Obamacare marches on

While we are all consumed with the subject of debt, deficit, and spending, the Obama administration, in two unrelated actions, has decided to throw grandma off the cliff, and, to make your health insurance more expensive.

On Friday, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced it would cut payments to skilled nursing homes by 11.1%, or $3.87 billion annually, while, of course, proclaiming its commitment to “high quality care”.  Whether this is part of Obamacare’s $500,000 billion cut to Medicare (used both to “strengthen” Medicare, and to pay for the costs of insuring the uninsured) is not something the administration has shared with us, but, we are told it is in response to “unexpected increases in nursing home payments this fiscal year”.

Is anyone getting as tired of the word “unexpected” as I am?  More and more Baby Boomers are turning 65 every day, and Americans are living longer than ever before.  What part of that is unexpected?

Meanwhile, on Monday the Department of Health and Human Services announced that beginning in August, 2012, all health insurers must cover the full cost of any FDA approved birth control…no copay, no deductible, no nothing.  As the pharmaceuticals and medical device manufacturers are not providing their products for free, your insurance premiums will rise to cover this extra cost, whether you use birth control or not.  And, whether you believe in birth control or not, you will be subsidizing someone else’s birth control.

This is merely the tip of the Obamacare iceberg.  As medical costs rise “unexpectedly”, the government will cut payments to providers until they can no longer survive as we now know them, and when that fails, the next step is rationing.

And, as the administration requires more mandates be included in Obamacare’s “qualified insurance plans”, your premiums will increase far more than they otherwise would.

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SoundOffSister

The Sound Off Sister was an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and special trial attorney for the Department of Justice, Criminal Division; a partner in the Florida law firm of Shutts & Bowen, and an adjunct professor at the University of Miami, School of Law. The Sound Off Sister offers frequent commentary concerning legislation making its way through Congress, including the health reform legislation passed in early 2010.

13 Comments

  1. Plainvillian on August 2, 2011 at 11:12 am

    When the real results of liberal policies do not conform to the predictions of liberal sages it unexpectedly never impugns their sagacity does it??



  2. Dimsdale on August 2, 2011 at 11:55 am

    Can we start calling it “The ?bama Medicare Cuts” a la the “Bush Tax Cuts”?
    ?
    It is just more of the “everything is free with ?bamacare” message used to sell the weak minded on the legislation.



  3. sammy22 on August 2, 2011 at 12:59 pm

    You wanted cuts in “entitlement” programs, well here is one installment.



    • Dimsdale on August 3, 2011 at 10:24 pm

      This cut came before the recent legislation, and is owned, lock, stock and barrel, by ?bama himself and the Dems.? How about cutting the new, proposed one (?bamacare), rather than the old, established one??? Medicare is less socialist than ?bamacare!



  4. ricbee on August 2, 2011 at 9:58 pm

    I don’t know how you pundits do it,politics is so tiring-I’m exhausted & I don’t even watch TV.



  5. sammy22 on August 2, 2011 at 10:37 pm

    Oh, I must be dense. These are not the cuts the Right wanted, it must have been some other cuts. Maybe those that did not throw grandma off the cliff, but threw somebody else off the cliff. Oops, got it: cuts that do not throw anybody off the cliff.



  6. winnie888 on August 3, 2011 at 6:21 am

    Perhaps free birth control will lead to fewer abortions.? Eh, probably not.? We’ve had the pill for what, now?? 40+ years & abortion rates have continuously gone up.? And for those who are living the American welfare dream and having more kids for increased benefits from the state–guaranteed they won’t go get their free pill.? Obama is just trying to give the younger generation something because he certainly can’t create jobs for them.



  7. Tim-in-Alabama on August 3, 2011 at 12:16 pm

    Hahaha. Dems are murdering nursing home patients with their immoral, terroristic cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, and when their hypocrisy is revealed, the response is, “Well, you’re the ones who wanted cuts.” You must embrace only one core belief to be a modern Dem: Blame Righty! As for for the “free” services ordered by ?ber Gesundheitswesen F?hrer Sebelius, you will find out what’s in Obamacare when she tells you what’s in Obamacare. More dictates will follow, as will more cuts. It’s important to kill the unborn, terminally ill and old so that everyone can have free healthcare.



  8. Lynn on August 3, 2011 at 2:28 pm

    Tim, Uber Gesundheitswesen Fuhrer Sebelius…. Hysterical. But it’s way too long, how about Caligula?



    • Tim-in-Alabama on August 3, 2011 at 3:11 pm

      I think the Party President is more in the Caligula mold for there are many similarities. After all, Caligula promised reform, but soon spent all the money in the treasury and began taxing or just outright stealing; claimed divinity; was a party animal; killed on a whim; and was generally an unstable narcissist. He was only emperor for four years, just as the Potted Plant President will serve only four years. However, I cannot wish Caligula’s ultimate fate on Bumpy Barack Hussein O’Bama.



  9. Lynn on August 3, 2011 at 4:17 pm

    Yes, we are compassionate conservatives. Or then again, they do call us terrorists and mobsters.? Frankly I do like the hobbit title. We just have to keep them guessing



  10. sammy22 on August 3, 2011 at 7:14 pm

    I see little compassion, and the “comparison” to Caligula speaks volumes.



  11. Lynn on August 4, 2011 at 7:31 am

    Oh Sammy,? This is the tip of the iceberg. I could give you libraries of how I feel about the worst president in the history of this wonderful country.



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