ObamaCare News Roundup

There are several important stories about ObamaCare making the rounds today. Let's look at a few.

Boeing blames ObamaCare for raising employees insurance premiums
Boeing is significantly raising the premiums for their employees, citing ObamaCare as a major cause for the action.

Aerospace giant Boeing is joining the list of companies that say the new health care law could have a potential downside for their workers. In a letter mailed to employees late last week, the company cited the overhaul as part of the reason it is asking some 90,000 nonunion workers to pay significantly more for their health plan next year.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101018/ap_on_bi_ge/us_health_costs_boeing

ObamaCare will kill private medical practices
The premise of this article is that ObamaCare will intentionally kill private medical practices in favor of "Accountable Care Organizations."

ObamaCare envisions that doctors will fold their private offices to become salaried hospital employees, making it easier for the federal government to regulate them and centrally manage the costly medical services they prescribe. To get this control, ObamaCare creates "Accountable Care Organizations," which are basically hospitals coupled with local doctor networks that the hospital owns.

Obama's health-care czar, Nancy Ann DeParle, laid bare this financial coercion. Writing recently in the "Annals of Internal Medicine," she said that "the economic forces put in motion by [the Obama health-care plan] are likely to lead to vertical organization of providers and accelerate physician employment by hospitals and aggregation into larger physician groups." Physicians, she said, "that accept the challenge will be rewarded in the future payment system" as ObamaCare "reforms" how doctors are paid under Medicare.
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/killing_marcus_welby_FLnABqCKwpyF9j2i9YYpCP

ObamaCare will clog our healthcare system
The point in this article is that, by totally removing any direct connections between patients and the cost of treatment, there is nothing in ObamaCare to discourage overuse... and so the system will be overused.

The new health care law mandates and extends the kind of insurance that breeds overuse, thereby driving up costs and premiums. And here I thought the reform intended to reduce costs.

As the details of this massive government-led health care overhaul begin to trickle out, let me be clear (to borrow the president's go-to phrase): The medical system is about to be overwhelmed because there are no disincentives for overuse.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/forum/2010-10-19-column19_ST_N.htm

Virginia Judge to rule on ObamaCare by end of year
There were three major cases in the courts challenging ObamaCare. The judge in Florida ruled that ObamaCare is obviously Constitutional. The judge in Michigan refused to dismiss the case and allowed it to proceed, saying that plaintiffs had made their prima facia case that ObamaCare is unConstitutional. And now the judge in the Virginia case has promised a ruling by the end of the year.

By the end of the year. That's the time frame a judge has established for his coming ruling on whether Obamacare is unconstitutional and must be struck down. The word came today from U.S. District Judge Henry Hudson, who is hearing the case brought by the state of Virginia in Richmond.
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=217033

Insurers and states warn ObamaCare requirements "too much, too soon," ask for waivers

Beginning in January, insurers will have to spend 80 to 85 cents of every dollar they collect in premiums on medical costs, depending on the size of their market. They can spend the rest on administrative costs and profits.

But many state officials and insurers caution that the restrictions could be too much, too soon, and want Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to step in.
http://www.blogger.com/

Senator Judd Gregg (R-NH) says ObamaCare repeal not best choice
A top Senate Republican suggested Monday night that the party's prevailing strategies to curtail the new healthcare law might not be good ideas.

Sen. Judd Gregg (N.H.), the top Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, said that repealing the new healthcare reform law — or looking to defund it — were not good options.
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/124749-gregg-repeal-isnt-best-approach-to-health-reform

And that's the ObamaCare roundup for the day. I hope you found these articles informative and/or entertaining. I also hope you found at least one or two of them infuriating...