Blog - Elaina George

Obamacare and Appeasement: An Unholy Alliance

The Democrats and the Republicans have done a masterful job of demonizing the physician. The doctor has been the scapegoat for skyrocketing health care costs while giving more power over the medical industry to those entities that have been the architects of the broken healthcare system that we have today. In short, the system is a complex network of corporate middlemen, that have worked tirelessly figuring out ways to skim profits while simultaneously shifting the costs to patients, rationing their care in the form of pre-certifications, increasing premiums, and outright denials on one hand while decreasing physician reimbursements (in the form of bundling), lowering fees, implementing recovery audits to claw back reimbursements, and outright denials of payment after services are rendered on the other. The government has put rules and regulations into place that encourage and reward this behavior, while ensuring that doctors and patients continue to feed a beast that needs increasingly more money to run a system that is based on the management of chronic disease instead of true prevention. It is no wonder that we are spending more money on healthcare and are on more medication, yet we as society are getting sicker.

Tags: Congress Healthcare reform, healthcare rationing, High healthcare costs, Obamacare|

Obamacare Is A Trojan Horse For Socialized Medicine

Obamacare has become one of the most polarizing pieces of legislation ever passed. There was so much heat surrounding its passage that people got caught up and blinded by the rhetoric. On one hand, we were told that it had to be passed because uninsured people were practically dying in the streets, while greedy doctors were performing unnecessary tests, amputating feet, and taking out tonsils in their unending quest to make as much money as possible. The initial premise that the problem with healthcare was because of the uninsured was a lie.

Tags: health insurance costs, healthcare costs, healthcare reform, Obamacare, politics of healthcare, universal healthcare|

Obamacare = Corporate Driven Medical Serfdom

For those who continue to delude themselves that Obamacare will lead them to the healthcare land of milk and honey, I have some news for you -- it’s never going to happen. Critical thinking would lead one to the conclusion that there is no way to add 30 million more people to a system that is already fundamentally broken. There have been many arguments used to sell Obamcare to the public. Much of it has been disingenuous, peddled not by doctors who are on the front line taking care of patients to the best of their ability, but by corporate interests that stand to gain from profits gleaned from the practice of corporate disease driven medicine. e.g., the pharmaceutical industry, the American Medical Association, AARP, The Hospital Corporation of America, and various unions.

Tags: Corporate driven healthcare, Evidence Based medicine, healthcare and unions, healthcare costs, Healthcare Mandates, healthcare rationing, Medical insurance, Obamcare|

Crony Capitalism Can Be Hazardous To Your Health

Michael Moore recently pontificated that under Obamacare Americans would have to wait for certain non life threatening procedures such as a knee replacement. In his mind a “patriotic American” would be happy to do so. If one takes a critical look at socialized healthcare it would be obvious that it doesn’t work. In the UK, the healthcare system is so strapped for money that it is considering outsourcing the management of it to a German company. It is criminal that we would alter our medical system to emulate one that is obviously broken. Despite the pronouncements of healthcare equality we are rapidly moving towards a two tier system that is separate and unequal – those who have the means to do so will simply opt-out.

Tags: Big Pharma, Capital Cronyism, Lobbyists, Medical Insurance Industry, Obamacare|

The Administration’s Answer To High Healthcare Costs is…. Rationing

After months of denial that healthcare reform would involve rationing of healthcare for those who are the most vulnerable, the senior citizens who depend on Medicare, the President has come up with a proposal to decrease healthcare costs and guess what….it’s rationing. Under Obamacare, a 15 member panel known as the Medicare Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) was created to ‘oversee healthcare costs’. This panel consists of individuals appointed by the President and confirmed by Congress - two ingredients that make it highly unlikely that they would be truly independent. In addition, there is no mandate that members be practicing physicians which is a recipe for cuts that are highly likely to affect the delivery of quality individualized patient care.

Tags: Congress Healthcare reform, healthcare costs, healthcare rationing, Medicaid costs, medical doctors, Medicare Costs, Obamacare, Rationing, Senate healthcare bill|

The Republicans + Obamacare = Business As Usual

I had high hopes after the fall elections that things would change. I expected once the Republicans took power that they would make a concerted effort to reverse the downslide of our health care system into the hole that is created by Obamacare. Apparently, it is just business as usual on Capitol Hill… big surprise. The Republicans failure to act will have a devastating effect on a physician's ability to deliver quality individulaized health care.

Tags: Congress Healthcare reform, Defunding Obamacare, healthcare reform bill, Obamacare, Republicans|

In The Age Of Obamacare Will Your Medical Information Be Used Against You?

Since the healthcare reform legislation passed, the discussion has centered on the fear of a government takeover of healthcare, but maybe this should not be the focus. Perhaps we should be worried about a corporate takeover of healthcare. Google is one example of the growing list of companies with a creepy connection with the government. Like the Food Safety Bill S510 which has given control of our food supply to big Agra, and the Healthcare Reform Bill that has given control of our healthcare system to big pharma, insurance companies and corporate hospitals, this appears to be yet another example of the insertion of a corporate middleman between us and our right to privacy. First it’s the carrot then the stick - put your health information voluntarily on their website, and like the social media websites put yourself in the position to have it be used against you.

Tags: Congress, Corporate driven healthcare, Corporations, Google, healthcare reform, Kathleen Sebelius, Lobbying, Obamacare|

Obamacare Endgame: If Doctors Choose To Put Patient Care First They Can Look Forward To Fines Or Jail Time

If Obamacare is completely implemented, doctors will no longer be practicing medicine. They will instead become the drones tasked with deciding who gets the meager healthcare crumbs doled out by the bureaucrats who have the ultimate power over patient life and death. Those who are deemed to have illnesses that require treatments which are not cost effective can expect a one way ticket to a hospice.

Naked Body Scanners: Should You Have To Give Up The Right To Privacy & Risk Your Health?

Does the government have the right to potentially risk the health of men, women and children who travel in the name of national security? Now that the body scanners have been deployed in many us airports, it is time to take a second look. We were told by the government that they were necessary to secure our safety after the attempt by the underwear bomber. Some have theorized that the scans can damage the DNA. Unfortunately, very little is known about the effects on the human body because no long term studies have been done. Therefore, it is hard to say with certainty that the benefits out weigh the risks. Now that they have been deployed in many airports throughout the country, it is time to ask whether they are safe. Do the facts jibe with what we have been told?

Tags: airport safety, airport security, backscatter technology, body scanner technology, body scanners, cancer risk, Homeland Security, naked body scanners, privacy|

Healthcare Reform: Promises Made, Promises Not Kept

The implementation of the healthcare reform bill that was passed in March has now begun. Unfortunately, it is becoming obvious that the promises made such as: a) you can keep your physician and medical plan if you like them; b) your healthcare costs will go down; c) there will be no healthcare rationing; and d) everyone will be covered simply were not true. We were fed a steady diet of fear, distraction and falsehoods to sell healthcare reform. Why have none of these changes been implemented? Perhaps it is because this is a system that is set up to fail. When people get so fed up with waiting for treatment, or no longer want to put up with being denied care because a decision is made that the costs outweigh the benefits, the government will be ready to step in with the solution of the single payer system. Unfortunately, when that happens medical care in the United States as we know it will be lost forever, and we will be saddled with a system that even the British find untenable.

Tags: Donald Berwick, h, healthcare rationing, healthcare reform, Hegelian dialectic, High healthcare costs, Obamacare, Single payer, universal healthcare|