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"Docs4PatientCare.org is a politically neutral grassroots coalition of physicians.  Use of any politically partisan terms does not reflect the position of Docs4PatientCare.org.  We do encourage our speakers to express how they feel and we post articles based on their informative content only.  Any politically partisan language used does not reflect the group as a whole.  Specific party or political allegiances and opposition are not our intent.  The goal of D4PC is only to advocate for effective and responsible health care reform."

D4PC "Morning Rounds", Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Wednesday, December 07, 2011

Welcome to D4PC "Morning Rounds", your daily review of healthcare news and information from Washington, DC and around the nation. These briefings will keep you up to date on recent developments and our effort to replace the PPACA with patient-centered reforms that protect the doctor-patient relationship and preserve individual freedom of choice.



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"Barney Frank Backs IPAB Repeal", National Review

D4PC: Finally, evolving bi-partisan agreement on the more dubious aspects of the new healthcare law that even Democrats find problematic. As more of these lawmakers finally read the legislative language, nearly 2 years after passage into law, there is no doubt that the IPAB will be very harmful to American patients, especially seniors.

Massachusetts Democratic Rep. Barney Frank announced on Tuesday his support for the repeal of the Independent Payment Advisory Board, a significant portion of President Obama’s health care overhaul. Frank…became the 12th Democrat, and the 212th member of the House, to co-sponsor Tennessee Republican Rep. Phil Roe’s bill aimed at repealing the IPAB.

....such bipartisan opposition to IPAB certainty poses another challenge to the Obama administration in its effort to defend an increasingly unpopular health-care law. “We have bipartisan agreement around the idea that this board will harm patient care and needs to be repealed. The IPAB will lack full Congressional oversight, compromising its accountability to the American people".

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"Under Obamacare, Employers Will Likely Engage In 'Targeted Dumping' of Employees", The Weekly Standard

“A loophole in the federal health care overhaul would allow many employers to game the system by dumping their sicker employees [into] public health insurance exchanges, according to two University of Minnesota law professors.” Such “targeted dumping” of sicker employees would cause Obamacare’s taxpayer-subsidized exchanges to cost more — potentially far more — than the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has projected".

"The CBO has already badly misjudged the number of employees who would lose their employer-sponsored insurance under Obamacare. The CBO projected that, from 2010 to 2011, a net of 6 million Americans would gain employer-sponsored insurance in the wake of Obamacare’s passage. But Gallup has found that, since President Obama signed Obamacare into law in March 2010, 4.5 million Americans have lost their employer-sponsored insurance. In other words, the CBO’s estimate is off by about 10 million people already".

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"Government Price Controls For Healthcare: A Deficit-Reduction Strategy To Avoid", The Heritage Foundation

There are a variety of ways to achieve savings in health care entitlements, though not all are sound policy. One way—price controls—depends on government price-setting and market interference. Setting prices administratively, instead of allowing the market to determine prices, appears to be an appealing method of deficit reduction because, on paper, it offers savings. But the magnitude of projected savings is often based on the false assumption that the health care sector does not respond to bizarre incentives created by an artificially distorted market.

The Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction (the “super committee”) faces the harrowing task of finding a way (by the end of this month) to cut the national deficit by at least $1.5 trillion—or else trigger across-the-board cuts in most areas of government spending, including Medicare. While Congress must address the deficit Members of Congress should learn from the disastrous effects of previous health care price controls and avoid more of the same.[i] Congress should embrace the principles of market competition,[ii] which include moving health care entitlements from an open-ended, defined-benefit structure to a defined-contribution model.

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"A Small Taste: New Hampshire Samples Obamacare", Union Leader

New Hampshire's seniors give Obamacare a "failing" grade as they find out they "cannot keep their insurance plan and doctor" if they like it.

"New Hampshire has a high percentage of Medicare Advantage enrollees. Last month, 7,600 of them received notices that their coverage was being cancelled. Obamacare and another federal law passed in 2008, the Medicare Improvement for Patients and Providers Act, are killing Medicare Advantage to steer senior citizens back into regular Medicare, which offers fewer choices and is more heavily controlled from Washington".

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"Better Health Through Consumer Choice", Kenneth T. Cuccinelli, II, The Washington Times

D4PC: Virginia Attorney General not only argues in favor of repeal of the Obamacare "individual mandate", but proposes replacement with key elements of the "D4PC Prescription For health Insurance Reform".

"....now is the time forCongress to replace the current unconstitutional law with measures that address our real health care problems while getting government mostly out of the way. The more the government is involved, the further a patient is removed from the decisions about his or her own health care and the less incentive he or she has to keep costs down.

True federal reform should bring the consumer closer to the actual cost of care, which ultimately brings prices down through consumer choice and competition".

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"Donald Berwick Bows Out", National Review

Last week’s resignation ended Berwick’s 14-month Washington odyssey, but it’s the end neither of Berwick nor of Obamacare. Berwick’s top lieutenant, Marilyn Tavenner, will take over as acting administrator of CMS, where she will be tasked with installing Obamacare’s NHS-style rationing board — the Independent Payment Advisory Board — and implementing its massive expansion of Medicaid.

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"Health System Reflects Greece's Ills", The Wall Street Journal

D4PC: This is where the US is heading as a result of runaway healthcare entitlement spending. We will be there even faster as a result of Obamacare.

"Greece's constitution obliges the state to provide health care to citizens. By and large, it does. But the system is a mess. It is stuffed with debt, plagued with corruption and hobbled by inefficiency and inequity.

In many ways, the health-care system is a microcosm of Greece itself. Big debts in the public hospital system helped usher in Greece's financial crisis in 2009, and health care is now a key battleground as the country struggles to escape it".
  
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