One year into healthcare reform, signs of trouble
It has been nearly one year since President Obama signed healthcare reform into law, and it appears many people are more confused and stressed about the future of healthcare than when we first started down this path.
There are serious signs of trouble with this law. One glaring concern is that HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has handed out roughly 1,000 waivers allowing companies, unions and states to temporarily bypass some of the insurance rules that many explain they just cannot afford. For hospitals and health leaders watching this all play out, it makes the process of deciding what to do next very difficult.
The healthcare law needs to be repealed or, at the very least, considerably revamped. Sutter Health in California recently announced they will need to find $700 million in savings just to get ready for upcoming changes. Sutter warned its employees that they expect an estimated $2 billion in Medicare reimbursement cuts over the next decade.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo explains that by 2014, every state in the union will have 25 percent of their population on Medicaid. This is huge and we see the financial problems New York is dealing with due to an expanded Medicaid program. Cuomo explains that it has created a fiscal nightmare for the state and now they are looking for ways to repair the damage. The concern is that the current healthcare law, signed last year, could force the country into a similar mess.
These are facts from people who are dealing with this from an aggregate basis and they are explaining that it just doesn’t work. Unfortunately, in my opinion, the administration is not listening to those who are voicing these concerns. And the more elements of the law that do get implemented, the more difficult it will be to undo or to turn back the clock.
My primary concern is that portions of this law are unconstitutional, specifically the idea of demanding that people buy health insurance. The law is also far over-reaching in terms of its magnitude. It is going to create a financial crisis for both healthcare and the country. I am concerned about the big picture here of what this is going to do to the country as a whole. This has the possibility of causing very serious financial results, at the federal, state, and local government levels, as well as a negative impact on the healthcare delivery system.
We do need to reform the U.S. healthcare system, but it needs to happen incrementally with measured steps that make sense and that are fiscally manageable for all parties involved.
Don Ammon blogs regularly at Action for Better Healthcare.
