Originally published December 11 2013
America's top hospitals to be excluded from Obamacare
by J. D. Heyes
(NaturalNews) One of the reasons why U.S. healthcare is expensive is because some of the world's best hospitals are based in our country. That's not the only reason why, mind you, but let's face it: things of higher quality tend to cost more.
But there will be none of that "best quality care" available for most ordinary Americans, thanks to Obamacare: New published information says that those who sign up under the healthcare law's exchanges will be excluded from coverage that would pay for care at many of the nation's top hospitals.
And you thought Barack Obama cared about "the little people."
As reported by Britain's Financial Times:
Americans who are buying insurance plans over online exchanges, under what is known as Obamacare, will have limited access to some of the nation's leading hospitals, including two world-renowned cancer centers.
Amid a drive by insurers to limit costs, the majority of insurance plans being sold on the new healthcare exchanges in New York, Texas, and California, for example, will not offer patients' access to Memorial Sloan Kettering in Manhattan or MD Anderson Cancer CenHter in ouston, two top cancer centers, or Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles, one of the top research and teaching hospitals in the country.
This move by government is entirely financial in nature, as experts have noted. They say any move to limit consumers' choices and guide them away from hospitals that are considered expensive is what the new "competition" within the insurance industry since the passage of Obamacare will look like.
Thanks to the imposition of new government mandates and standards, health insurance plans necessarily must be more expensive in order to meet the law's requirements. So, with his signature on the Affordable Care Act, Obama now gets to decide what kind of coverage you have and where you have to go to get care.
What's worse is that the media is covering this from the angle of how this new revelation will affect the Dear Leader and his party:
It could become another source of political controversy for the Obama administration next year, when the plans take effect. Frustrated consumers could then begin to realize what is not always evident when buying a product as complicated as healthcare insurance: that their new plans do not cover many facilities or doctors "in network". In other words, the facilities and doctors are not among the list of approved providers in a certain plan.
Yes, it's all grand political theater, isn't it? Never mind that the real issue isn't how the law affects Obama - who can't even stand for reelection - or Democrats who, thanks to the president, are going to have their insurance rates subsidized 75 percent by We the People, it's how the law is affecting real folks.
And it's only going to get worse. Much worse.
More from Financial Times:
Under some US health insurance plans, consumers can elect to visit medical facilities that are "out of network", but they would probably incur high out of pocket costs and may need referrals to prove that such care is medically necessary.
The development is worrying some hospital administrators who see the change as an unintended consequence of the ACA.
"We're very concerned. [Insurers] know patients that are sick come to places like ours. What this is trying to do is redirect those patients elsewhere, but there is a reason why they come here. These patients need what it is that we are capable of providing," Thomas Priselac, president and chief executive officer of Cedars-Sinai Health System in California, told FT.
So much for saving money and widening access
Do you remember what one of Obama's many promises was in regard to the Affordable Care Act? The law was supposed to make health insurance cheaper - like, to the tune of $2,500 a year. Now, however, not only is coverage going to be more expensive, but anyone in an Obamacare exchange won't even have access to the country's best facilities:
Amid these new regulatory restrictions, says Tim Jost, a health policy expert, insurance companies have had to come up with new ways to cut the cost of their products. In this new era, limiting the availability of certain facilities that are seen as too expensive - in part because they may attract the sickest patients or offer the most cutting edge medical care - is seen as the best way to control costs.
"It's like buying a Mercedes-Benz or a Chevy. You have to decide whether you want to pay for the highest product out there, which is probably pretty good quality, or the less expensive product," Jost said. "Everyone is in favor of competition until they see what it looks like. Then they think, maybe it's better for someone else just to pay for the whole thing."
Guess who gets the Mercedes and who has to settle for the Chevy? And so much for that promised increased access to quality healthcare.
This is the government deciding what kind and quality of healthcare we, the little people, can have. Because you know that the president and those in Congress who voted for this outrage are going to get the best care our tax money can buy.
Sources:
http://www.ft.com
http://www.breitbart.com
http://www.youtube.com
http://obamacarefacts.com
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