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<H2><FONT size=4>"Any nominally progressive component of the legislation has
been long-since ripped away, leaving behind a contorted patchwork of rules and
regulations that serve one main purpose: to slash costs for the government and
corporations and boost the profits of the privately owned health care
corporations, which already rake in $200 billion a year in profits.<BR>The only
solution to the health care crisis lies in putting an end to the privately run
health care system and establishing Medicare for All."</FONT></H2>
<H2>The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA): US Health Reform to
Slash Medicare, Leaving Millions Uninsured</H2>
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<DIV class=author><FONT size=4><STRONG>By </STRONG></FONT><A
title="Posts by Kate Randall" href=""><FONT size=4><STRONG>Kate
Randall</STRONG></FONT></A></DIV>
<DIV class=grDate><FONT size=4><STRONG>Global Research, June 05,
2013<BR><BR></STRONG></FONT></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV>
<DIV class=content><FONT size=4><STRONG>With the full implementation of the
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) less than seven months away,
mounting evidence demonstrates that the health care reform signed into law by
President Barack Obama in 2010 will result in deep cutbacks in medical care,
while raising costs for the vast majority of ordinary Americans.<BR>At the same
time, millions of the uninsured who were promised health coverage will be left
out in the cold altogether. While working families and the poor face an
uncertain future as far as their health care is concerned, private insurance
companies are gearing up for steep increases in premiums as the medical benefits
provided under their policies shrink.<BR>The Obama administration’s health care
overhaul will also reduce reimbursements to Medicare by more than $700 billion
over 10 years, forcing drastic cutbacks to medical services and treatments for
millions of American seniors that rely on the government program.<BR>The health
care exchanges, set up for adults under 65 and their dependents, are required to
open for enrollment by October 1, with the insurance provided through them set
to begin January 2014. Individuals and families who do not receive “affordable”
insurance through their employer, or through a government program such as
Medicaid, will be required to purchase coverage through private insurers via
these marketplaces or pay a penalty, receiving modest government subsidies to do
so.<BR>The </STRONG></FONT><A href=""><FONT size=4><STRONG>first of these
exchanges</STRONG></FONT></A><FONT size=4><STRONG> has already gone into effect
in California. Insurer Blue Shield of California has projected that it will
increase premiums by an average of 13 percent in the first year alone. But as
the health care law goes into effect across the country, premiums can be
expected to rise at an even more rapid pace.<BR>A recent report by the US House
Committee on Energy and Commerce found that individuals in about 90 percent of
US states would likely face “significant premium increases.” Based on responses
from 17 insurance companies, the report estimates that individuals purchasing
coverage on the individual market could face average premium increases of nearly
100 percent, with potential increases of 400 percent.<BR>Insurers offering
coverage on the exchanges are required to cover a standard set of benefits,
including prescription drugs, maternity and preventative care. They cannot turn
away people with pre-existing conditions or charge older customers more for
coverage. Limits on maximum co-payments and other out-of-pocket costs, on the
other hand, are high: $6,400 a year for individuals and $12,500 for
families.<BR>However, insurers are hiking premiums to make up for any increased
costs resulting from offering the ACA-specified coverage on the individual
market. Despite a rule in the federal law that requires review of any requests
for more than a 10 percent increase in premiums, there are wide disparities in
how the review process operates at the state level.<BR>In California, for
example, regulations cannot deny rate increases, but can only review insurers’
requests for technical errors. Three insurers in that state have already
requested double-digit increases for 2013: Aetna, 22 percent; Anthem Blue, 26
percent; and Blue Shield of California, 20 percent.<BR>A new survey by
InsuranceQuotes.com show that two-thirds of Americans who are currently
uninsured are undecided whether they will purchase coverage by the January 1
deadline. These people will either be priced out of the market or will decide
they are young and healthy enough to take the risk of going uninsured. Most will
then have to pay the penalty for not obtaining insurance. If enough people opt
out of the exchange market, the insurance companies can be expected to jack up
prices even further.<BR>As originally proposed by the Obama administration,
about half of those presently uninsured were to gain coverage through an
expansion of Medicaid, the health care program for the poor jointly administered
by the federal government and the states. In its ruling upholding the ACA last
June, the US Supreme Court also ruled that states could not be required to
expand their Medicaid programs.<BR>Now more than </STRONG></FONT><A
href=""><FONT size=4><STRONG>half of the 50 US states are opting out of the
Medicaid expansion</STRONG></FONT></A><FONT size=4><STRONG>, which would have
provided health care coverage for adults making up to 133 percent of the poverty
level. This means that the very poorest of the uninsured—those with annual
incomes between 32 percent and 100 percent of the poverty level
($6,250-$19,530)—will have no affordable health care options. They will be
eligible for neither Medicaid nor subsidies to purchase coverage on the
exchanges, which are only available for people from the poverty level to four
times that rate.<BR>Those workers who presently receive coverage through their
employers will also see attacks on their medical coverage. Businesses, big and
small, are strategizing how to comply with the ACA regulations while paying as
little as possible for insurance for their employees. The law requires companies
with 50 or more employees to provide affordable insurance to their workers or be
penalized with an excise tax. However, these businesses are not required to
offer coverage to employees who work less than 30 hours a week.<BR>The Wake
County Public School System in North Carolina is responding by restricting its
3,300-plus substitute teachers to working less than 30 hours a week, effective
July 1. The district’s chief business officer estimates insuring these teachers,
who are presently not covered, would cost the Wake County schools about $5.2
million. Many employers in retail, restaurants, nursing homes, health care,
building services, local government and other sectors are expected to follow
suit, allowing them to dodge the $2,000-per-worker penalty for not providing
insurance.<BR>Other small businesses are cutting back on hiring to avoid
crossing the 50-employee threshold defining a large business, thus avoiding the
requirement that they offer insurance. Still other businesses are considering
ditching their health care altogether and paying the federal penalty instead,
which in a considerable number of cases would be to the companies’ economic
advantage.<BR>Even in those companies with 50 workers or more, a loophole in the
ACA will allow these businesses to offer </STRONG></FONT><A href=""><FONT
size=4><STRONG>bare-bones insurance plans</STRONG></FONT></A><FONT
size=4><STRONG> and still meet the law’s requirements. These “skinny
plans”—costing employers as little as $40 to $100 a month per employee—may cover
minimal requirements such as preventive services, but offer no coverage for
hospitalizations or surgeries. For workers and their dependents with such plans,
one serious medical event could spell bankruptcy and destitution.<BR>Workers
offered these plans would have the option of purchasing insurance on the
exchanges. But for workers in retail and other low-wage sectors this coverage
would be prohibitively expensive, even with subsidies. The Kaiser Family
Foundation estimates that a full-time worker earning $9 an hour could have to
pay as much as $70 a month to purchase a mid-level exchange plan.<BR>Those
companies presently offering plans with relatively low deductibles and co-pays
are already moving to reduce benefits and shift costs to their employees in
response to a provision of the ACA that penalizes companies that offer insurance
valued over $10,200 annually for an individual or $27,500 for a family.
Employers or health insurers who offers such “Cadillac plans” would pay a 40
percent excise tax on the amount exceeding this threshold.<BR>A number of large
labor unions have now come into conflict with the Obama administration over the
ACA’s treatment of health insurance plans that cover about 20 million union
members. These multi-employer plans, run by union-management boards, cover
workers in occupations and trades governed by collective bargaining
agreements.<BR>Unions such as the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW),
UNITE HERE, and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters—which gave full
support to Barack Obama’s health care reform—now object that the ACA does not
provide tax subsidies for the workers covered by these
plans.</STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV class=content><FONT size=4><STRONG>All the major players in the overhaul of
the health care system—the corporations and health care industry, the Democratic
Party and their supporters in the trade unions—have perpetrated what can only be
called a conspiracy against the American people. They have attempted to pass off
as a reform legislation that will reduce care and benefits and leave millions of
people uninsured and impoverished.<BR>Any nominally progressive component of the
legislation has been long-since ripped away, leaving behind a contorted
patchwork of rules and regulations that serve one main purpose: to slash costs
for the government and corporations and boost the profits of the privately owned
health care corporations, which already rake in $200 billion a year in
profits.<BR>The only solution to the health care crisis lies in putting an end
to the privately run health care system and establishing Medicare for
All.</STRONG></FONT></DIV></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>