Medicare on the ropes.

When I read this morning’s article by Mike Deak that emphasized the funding threat that faces home health care services such as those provided by the VNA of Somerset County (Visiting Nurses Association), I was appalled.

 

But it was no surprise.

When the Affordable Care Act was signed into law by President Barack Obama, Medicare became one of its first victims.

The Congressional Budget Office issued a report estimating that passage of the ACA would result in from $500 billion to $716 billion that would be drained from Medicare in the years between 2013 and 2022 to help fund the Affordable Care Act.

Ignore Star-Ledger Editorial Plea: “Crunch Time for America”

In an editorial which appeared in today’s The Star Ledger  (S/L) under the headline quoted above, the writer is cautioning all those who are eligible to sign up for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) that they had better do it before the March 31^st deadline, or face “fines” which “are higher than many people think.”

Take a deep breath and relax.  That editorial is wrong.

House Overwhelmingly Passes Health Care Fix

The Statue of Freedom crowns the dome of the
U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C

This afternoon at 1:36 pm, the U.S. House of Representatives approved a bill that would reverse and extend all cancelled privatehealth care plans.

Five million insured have already received cancellation notices under a regulation of President Obama’s Affordable Care Act (ACA).

About fifteen million private health insurance policies were in effect prior to the disastrous October 1^st enrollment rollout of the ACA.

The final tally to renew private plans and to permit the sale of new ones passed by a vote of 261 to 157, a margin of 104, or 66% above votes recorded in the negative.

The not-so-surprising outcome is that while the GOP count was 222 in favor, 39 Democrats joined the Republicans.  The House bill will now go to the U.S. Senate where it faces an unsure outcome.

A Goose Ducks below the Affordable Care Act

If you become sick or have an accident, and suddenly find yourself in need of life-saving healthcare, the outcome may be better were you a goose. 

Such a goose lives in the UK.  It was involved in an accident in West Yorkshire.  When its owner saw that it was unable to eat properly as a result of having lost its lower beak, its disability was remedied.

See an account of what happened in this brief video.

The foregoing comparison to the ACA may sound cynical, but is far from it.  Over four million Americans have had their private insurance plans cancelled by the terms and conditions of legislation incorporated into President Obama’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. For an estimated fifteen million Americans who have been covered under private, individual healthcare plans, there will be neither “Protection” nor “Affordability.”

The Slicing and Dicing of U.S. Healthcare

In 2010, when Nancy Pelosi uttered the now memorable words, “We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it,” she was being sincere.  Little did she realize that three years later the system would fail upon its rollout, and that people on individual health plans would have their insurance cancelled.

Furthermore, other people attempting to sign up for healthcare via the government-run Healthcare.gov portal are finding out that they can’t get in.  Or, if they do, cannot access the exchanges with the firm knowledge that they are properly enrolled and insured.

But that’s not all:  The systemic computer and systems design failure which was exposed on October 1, 2013 and which still persists is not the only problem.

Political Lines Drawn in the Sand. . . .

. . . don’t do much good for anyone.

Nonetheless, if there were an annual Intransigence Award for such behavior, I think that Senator Ted Cruz of Texas and President Barack Obama would be vying for the top prize. 

Why split hairs?  Let’s have each nominee share the honors, as is sometimes the practice when awarding the Nobel Prize for a specific category.

President Shares Top Honor:  Barack Obama drew a line in the sand not so long ago, when he threatened to embroil this nation once more in one of the never-ending eruptions within The Middle East.

And the Band Plays On.

Tomorrow, if you believe the mendacious talk that has been emanating from within the White House and the halls of the Capitol Building in the District of Columbia, the financial structure of the United States is about to go over a cliff. 

Heck, the President has been saying so for the last three weeks.  Dutifully, his press secretary Jay Carney has been repeating Barack Obama’s message at every press conference.

Inside the Capitol, legislators such as Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Mitch McConnell, and John Boehner (there are a lot more of these characters) have helped the White House to prolong the fiscal and monetary crises swirling around the debt ceiling, the budget and the health care disasters