The Obamacare death spiral continues. Excerpt:
The speed at which Obamacare is now collapsing has exceeded the pace at which its advocates are able to produce plausible excuses. For evidence of this, one need look no further than the latest conspiracy theory concocted by Andrew Slavitt, the paragon of public service who runs the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Slavitt, best known to the public for lying to Congress about his agency’s efforts to recover taxpayer-funded PPACA start-up grants misappropriated by state officials, has instructed his minions to issue a public information request concerning the “inappropriate steering” of patients to Obamacare exchanges.
The ostensible impetus for the request involves “reports” allegedly received by CMS to the effect that numerous doctors and hospitals, “for the purpose of obtaining higher payment rates,” are steering uninsured patients toward the exchanges and discouraging them from applying for Medicare or Medicaid. For anyone familiar with how Obamacare plans actually pay, this will fail the laugh test. But Slavitt apparently expects us to take it seriously. In a press release, he made the following claim: “We are concerned about reports that some organizations may be engaging in enrollment activities that put their profit margins ahead of their patients’ needs.”
The real purpose of the information request is, of course, to create another set of villains to blame for Obamacare’s rapidly accelerating collapse. This is why neither the CMS information request nor Slavitt’s news release provides any information concerning how many reports the agency has received or from what source they emanated. The request does, however, provide a gruesome list of calamities that may result from this fictitious plot: “We believe this practice not only could raise overall health system costs, but could… result in higher out-of-pocket costs for enrollees, and have a negative impact on the individual market single risk pool.”
To quote my college-age daughters: “Well, duuuh.”
Both President Obama and Her Imperial Majesty Hillary I like to brag about Obamacare, which in fact has reversed a long term trend of decreased health care spending. All over the country, premiums are increasing – the only reason Mrs. Animal and I have escaped the increase in premiums is because we are covered under the ChampVA program, and dealing with the VA healthcare system is a great example of what we can expect from government-run health care.
Supply and demand, True Believers, will not be denied. Obamacare tried to mandate a massive increase in coverage – and that artificial increase in demand with no increase in supply inevitably raises costs. Adam Smith knew about this 220 years ago.
Why can’t our Imperial government figure it out today?
