Anybody Else In This Place Got a Story?
Commenting on "It Aint' Turning Out that Way," my recent post on the sinking approval ratings for ObamaCare, Ricochet member "Tabula Rasa" said something mighty arresting:
Last week, my law firm gave a free seminar to employers on things they need to do to comply with the health care bill. Totally aside from what employers decide to do about their healthcare plans, the compliance issues are daunting. No one in the audience seemed to be very happy.
Jeepers. Has word about ObamaCare already begun to seep out? I don't mean stories in the press, but actual, lived experience. Are Americans already being giving glimpses of the Frankenstein monster under the sheet? Because if they are, we could be in for an even more remarkable election this November than we already suppose.
Anybody else got an ObamaCare story?
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Comments :
May '10
Re: Anybody Else In This Place Got a Story?
Not yet. A lot of corporations have "open enrollment" that starts in the fall. The enormous corporation I work for usually starts distributing information in August with the enrollment in late October or early November. Management employees have high deductible plans with HSAs, etc, while craft still has Cadillac plans. Those of us who are politically aware know bad stuff is coming, but we knew that in 2009. I'll report back when the fun starts...
Jul '10
Re: Anybody Else In This Place Got a Story?
Mine is not as dramatic but i have one. I have a (super) small business and recently called my health insurance broker to discuss what possible implications there were for my business' health insurance plan. In a nutshell, I was told of an array of various implications, none of which could be confirmed or denied, because even though the bill itself was passed, much of the implementation details were not decided. I called my accountant to discuss the effects on the business health insurance deduction and received a similar answer. In essence, there is law, but there is not. It might affect me this year but it might not.
Should I save money or not ? Can I expect more profits or less? ahh ... what old fashioned questions.
Jul '10
Re: Anybody Else In This Place Got a Story?
The stimulus bill included several financial incentives for health care providers who meaningfully use Electronic Health Records. The providers wondered what the term "meaningful use" meant. This week -- 17 months later -- the federal government released their definition of this two-word phrase. It is 864 pages long.
Jun '10
Re: Anybody Else In This Place Got a Story?
The effect on physician-owned hospitals:
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Physician-owned hospitals: Endangered species?
A health reform provision could be the death knell for many doctor-owned facilities, but some say they are going to fight for survival.
http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2010/06/28/gvsa0628.htm
May '10
Re: Anybody Else In This Place Got a Story?
The last few years, the Dem controlled Congress has funded several interagency programs as experiments to streamline computer systems and info sharing, particularly with digital personnel and medical records. They plan to use and have used these programs as an examples of cost saving measures to reduce expected increased costs with ObamaCare. They are using taxpayers' money and increasing the size of gov't to attempt to work out the kinks after the fact. They are driving blind, hoping these experiments will rescue O-Care from imminent failure. These programs must be reorganized so that they will follow their intended mission, not stack the deck to favor O-Care. That is why it is so important for the GOP to reclaim the House and Senate, so that Republicans like Con. Jeff Miller, Con. Joe Wilson, Con. Henry Brown, Sen. Burr, Sen. Graham and Sen. McCain can guide this programs in the right direction to avoid exploitation from the Obama administration.
May '10
Re: Anybody Else In This Place Got a Story?
This happened the day after the health bill passed. I had an appointment with my doctor. He started talking about the bill and mentioned that he, and a lot of his peers, would be retiring sooner than they planned because they didn't know how to make money under the new bill. His fear, and he had been a supporter of Obama, was that the bill was going to lead to a lot of doctors retiring early and draining the profession of years of experience. Experience that will never have the chance to be passed on to younger doctors.
Re: Anybody Else In This Place Got a Story?
The dreaded VAT starts now for the med-tech industry in the form of a 2.3% medical device sales tax. I had dinner the other day with an executive who estimates the annual cost to his firm at hundreds of millions of dollars annually. The conversation turned glum as he detailed the R&D cuts being debated right now in order to afford the mandated reduction in profits -- the money has to come from somewhere. But not to worry, ObamaCare provides a $1 billion to divide amongst companies able to document qualifying R&D spending. After spending weeks filling out an enormous application, federal dollars await. But 2,000 successful applications are expected, yielding $500,000 per company. Such a deal!
May '10
Re: Anybody Else In This Place Got a Story?
Being self-employed, I'm wondering how long my little low-premium, vy-high-deductable policy will still be legal in the United States of America.
Jun '10
Re: Anybody Else In This Place Got a Story?
"Because if they are, we could be in for an even more remarkable election this November than we already suppose."
As I see it, the Pubs are planning to win against something bad with nothing better. Shouldn't the party have a message of some sort congealing somewhere in here? The election is only a few scant months away and I haven't heard an inspiring word from either side. ·
May '10
Re: Anybody Else In This Place Got a Story?
Like Tabula Rasa, my firm has been giving some seminars on the health care bill. We have an employee benefits practice group, and one member of the group has actually read the thing. Three times. One of my favorite anecdotes about the implementation process is that HHS is supposed to be accepting certain filings right now according to the statute. They are apparently not ready to do so, however, and to avoid receiving anything they are simply not releasing the address to which you should send this stuff.
May '10
Re: Anybody Else In This Place Got a Story?
Also keep in mind the federalizing of student loans which was part of Obamacare: "Mr. Scrapbook" in this week's Weekly Standard tells of being notified by his kid's college of the various minor frustrations and exertions that come with the new system, including delayed reimbursement of living-expense funds at the start of the school year, and just in time for Election Day. Nice.