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A PICTURE IS WORTH $1.6 TRILLION

For anyone having trouble visualizing what I mean when I refer to “the world’s ugliest toddler”:



Posted 28 March 2013 † Catron § Obamacare BS ‡ Comments (0)

PAUL HSIEH ON CONCIERGE MEDICINE

As Obamacare phases in, a lot of doctors are phasing out of the traditional medical practice. Paul Hsieh explains why you might want to take a look at an alternative to the driveby physician consultations that are becoming common in the brave new world of “reform.”

As the ObamaCare law is phased in, health policy experts predict a growing physician shortage. Although ObamaCare did not create this shortage, it will worsen the problem … In response to this frustrating situation, more doctors are seeking an alternative practice model.

They don’t like running madly from exam room to exam room all day, trying to make up for stingy government reimbursement, while still failing to give proper attention to their patients. So many of the best docs are turning to “concierge medicine.”

This is a practice model in which you essentially retain your physician by paying a monthly fee: No waiting for weeks to get an appointment. No five-minute discussions about serious medical problems. No fear of contacting your doctor during off hours.

This is classic win-win. You get better care and your doctor gets to practice medicine in the way he expected to practice while enduring all those years of school. But Dr. Hsieh explains it far better than I can, so go here and read the rest of his column.

Posted 27 March 2013 † Catron § Concierge BS § Obamacare BS § Physician BS ‡ Comments (0)

OBAMACARE: THE WORLD’S UGLIEST TODDLER

In today’s American Spectator I point out that Obamacare, which turned three last Saturday, is not improving with age. The President still makes absurd claims about its benefits, including the preposterous assertion that it has slowed the growth of health care costs:

He made the same claim in his SOTU address … but the facts reveal this to be just another example of Presidential prevarication. In reality, the costs associated with the “Affordable Care Act” are already confirming the gloomiest predictions of its opponents, which probably accounts for the continued unpopularity of the law.

Usually, a three-year-old is cute, but not this little monster:

So much political skullduggery was required to get it passed that it began life, as Shakespeare might phrase it, “rudely stamp’d, deformed, unfinished.” And the law’s stupendous cost and clumsy implementation has not improved matters. On its third birthday, it is more grotesque than ever.

To read the rest of the column, click here.

Posted 25 March 2013 † Catron § Obamacare BS ‡ Comments (0)

VIDEO: OBAMACARE TURNS THREE

In general, a three-year-old is pretty cute. They’re talking, walking and virtually devoid of guile. Obamacare turned three on Saturday, but this particular kid is more like Chucky than any normal toddler:


Posted 24 March 2013 † Catron § Obamacare BS ‡ Comments (0)

OBAMA SHAFTS POOR AND MINORITY SENIORS AGAIN

In today’s American Spectator, I discuss the new cuts to Medicare Advantage proposed by the Obama administration. No, I’m not talking about the $200 billion Obamacare cuts that have been so controversial. These are brand new cuts that CMS unveiled a couple of weeks ago:

If President Obama’s rhetoric on domestic policy can be said to have a coherent theme, it involves his desire to use government to create a level playing field … He is particularly concerned, he tells us, that the “rich” pay their fair share while poor and minority Americans receive their just due.

Somehow, though, every policy decision made by his administration seems to tilt the playing field against the latter.

The latest example of this curious phenomenon can be found in the recent announcement by CMS that it plans to cut an extra 2.2 percent from the Medicare Advantage (MA) program … What does this have to with low-income and minority seniors? The administration’s new Medicare cuts will come directly out of their pockets.

To read the rest of this sleazy tale, click here.

Posted 18 March 2013 † Catron § CMS BS § Cost BS § Medicare BS ‡ Comments (0)

HERE’S YOUR 21-PAGE OBAMACARE APP

Before the era of Obamacare, it was well-known among the informed that a significant percentage of the fabled uninsured were eligible for Medicaid and other types of assistance, but were just too lazy to apply. What do you think these people are going to do when confronted with this bureaucrat-spawned morass?



Posted 15 March 2013 † Catron § Bureaucratic BS § CMS BS § Dumb BS § Obamacare BS ‡ Comments (1)

DEATH TO DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME

In this morning’s American Spectator, I advocate deep-sixing one of the dumbest ideas ever.

This morning you were required to get out of bed an hour earlier than you rose last Monday. If you are like most people, you did so in the same spirit of resignation with which you endure winter rain, believing that there are benefits to be gained from Daylight Saving Time that outweigh its discomfort and inconvenience. This belief, however, has no basis in reality.

DST is bad for your health and actually increases energy consumption:

It causes dramatic spikes in expensive health problems like heart attacks, traffic accidents, and workplace injuries. In addition, it forces us to consume more energy, which is not getting any cheaper under the Obama energy policies.

To read the rest of the column, click here.

Posted 11 March 2013 † Catron § Cost BS § Dumb BS § Economics BS ‡ Comments (1)

EIGHT GOP GOVERNORS SQUANDER SCOTUS VICTORY ON OBAMACARE MEDICAID MANDATE

In today’s American Spectator, I discuss the eight GOP governors who have embraced Obamacare’s Medicaid mandate, even though the Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional.

Medicaid is a joint state-federal program, yet a provision of Obamacare required the withholding of all federal funds from noncompliant states. The plaintiffs argued that this was so coercive that was an unconstitutional “commandeering” of the states.

Seven of the nine justices agreed. This victory was viewed by many as an opportunity for GOP governors to thwart implementation of an integral component of the law. But these are politicians:

Arizona’s Jan Brewer, Florida’s Rick Scott, Michigan’s Rick Snyder, Nevada’s Brian Sandoval, New Jersey’s Chris Christie, New Mexico’s Susana Martinez, North Dakota’s Jack Dalrymple and Ohio’s John Kasich have all caved.

To read the rest of this tawdry tale, click here.

Posted 04 March 2013 † Catron § Mandate BS § Medicaid BS § Obamacare BS ‡ Comments (0)

DONNA BRAZILE CAN’T FIGURE OUT WHY HER INSURANCE PREMIUMS WENT UP … LOL

These tweets from Democrat consultant and Obamacare supporter will be an excellent source of Schadenfreude:

 

Everyone in the galaxy understands that Obamacare is already driving health insurance premiums through the roof.

Apparently, however, Ms. Brazile didn’t get the memo. Many more Obamacare supporters will also be waking up and smelling the coffee.

The knuckleheads will probably blame it on evil Republicans. Progressives aren’t very fast on uptake, particularly where math is concerned.

[ht RedState]

Posted 03 March 2013 † Catron § Cost BS § Insurance BS § Obamacare BS ‡ Comments (0)

PRIVATIZATION SHELLACS OBAMACARE MODEL

In today’s American Spectator, I describe how a private hospital management company is helping to save the UK from its crumbling system of socialized medicine:

An excruciating irony of Obamacare is that its architects modeled many of its features after the UK’s National Health Service … The most obvious example is Obamacare’s rationing committee, the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB), which was consciously made in the image of Great Britain’s National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE).

The irony of imitating the NHS is that it ia a monumental failure by any objective standard:

Routine neglect of elderly patients, cancer patients writhing in agony because their pain medications were not administered, clinicians eating patient food while patients starve, nurses ignoring patients desperate to use the toilet—all are commonplace. Indeed, neglect at one NHS hospital caused no fewer than 1,200 deaths.

This situation has become so serious that the NHS has resorted to that much-hated bête noire of progressives and Obamacare supporters everywhere: privatization. And, as anyone literate in economics would predict, it is succeeding:

The first NHS trust to be operated entirely by a private company has recorded one of the highest levels of patient satisfaction in the country … The company running the trust has slashed losses at the hospital by 60 per cent and will soon begin to pay… debts built up over years of mismanagement.

So, if a national health care system that has tried to make socialized medicine work for more than 60 years is going back to the free market, why the hell is the U.S. moving toward a government-run medical delivery system that has a 100% record of failure?

To read the rest of the column, click here.

Posted 25 February 2013 † Catron § Economics BS § Market BS § NHS BS § Obamacare BS ‡ Comments (2)