Don't Get Sick

Good Morning, Breakfastpoppers. Today is Thursday, December 18, 2014. Our friend, Fly Buzzy, is with me this morning at the breakfast table. He has been on a fact-finding mission flying here and there in an effort to see how ObamaCare is working. The news isn't good. Buzzy has asked me to invite you all to a delicious breakfast of blueberry pancakes and real maple syrup. I will be preparing a batch of Jamaican coffees to compliment the meal. We hope to see you soon. Buzzy needs to report his findings.

Thank you all for joining me this morning. I have been flying around the country trying to gauge the effects of ObamaCare upon the health of our care. The outlook is very sobering. ObamaCare is causing hospitals and clinics to close their doors. Those facilities that remain opened are delivering healthcare very slowly and there is no doubt that care is being rationed. Remember when the Democrats told you that Republicans were just trying to scare Americans about the possibility of rationing. I am sure it comes as no surprise to any of you that the Republicans were right and the Democrats were lying. The Affordable Care Act was designed to subsidize private insurance companies and to vastly expand Medicaid coverage. There is a whole lot of money going out and not very much going into the system. The expansion of Medicaid is the big problem. The federal government hardly reimburses doctors for their efforts. It is no wonder that most do not want to treat these patients. Doctors, after all, are not running a charity and they can't survive on the paltry reimbursements grudgingly provided by the government. Seniors are also going to feel the pinch because Medicare reimbursement is also inadequate. Private practices are closing at an alarming rate. Hospitals and clinics are following in their footsteps.

Some of the areas I visited in my travels were rather poor with a very high percentage of Medicaid patients. There is no way in this world that hospitals can stay opened to treat this population of patients. The numbers speak for themselves. In 2013, 18 acute-care hospitals in the nation closed down. In 2014, 12 additional hospitals shut their doors in rural areas. This is just the tip of the iceberg. Hospitals are not able to continue operating because of the extremely low reimbursement rates. Hospitals that are still operating are doing so with less staff. It isn't a pretty picture any way you look at it.

The waiting tme to receive care is going up, up and away. Patients have reported having to wait in the Emergency Room for hours and hours before being seen. Physicians are trying to limit the number of Medicare patients they see, because of low reimbursement. Even worse is the common practice of coverage being denied for certain procedures not deemed medically necessary. Decisions like this are being made by clerks. The same was true of how HMO's worked and we all know how well that worked out. Doctors closed their practices because it became impossible to take care of patients when bureaucrats were giving the orders. The exact same thing is happening now and that spells trouble with a capital "T".

The pathetic part of all of this is that free clinics are also shutting down, because donors no longer believe they are necessary. They have bought into the myth that the Affordable Care Act will make insurance available and affordable for all Americans. Nothing could be farther from the truth. After ObamaCare is completely rolled out, we will still have at least 31 million uninsured Americans. This startling statistic comes from the Congressional Budget Office. President Obama told Americans that his Affordable Care Act would lower insurance premiums by up to $2,500 for a typical family per year. Needless to say, that's not what happened. Premiums are going up, not down and the level of care and access to it is becoming a major problem. Americans can expect a big increase in premiums in 2015. Do yourself and your family a big favor, stay healthy!

Buzzy's Song

Fly me to the moon

And let me live where I am free

Things on earth are not at all

What they are cracked up to be!