Five Things That Went Wrong With Obamacare Just This Weekend




Soopermexican
On December 9, 2013
http://soopermexican.com

Obama is frantically trying to pivot away from his Obamacare debacle, while vulnerable Democrats are grasping at anything they can find as a distraction to put distance between them and president lead anchor.
They have a lot of reasons to be nervous about Obamacare – here’s just five that surfaced over the weekend you might have missed!

1) One In Four Applications Are Screwed Up!

They’re acting as if everything is fine with the website, but that’s no where near the reality, and even if they had fixed it, they have huge problems with the applications they’ve already received:
There’s no way to tell how many people who think they’ve signed up for health insurance through the U.S. exchange actually have, after about 1 in 4 enrollments sent to insurers from the federal website had garbled included incomplete information.
They say the errors are down to one in ten, but that doesn’t fix the ones who are screwed up, does it?
…the acknowledgment suggests consumers need to be vigilant about their health plan purchases. Letters from insurers confirming coverage can take a week or more, and the Obama administration now says people should call their companies if they aren’t contacted within that time.
This is the next tsunami of criticism – tons of people who thought they were covered, and find out they aren’t because of errors in their application.

2) It Will Take 30,000 Hours To Input Just One State’s Paper Applications

The state exchange that had the most applications is California’s, but it’s got problems:
California is currently buried under more than 20,000 incomplete paper applications for health insurance through the Golden State’s online marketplace, Covered California.
When the exchanged opened up, website glitches forced them to accept paper applications, which run to 32 pages, and take an estimated 90 minutes each to input because the website is so slow. Even if these are counted as “applications” they’re not actually in the database yet!

3) Seven Out Of Ten California Doctors Are Boycotting Obamacare Exchange

Dr. Richard Thorp, president of the California Medical Association explains why so many doctors are refusing to use the California exchange:
“We need some recognition that we’re doing a service to the community. But we can’t do it for free. And we can’t do it at a loss. No other business would do that.”
San Diego doctor Theodore Mazer gets even more specific:
“In other states, Medicare pays doctors $76 for return-office visits. But in California, Medi-Cal’s reimbursement is $24. In other states, doctors receive between $500 to $700 to perform a tonsillectomy. In California, they get $160.”
Wait a minute! You’re telling me that socializing medicine ruins free market incentives for doctors to give care? No one saw that coming! Except every conservative…

4) Doctor And Nurse Shortages Already Hitting Because Of Obamacare

If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor! Except he’ll probably be too busy to see you:
Doctor and nurse vacancies are approaching nearly 20 percent at hospitals as these facilities prepare to be inundated by millions of patients who have the ability to pay for medical care thanks to the Affordable Care Act. A survey byhealth care provider staffing firm AMN Healthcare shows the vacancy rate for physicians at hospitals near 18 percent in 2013 while the nurse vacancy rate is 17 percent.
That rate is three times greater for nurses, and the doctor rate is nearly twice what it was before Obamacare. And we’re just getting started!
Wait a minute… socializing medicine causes doctor shortages?! Nobody saw that comin’ either!!

5) New Promise! “You Can Keep Your Doctor If You Pay More!”

In a testy debate between one of the architects of Obamacare, Zeke Emanuel, and Chris Wallace on Fox News, Emanuel admitted that Americans will not be able to keep their doctor unless they pay more:
“It’s a simple yes or no question. Did he say if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor?”
“Yes,” But look, if you want to pay more for an insurance company that covers your doctor, you can do that. This is a matter of choice.”
Wait a minute… doesn’t that mean Obama lied!? Again? If only someone, anyone, maybe a group of patriotic protesters wearing revolution-era costumes, could have warned America that he was lying when he made all those promises!
Oh wait. We did.
Here’s a chaser – generic Democrat polling has been utterly devastated by the Obamacare debacle. You can see it in just one handy chart!
So Obamacare didn’t have a good weekend. And the future is not looking bright for it either!!
[h/t Jim Geraghty]

http://www.ijreview.com/2013/12/1003...-just-weekend/