There used to be a time when it was considered tremendously uncouth to suggest that the sitting American President was a Liar. It used to be beyond the pale. It was an attack on American Values, an insult to the legitimacy of our governance. People who said that George W. Bush had "Lied" about Iraq, about WMD, about being warned by the August 6th PDB, about Yellowcake ['the 16 words"] about Surveillance ["we're only listening if you're talking to al Qeada"] about Torture, about Tax Cuts and about the policiies that led to the Financial Meltdown... were just Haters.
They "HATED AMERICA" didn't they?
Didn't the Dixie Chicks receive Death Threats and get uniformly booted off of Country Radio simply for apologizing that George W. Bush was from Texas? When Bush debated John Kerry in 2004, Kerry wouldn't even say the word "Lie". He wouldn't even bring it up. Instead he would say that the "President Mislead" us. Over and over again, as if he had no choice in the matter. As if he didn't know what he was doing at the time, like HE was a HELPLESS VICTIM of unfortunate CIRCUMSTANCE.
Well, that's not the way things are these days. No Sirree. Not from Conservative Pundit Charles Krauthhammer (who originally coined the term "Bush Derangement Syndrome") http://www.newsmax.com/...
Conservative commentator Charles Krauthammer says that President Barack Obama makes stuff up with "brazenness" when he says that Obamacare is working.
"Look, it's working in that it exists. It breathes," Krauthammer said. "But if it's hurting the doctor, it's hurting the hospital, it's hurting the patient, it's hurting the economy, it's going to cost a fortune."
"I love the way the president says healthcare costs are reduced, as if there is any relationship between a reduction, which occurred during a recession and a healthcare implementation which occurs today," Krauthammer added.
The President is "Making Stuff up"? Sorry no,
Bzzt. It's not the President, but the CBO that has repeatedly said that the implementation of Obamacare - not the recession, OBAMACARE - has slowed the cost of healthcare.
http://www.cbo.gov/...
Growth in spending for the fee-for-service portion of Medicare has slowed markedly in the past few years—apparently not because of the financial turmoil and recession but because of other factors affecting the behavior of beneficiaries and providers.
The CBO has repeatedly projected that this cost slowdown will
decrease the deficit and has extended the life of the Medicare and Medicaid Trust Funds by several years.
The slowdown in health care cost growth has been sufficiently broad and persistent to persuade us to make significant downward revisions to our projections of federal health care spending.
And it's not just Medicare and Medicaid, the cost of private insurance
has slowed to the point that the price of Health Exchange Subsidies has been
downgraded by $104 Billion over the next decade.
So when people like Krauthhammer say the President "Made Stuff UP" - what he really mans is that the President quoted Facts that Republicans Simply Don't Want To Believe.
And naturally, Charles then proceeded to Make Up His OWN STUFF and Pretend that his delusions were "Facts", when they aren't.
I know many of us, including the President, are growing impatient with waiting for the Republicans to finally work their way through the Kübler-Ross Stages of Grief over the fact that they lost in 2008, and in 2012, and that ObamaCare actually passed both Houses and was signed into Law in 2010.
But from what I can tell, they've actually gone backwards from the Stage 2 Anger that drove the Tea Party back into the first stage of Denial, where they are now hopelessly stuck.
Case in point, this dank fantasy of Krauthhammer's...
"Everybody is getting a worse deal," Krauthammer said. "If the providers are, that means the doctors aren't getting their usual payments, which means they have to see much more patients, which means they spend less time, which means the care is inferior, that means they are reimbursed at a lower rate, which means some of them will go out of business."
You got that? Obamacare isn't "saving money", it just means that Doctors have to work harder for less money, and to make up the difference they now have to see
too many patients. What he seems to be referring to is the Medicare Doc Fix - I guess - but then again,
that passed as it seems to every year, which means this scenario
is not in play. Even if it were, it would mean that those Doctors might choose
not to take Medicare Patients, which has sometimes been the case - hence the Doc Fix.
This has been a long trotted out trope by the GOP. That granting health care access to more people will - by definition - decrease the quality of care because of long lines, and waiting and stuff. So - y'know - it's good thing that insurance companies will cut off care for sick people - because if they didn't there'd simply be "No more room at the - Emergency Inn". It never seems to occur to them that focusing on preventive measures and regular check ups with little or no co-pays actually reduces demand for more invasive, costly and time consuming services down the road. Avoiding Cancer in the first place costs less and takes less time than trying to save someone who hasn't seen a doctor in years and has advanced to Stage 3 or 4 with just weeks or hours left to survive. It doesn't occur to them that spreading the customer base wider doesn't increase demand for services - it means the costs of the services are being shared by a wider pool, and hence the individual cost goes down. It doesn't occur to them that working Smarter, rather than just Harder, Saves Money - and also Lives.
But specifically on the issue of the "Doctor Shortage" there was funding in Obamacare to help increase the number of providers in order to meet the expected increase in demand.
http://obamacarefacts.com/...
Many of the new health insurance plans have limited networks. Doctors have to sign up to accept insurance offered on ObamaCare's marketplaces . Some of the low-cost and free plans have a very limited network and these in-network doctors could get hit with more patients than they can handle. However the law does combat this by funding health centers (especially in low-income areas), funding and training of new health care professionals, and providing incentives for doctors to practice underserved communities.
So since that idea doesn't really work when compared to the facts, how about scenario number 2?
"I think [Obamacare Opposition is] an organ worth playing day and night," he said. "Which is going to have more affect on the voter — Obama in a press conference in a holiday week throwing out a number, 8 million, which means nothing? Or knowing someone in your family, or you, losing health insurance, having your hours reduced so your employer can call you part-time — losing your job, losing hours — all of this stuff affecting you personally?
"Even if the numbers between the approvers and disapprovers narrows, the intensity of those who oppose it because of real life affects — higher premiums, higher deductibles, narrower networks — that is real stuff," he said.
"All the other stuff, that is theoretical stuff."
8 Million people with HealthCare is "Theoretical"? It's just a
Number that means nothing? People are "losing health insurance"? [If they are, then we don't have to worry that the doctors are going to be so "overworked" now do we? But then which is it, more people will go to the Doctor and
overwork them or they've lost their insurance and they Won't?] And also why does this
Gallup Survey and
Rand Corporation Study say the rate of uninsured is it's lowest level in decades?
Taking the last item first, Network changes happen all the time. That's something insurance companies do on their own, with or without Obamacare. Sometimes there are unfortunate shifts, but that really has little to do with the law as a whole.
Even for the Thousands who received those Infamous Cancellation Notices all of them, all - of - them - also received a notice that their plan would be automatically replaced with a new one which, generally speaking, may have had a higher premium but a substantially lower deductible since there is now a CAP on yearly out of pocket costs.
This is exactly the case with Americans for Prosperty's alleged ObamaCare "Victim" Julie Boonstra who claimed that her out-of-pocket costs were now skyrocketing, when in fact they had been reduced by at least $1,200/per year.
On March 10, however, the Detroit News reported that Boonstra admitted that she had Premier Gold plan. That has an out-of-pocket cap of $5,100 a year.
In other words, her old plan cost $13,200 a year—before co-pays and other out-of-pocket expenses. The new plan is $11,952—including co-pays and out of pocket expenses. That’s a savings of more than $1,200 a year.
As a result of this revelation, the Washington Post downgraded the accuracy of AFP's original claim featuring Boonstra from just Two Pinnochio's to
Three.
And as far as Employers Cutting Hours because of the mandate to provide insurance to the full time workers - the fact is that that strategy doesn't really work since it's calculated in equivalent hours worked rather than per person. If a company splits up their workers hours so that they have 5 people each working at 25 hours per week it doesn't mean that they would have "Zero" workers eligible for healthcare. They would have Four (125 hrs/30 = 4.16 equivalent workers), and the amount they would have to pay as a fine for failing to provide care for those workers would be $8,000 ($2k per equivalent worker). Technically the fine doesn't even kick in for the first 30 employees, but at just 25 e.w. a small company would be eligible for a 50% tax credit for the cost of their health insurance, so trying to make their number of equivalent workers smaller just to stay below the mandate requirement - which doesn't even go into effect until 2015 - doesn't really make that much sense.
Even Papa John's Pizza has backed off their claim that they would either raise their prices or cut hours due to Obamacare.
Studies have shown that the likelihood of employers using this tactic is very low. And that even coming from Right Wing Sources like The Blaze, estimates are that about 300 employers nation-wide may be using this method to avoid the mandate.
What I find interesting when I look at this list is that a high percentage of that 300, are Public Schools and State Colleges, many of whom were already under the existing health care mandate for employers, and may actually be cutting hours due to State Budget Cuts rather than an attempt to avoid the insurance mandate, which again, doesn't go into effect under Obamacare until 2015.
Interesting isn't it that Krauthhammer first wants to deny that Health Insurance Costs are Down (or at least rising more slowly), then he turns around and half-admits that they are down, but that it's because of the recession, not Obamacare? Then he wants to say that people's hours are being cut NOT because of the recession or budget shortfalls - no - That Cut is because of Obamacare, even though the employer mandate hasn't gone into effect yet?
Yeah, right, sure -- that makes perfect sense.
If you want to compare the real life - not theoretical - impact of those 300 employers who may have cut hours, which might have something to do with avoiding the insurance mandate - or not - and add to that people like Julie Boonstra who had their previous plan upgraded to one that costs $1,200 less - even if she herself refuses to admit it - and those like Bette from Spokane who had her useless junk plan replaced with a better plan that actually provided care, and contrast that to the CBO's estimate of 12 Million people who didn't have ANY HEALTH CARE AT ALL that now have it due to Obamacare...
I'm willing to bet that the latter number is a lot bigger than the former.
Not that that will dawn on Republicans before November because they're still stuck right here.
Grief Stage 1. Denial — As the reality of loss is hard to face, one of the first reactions to follow the loss is Denial. What this means is that the person is trying to shut out the reality or magnitude of their situation, and begin to develop a false, preferable reality.
That pretty much sums up the GOP doesn't it? And Krauthhammer should know this since Psychiatry is
his field, and stuff...
Vyan