Higgins Companies

President Obama has decided to postpone the issue of contraceptive coverage until after the elections. It is a touchy subject, one that has the Catholic church up in arms.

Obamacare mandates that all group health insurance policies must cover contraceptives under the preventive services benefit these policies offer, including medications that can abort a baby, and do so at no cost to the policyholder. Catholic universities and hospitals have a problem with this of course, as it forces them to cover abortion.

As I have mentioned many times in these blog posts, the main purpose of Obamacare is not to insure more people, it is to force group health insurance companies out of business and drive the insured into Medicaid or other similar government run health insurance plans. These Catholic entities will now be forced to drop their group health insurance policies so as not to facilitate abortions, their employees forced to turn to the government for their health insurance. It is a win win for this administration. Employees of these institutions will be forced into a government group health insurance plan, and the government will collect billions of dollars in fines assessed these institutions that do not provide group health insurance with free abortions.

Again, the more people that are dependent on the government for their health insurance needs, the more voters you have for your party.

Michael Higgins

www.higginscompanies.com

Nancy Pelosi’s oft quoted statement about passing Obamacare so that we can, ”find out what’s in it,” has come back to haunt the American people once again.

There are jobs in China included in the Obamacare mess, what’s not in it are jobs for Americans. Boston Scientific, a medical-device manufacturer, recently announced that they will cut up to 2700 jobs in America to save money and remain competitive. The company also announced that they will hire 1000 people in China. The most shocking part of the announcement was the reason given for this move overseas. Apparently the company feels that there is less government oversight in China, and lower costs of course thanks to the lack of unions. Not in my lifetime did I ever think China would be more business friendly than the U.S.A.

Obamacare has a new tax buried in the 2000 plus page law, one that adds a 2.3% tax, in addition to other taxes paid, on medical-device makers. This is business, where 2.3% can be the average profit margin of an entire industry, and adding such a tax can cause huge ramifications. Simply adding this extra cost onto the final price tag of the device is not an option. Competition from abroad won’t allow such a thing, along with the fact that our government continues to cut reimbursement rates on these devices instead of cutting benefits as they must.

It’s not as though Boston Scientific and all the hundreds of other medical-device manufacturers did not warn the administration before Obamacare was passed into law. They made it very clear that many jobs will be lost in America and go elsewhere if the tax survived in the final law. It did survive, and the jobs are gone, resulting in thousands of Americans out of work and on unemployment insurance and food stamps.

Michael Higgins

www.higginscompanies.com

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid has released a study affirming what most knew already, we are all paying more for health insurance now thanks to Obamacare. Why wouldn’t costs rise, combine rich benefits with mandated cost controls, something must give. Tell a company to insure everything under the sun, yet not allow them to charge accordingly will simply drive competition into the ground and raise prices for those companies that survive.

The solution is fairly simple, and it has less to do with government intervention such as Obamacare, and much more to do with personal responsibility. Allow everyone to buy their health insurance on their own, nothing to do with employer sponsored group coverage. Let them shop policies in every state, and keep the federal tax incentive to save money and shop their health care, the HSA, (health savings accounts.)

For those that are non-insurable, have a federal high-risk pool, something that exists now thanks to Obamacare. The cost of the federal high-risk policies will be billions less than the $3-$5 trillion dollar Obamacare fiasco. For those that can’t afford the health insurance premiums, help them, subsidize their premium with one very large caveat… No more subsiding premiums for those making 400% or less of the poverty level as Obamacare will begin doing in 2014, lowering this percentage to 100% or less.

Health insurance is not rocket science, it is simply about spreading risk. Health insurance, or any insurance for that matter, is not about covering every conceivable medical expense for the least amount of money out of pocket. Health insurance is designed to keep you out of the poor house, but when a claim occurs it should hurt financially, nearly as much as the injury or illness itself. Pain is a great motivator, especially financial pain. More times than not it forces the individual to make changes in their life, eliminating risky behavior that likely caused the claim in the first place. Of course there are health conditions that have nothing to do with how one lives their lives, and these are claims that health insurance is designed to cover.

Obamacare is about putting for-profit and non-profit health insurance companies out of business, a stepping stone to a government run plan filled with handouts at the expense of the 50% that pay taxes. Give something for, “free,” make the individual dependent on the freebie, and you have a voter for life.

Michael Higgins

www.higginscompanies.com

P. J. O’Rourke once said, “If you think health care is expensive now, just wait till it’s free.”

All the freebies included in Obamacare have a price tag, and ultimately we all pay for them. Those free preventive check-ups and free contraceptives all add to the monthly premium we all pay.

It seems odd to me. If many studies confirm that preventive medicine does nothing to lower overall expenses, and in fact raises costs, why are we incentivizing this? If free contraceptives and HIV tests, well-woman care visits, and counseling on STD’s are to ensure that women live long and healthy lives, why are we not giving out free heart care? Heart disease is the number one killer of women, not the lack of contraceptives. I say free EKG’s and counseling for couch potatoes all around. Let’s not forget about men and children of course. If you are a real man you don’t go to the doctor to begin with, but what if we gave them free health care, surely that would get them into the doctors office for a check-up, right? And the children, our sweet, adorable, innocent children. They need free counseling. There’s sex, drugs, and rock and roll to contend with. Free counseling sessions will go a long way toward raising perfect little angels.

I think the scariest part in all of this is the fact that the secretary of the HHS has the power to decide what is covered, who is covered, and what they will pay. Talk about the power of the few.

Obamacare has caused premiums to rise, and they will continue an upward trajectory for years to come. There is no free lunch.

Michael Higgins

www.higginscompanies.com

The Obama administration, like all previous administrations, knows how to spin a story very well. If we were to believe what this administration is telling us about the implementation of health insurance exchanges in America, we would conclude that everything is just about up and running. Of course, nothing could be further from the truth.

The health insurance exchanges are a central part of Obamacare, it is where millions of people are to shop for health insurance online, and apply for financial assistance if qualified, as most will be. The administration recently stated that twenty-eight states are on their way to creating such exchanges, that there is nothing to worry about, no problems so far.

With a little quick math off the top of my head, doesn’t this mean that twenty-two states are not on their way to creating a health insurance exchange in their state, or about forty percent of all states? Forty percent non-compliance is a problem, a big problem, and spinning these numbers can only go so far.

Breaking these numbers down further it becomes apparent what is going on. The states controlled by Democrats are building health insurance exchanges, Republican controlled states are not. There are the states that fall in the middle somewhere of course, neither red or blue, and most of them are giving it a half-hearted attempt. The number of states playing nice with this administration totals fifteen. Thirty of the remaining thirty-five states are run by Republican governors, and they want nothing to do with Obamacare, and it shows. A wait and see policy is in place in these states, no reason to spend money on something that very likely will not survive the Supreme Court challenge.

When the administration was asked about these dismal numbers they said not to worry. If the states don’t have a health insurance exchange by 2014 the federal government will come in and run one. Really? They’re going to swoop in on a moment’s notice and successfully run a huge welfare program, while at the same time instantly verifying every applicants income? It has never been done before, and it’s not going to be done in 2014. Obamacare is a trainwreck, two-thirds of Americans are aware of this, the other third slowly realizing the same.

Michael Higgins

www.higginscompanies.com

One half of all physicians believe that Obamacare will negatively affect their income this year, and seventy-five percent believe that it won’t lower costs. These numbers have lead to seventy percent of all physicians being pessimistic about the future of medicine in general.

These figures fly in the face of the AMA’s, (American Medical Association,) initial support of the law. It is important to remember that less than one in five physicians, (seventeen percent,) are enrolled in the AMA, a number which continues to drop from the twenty-nine percent membership rate in 2009.

The reality of passing Obamacare is starting to sink in with doctors around the country. The cost of implementing all the new regulations forced upon them are coming to fruition. More regulations coupled with more patients with low paying federal health insurance, lower reimbursement from the government, and the higher costs associated with all of these changes, has resulted in many doctors considering alternative professions.

Obamacare is a huge drain on society, and things will only get much worse in 2014 when the law is in full swing. Instead of incentivising more young adults to get into the field of medicine to handle the millions more in the health care system, Obamacare gives these individuals every reason in the world to look elsewhere for the American dream.

Michael Higgins

www.higginscompanies.com

The Independent Payment Advisory Board, (IPAB,) is a new federal government panel forming with absolute power. Their job is to lower the overall cost of the Medicare program. The fifteen member panel will be appointed by the president and approved by the Senate, and has no requirement to be bipartisan. No reviews, notices, comments by the public are allowed. Whatever IPAB dictates becomes law, only Congress having the ability to intervene. But the ability of Congress to intervene is quite limited, Obamacare states that they have a limited time to challenge an IPAB ruling, and can only reverse a ruling with three-fifths of their members voting for such action. This is tougher than a proposal amending the Constitution requiring two-thirds of Congress voting in the affirmative. Challenging an IPAB ruling in court? No, the law states that IPAB rulings cannot be challenged in court. What if newly elected officials want to repeal the IPAB panel? Not so fast. Any bill to repeal IPAB must be introduced within the month of January, 2017, and will not be allowed at any other time. (Remember, we need to pass Obamacare so that we can see what’s in it.) If the repeal is successful it cannot go into effect until 2020.

That’s a lot of power for fifteen people, what do they do exactly? This panel’s directive is to control spending within Medicare. Sounds great, everyone knows something must be done about the multi-trillion dollar shortfall this program faces over the next few decades. But IPAB, with all of their power, cannot look to increasing premiums or co-pays of policyholder’s, it is the law. The law also states that IPAB cannot change eligibility requirements or benefits covered, and they cannot ration care. They are directed to save billions of dollars though, and there is only one way left to do so… cut doctor’s pay. Of course this has been tried many times, resulting in the semi-annual, “Doctor Fix.” Physicians already lose money on Medicare patients, collecting ninety-one cents on the dollar. Cutting their pay even more will simply result in more doctors refusing to care for Medicare patients, a form of rationing care if ever there was one.

There is a little hope though, the Goldwater Institute is challenging the constitutionality of IPAB. The Supreme Court has a history of overturning these delegations of power, as it rightly should in this case.

Michael Higgins

www.higginscompanies.com