ObamaCare is Unravelling
Hospitals on Wednesday urged the White House to delay their cuts under ObamaCare in light of the surprise decision to defer the employer mandate.
The American Hospital Association (AHA) called on federal officials to put off looming cuts to hospitals that deal with mostly uninsured patients.
AHA President Rich Umbdenstock said hospitals could not be expected to operate with smaller reimbursements if employers are not going to expand coverage for another year. (The Hill)
This whole thing is a disaster. Unfortunately, this time ObamaCare supporters have good reason to blame failure on the obstructionist opposition.
This will either make them more willing to circumvent the Constitution or more active in promoting a single payer system.
You’re right that while this failure is great news, really nothing has been proved either way.
proven*
By “obstructionist opposition” you mean the Supreme Court?
Most supporters think that the law could be a good first step, but believe that, ultimately, single payer is better. I completely agree that the ACA’s failure settles nothing, there are more battles to come.
Yes, I meant the Supreme Court. It isn’t really “the opposition”, but it undermined the law, so I felt like it fit.
My question is: What is going with the funding right now?
Everything is being pushed back, but I would assume the taxation provisions are still operating at full impact.
While public costs continue to expand.
That’ll be interesting to see.
It will be interesting to see the ripple effect throughout the health care industry and economy as a whole. Everyone was gearing up for these changes and now the timing has changed. I wonder how much money will end up being lost just because of this readjustment.
I wonder if the decision to push back the deadline took this into account. This added uncertainty is surely terrible for the economy. Companies can’t just change course at the drop of a hat. The ones that were prepared for the changes will be the hardest hit, while those that were unprepared get the benefit of more time. Isn’t that always how government works? Taking from those who do things well and giving to those who don’t?
I wonder if extra delays will be granted, and, if so, what the costs will be associated with these delays.
Seems likely. I bet this will reach all corners of the market.
It is starting to fall apart.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCM698LsjAI
The section of the ACA that would reduce subsidies to hospitals for treating the uninsured was a terrible provision in the first place.
The supporters of the bill were desperate to find ‘spending reductions’ anywhere they could — since they ran out of tax increases quite early in the game.
It did not matter to them if the ‘spending reduction’ came at the expense of safety net hospitals, which have been doing yeoman work in America for only about 80 years.
The flimsy logic was that more Americans would have health insurance, either through the exchanges or through Medicaid, and therefore the hospitals would be treating fewer uninsureds.
Of course the cuts in subsidies would come right away, while the newly insured would take years to materialize.
There were other repulsive budget gimmicks in the ACA, and we will not miss them if they are abandoned.
(Incidentally the penalties on large employers were not repulsive to me. But they were saturated with loopholes like the the 30 hours rule, etc.)
Bob Hertz
The Health Care Crusade
So now AHA thinks that ObamaCare makes employers expand coverage? Has it any idea of the relative costs of providing coverage versus paying the fines?
Did it even bother to read the bill it has been so ardently supporting?
And what makes them think that there will be more uninsured? After all, the individual mandate that t hey wanted is still in place and subsidies are still available for coverage through the exchanges.