fantasies).

[grumpygresh]

Looks like everything is going to plan with the Marxists. Hospitals are going into the red (because of the reds) with reimbursements that do not cover overhead. What’s next. Why you should know the answer, some sort of bailout. Then, the state can even more directly control the health care system. The idea is to create large hospital systems directly under the control of the government as in Britain. Services becomes so much easier to ration. Because they will effectively own and control the hospitals, the state can also promote abortion and all those other statist initiatives unfettered by conservatives.

[sportutegrl]

To all the Romneybots on FR who accuse FReepers of being prejudiced against Mormons: It is not about religion, it is about Romneycare.

[ExTexasRedhead]

I call it Mengele/DeathCare for a more accurate description of what Zero, Pelosi, and Reid want to shove down our throats. I would describe it as Holocaust II. Same results are planned by denying care via their Death Panels.

[556x45]

This isn’t the first time the state has been sued over health care. Pre-MitCare the state had some ill thought out scheme to allow the poor access to health care. Well, the cost over runs were immediate and huge and the state simply stopped paying hospitals (even though the law said they would). The hospitals successfully sued the state. Some yrs later MitCare was born w/ equally disastrous results. Makes one wonder about the people of MA. Are they cosmically stupid or ???? My vote is for the former. No amt of beatings will penetrate their thick heads.

[Godzilla]

To all the Romneybots on FR who accuse FReepers of being prejudiced against Mormons: It is not about religion, it is about Romneycare.

That's the only card the mittbots have to play is the victim card, don't you know.

[Diogenesis]

PROOF RomneyCARE is a Disaster (and Romney is utterly clueless)

“Small businesses bridle at health insurance hikes (Romneycare strangles Mass. businesses)
Bob Carroll, owner of a Billerica distributor of paint spraying equipment, recently got
some really bad news from Blue Cross-Blue Shield: His company’s health insurance rates are going up 47 percent in January.”

---

“Republicans warn: Rationing medicine has already begun
But in a joint opinion piece called "Govt.-Run Health Care Isn't the Answer," published
in the online version of The Advocate, a leading homosexual magazine, Sen. Tom
Coburn, R-Okla., and GOProud's Christopher R. Barron warned the homosexual
community that the Ryan White CARE Act has already demonstrated how government-
run health care has introduced rationing and waiting lists and cost the lives of the people under its provisions.”

---

“DEATH PANELS OPEN FOR BUSINESS IN MASSACHUSETTS”

---

“President Obama's newly confirmed regulatory czar defended the
possibility of removing organs from terminally ill patients without their permission.”

---

“You can’t reap these savings without limiting patients’ choices in some way," said Paul Levy, CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess.”

---

“State plan may place limits on patients’ hospital options( Mass. RomneyCare )”

---

"Romney Visits Nebraska, Talks Health Care [where he defends Romneycare] “

---

"Paying the Health Tax in Massachusetts [Romneycare]
Massachusetts requires every resident to have health insurance, and this
year, without informing us directly, the state had changed the rules in a way that made
our bare-bones policy no longer acceptable. Unless we ponied up for a pricier policy we
neither need nor want—or enrolled in a government-sponsored insurance plan—we
would have to pay $1,000 each year to the state.
How did we become outlaws? “

---

"National Health Preview - The Massachusetts debacle, coming soon to your neighborhood."
It was only a matter of time.
They're trying to manage the huge costs of the subsidized middle-class insurance program that is gradually swallowing the state budget.
The program provides low- or no-cost coverage to about 165,000 residents, or three-fifths of the newly insured, and is budgeted at $880 million for 2010, a 7.3% single-year increase that is likely to be optimistic.
The state's overall costs on health programs have increased by 42% (!) since 2006."

---

A Very Sick Health Plan; Bay State’s ‘Grand Experiment’ Fails [RomneyCare]
"Initiated on Mr. Romney’s gubernatorial watch in 2006, this “experiment” has fallen on hard times, and predictably so. “

---

Health care in Massachusetts: a warning for America [Romney brings Mass. to its knees]
The Bay State's mandatory insurance law is raising costs, limiting access, and lowering care.
Three years ago, Massachusetts adopted a plan requiring all residents to purchase health
insurance, with state subsidies for lower-income residents. But rather than creating a
utopia of high-quality affordable healthcare, the result has been the exact opposite –
skyrocketing costs, worsened access, and lower quality care."

---

"‘Severe’ doc shortage seen hiking wait time
“The shortage is getting more severe”"

---

“Health costs to rise again.( RomneyCare )
The state’s major health insurers plan to raise premiums by about 10 percent next year,
prompting many employers to reduce benefits and shift additional costs to workers.”

---

“Nation’s ill-advised to follow Mass. plan [Health plan a failure]
September 17, 2009 The canary is dead.
Massachusetts, the model for the ObamaCare universal insurance plan, is the canary in
the health care coal mine. Yesterday, its obit appeared on the front page of both The Wall
Street Journal and The Boston Globe-Democrat “

---

"Bay State Insurance Premiums Highest in Country - Boston Globe August 22, 2009
Massachusetts has the most expensive family health insurance premiums in the country,
according to a new analysis that highlights the state’s challenge in trying to rein in medical costs
40 percent higher than in 2003. Over the same period, premiums nationwide rose an average of 33 percent..."

---

"Massachusetts: the laboratory for ObamaCare“

---

"Massachusetts' Obama-like reforms increase health costs, wait times [RomneyCare]
Premiums are growing 21 to 46 percent faster than the national average"

---

"Mass. Pushes Rationing to Control Universal Healthcare Costs (RomneyCare)
A 10-member Massachusetts state healthcare advisory board unanimously recommended
that the state begin rationing healthcare to keep the state’s marquee universal health care program afloat financially.”

---

"1,000 cancer patients 'refused treatment'"

---

"Massachusetts Universal Healthcare System Breaking Down Already
ERs in Massachusetts have not seen a downturn in visits. On the contrary, it seems that ER visits are actually on the upswing in the Bay State. In fact, in 2007 they were higher than the national average by 20 percent...”

---

"Hospital patients 'left in agony'"

---

"National Health Preview - The Massachusetts debacle, coming soon to your neighborhood.
In Massachusetts's latest crisis,
They're trying to manage the huge costs of the subsidized middle-class insurance program that is gradually swallowing the state budget.
The program provides low- or no-cost coverage to about 165,000 residents, or three-fifths of the newly insured, and is budgeted at $880 million for 2010, a 7.3% single-year increase that is likely to be optimistic.
The state's overall costs on health programs have increased by 42% (!) since 2006
Mr. Romney should have known better before signing on to this not-so-grand experiment, especially since the state's "free market" reforms that he boasts about have proven to be irrelevant when not fictional.
Only 21,000 people have used the "connector" that was supposed to link individuals to private insurers."

---

A Very Sick Health Plan; Bay State’s ‘Grand Experiment’ Fails [RomneyCare]
… fiscal troubles aplenty within Repubican Mitt Romney’s brainchild, Massachusetts’ “grand experiment” in “universal” health care."
"Initiated on Mr. Romney’s gubernatorial watch in 2006, this “experiment” has fallen on hard times, and predictably so.
Even though the Bay State commenced its program with a far smaller percentage of uninsured residents than exists nationwide,
“RomneyCare” is threatening to bankrupt the state.“

---

"Dem Congresswoman Admits Obama Health Care Plan Will Destroy Private Health Insurance Industry"

---

"Romney’s mistreatments a sick man, as Gov. Mitt Romney meets a medical marijuana patient"

---

PROOF OBAMA - CARE is a Disaster (and Congress could care less)

“CATO: OBAMACARE PRICE TAG IS 6 TRILLIONS
When we correct for both gimmicks, counting both on- and off-budget costs over the first 10 years of implementation, the total cost of ObamaCare reaches — I’m so sorry about this — $6.25 trillion.“

---

“The former CBO director, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, warns today on the effect ObamaCare
will have on our economy and health care. …This bill will lead to a huge middle class tax increase:
The bill creates a new health entitlement program that the Congressional Budget Office
(CBO) estimates will grow over the longer term at a rate of 8% annually, which is much
faster than the growth rate of the economy or tax revenues.“

---

”When Barack Obama ran for president, he promised that his health care plan would
"lower health-care costs by $2,500 for the typical family." Now, it turns out that new
legislation that he supports creating public-private "co-operatives" will increase the costs
of family health insurance by $4,000 by 2019.”

---

”Robert Reich Reveals Brutal Health Care Truths; MSM Snores
"We're going to have to, if you're very old, we're not going to give you all that
technology and all those drugs for the last couple of years of your life to keep you
maybe going for another couple of months. It's too expensive...so we're going to let
you die."

---

”PriceWaterhouseCoopers concluded that the cost of health insurance for the average
family will rise by $4,000 by 2019, as compared with doing nothing:”

---

“Customers will pay big for health fix: insurers”

---

“A major new report confirms the worst fears of many: Health care reform will raise the
costs for most Americans—by about 18% on average. That is on top of existing inflation of health coverage.”

---

“The WSJ Guide to ObamaCare. A comprehensive collection of our editorials. "

---

“45% Of Doctors Would Consider Quitting If Congress Passes Health Care Overhaul
Two of every three practicing physicians oppose the medical overhaul plan under
consideration in Washington, and hundreds of thousands would think about shutting
down their practices or retiring early if it were adopted, a new IBD/TIPP Poll has found.
The poll contradicts the claims of not only the White House, but also doctors' own lobby
— the powerful American Medical Association “

---

"Obama health care plan projected to cost 5.2 million jobs
In addition wages would be “stunted” for another 10.2 million wage earners."

---

"Oregon Offers Terminal Patients Doctor-Assisted Suicide Instead of Medical Care
PORTLAND, Ore. — Some terminally ill patients in Oregon who turned to their state for health care
were denied treatment and offered doctor-assisted suicide instead
"[How could they] not pay for medication that would help my life, and yet offer to pay to end my life?"

---

"Obama Health-Care Would Drive Up Inflation and Health-Care Costs
ObamaCare would shrink the economy, drive up health-care costs and inflation,
and increase the deficit,
Overall, total federal expenditures will be 5.6 percent higher than otherwise by 2019, adding $285.6 billion to the federal deficit in 2019”

---

"Pushing Veterans Toward the Grave”

---

PROOF Socialized Medicine is a Disaster

“70 deaths on ward of shame: Patients neglected by lazy nurses in a filthy, blood-spattered casualty unit, says damning report”

---

Hundreds of patients died needlessly at NHS hospital due to appalling care
The watchdog report comes just months after an investigation into Mid-Staffordshire
The NHS foundation trust found similar problems, with up to 1,200 avoidable deaths. ”

---

“NHS trust faces probe into high death rate and blood-spattered equipment ”

---

“NHS will provide free marriage guidance
Doctors and patients' groups said they were "horrified" by the use of NHS resources for
relationship advice when patients with cancer and dementia were being denied
treatment they desperately needed. ”

---

"Hospital patients 'left in agony'"
"Patients were allegedly left screaming in pain and drinking from flower vases on a nightmare hospital ward.
She said: "We saw patients drinking out of..."

---

“Woman bleeds to death after doctor punctures jugular - and no blood is available(UK) "

---

“Canadian Aboriginals receive body bags for flu

Health officials ordered an investigation Thursday into why the Canadian government
sent body bags to an Aboriginal reserve in Manitoba after community leaders requested
assistance to deal with an expected outbreak of swine flu. “

---

"Patient with ulcer collapses and dies after paramedics tell her: 'Stop being a drama queen'"

---

"Doctors said I'd had a miscarriage and did nothing as my premature baby fought for his life"

---

"British Death Panel IBD Editorials September 10, 2009
Single Payer: In Britain, where the public option is about all most patients get,
a newborn has died because national guidelines recommend that the baby not be treated."

---

"Is This The Obamacare Future? Overworked Doctors in Australia Worried They Are Killing Patients
there are long waiting lists for orthopedic surgery (median wait for total hip replacement is 88 days;
10% of patients waited over 345 days in 1999 to 2000), and cataract surgery (median is 73 days; 10% waited more than 316 days)."

---

"Bed shortage forces 4,000 mothers to give birth in lifts, offices and hospital toilets"

---

"Sentenced to death on the NHS ….
they can then have fluid and drugs withdrawn and many are put on continuous sedation until they pass away.

---

"NHS blunders allowed cannibal Peter Bryan to kill two”

---

"Paramedics told: 'Let accident victims die if they want to' in new row over patient rights (UK)"

---

---

"Patients Forced To Wait Hours In Ambulances Parked Outside A&E Departments"

---

"Cancer survivor confronts the health secretary on 62-day wait (UK)"

---

"Hospital patient so shocked at dirty ward she climbed out of bed to clean it herself."

---

"Kidney cancer patients denied life-saving drugs by NHS rationing body NICE (UK) "

---

"Girl, 3, has heart operation cancelled three times because of bed shortage (UK)."

[Trillian]

Wow, 3 billion deficit for the tiny state of massachusetts. I can’t imagine the HUGE amount for the entire country. This bill must NOT pass.