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<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message -----
<DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A
title=tanstl@hotmail.com href="mailto:tanstl@hotmail.com">David Sladky</A>
</DIV>
<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Wednesday, September 18, 2013 1:47 AM</DIV>
<DIV><B>Subject:</B> Profit Driven Health Care: Obamacare Rips Off
Americans</DIV></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr>
<DIV id=post-5349963 class=post>
<DIV class=title>
<H2>Profit Driven Health Care: Obamacare Rips Off Americans</H2>
<DIV class=meta>
<DIV class=post-info>
<DIV class=author>By <A title="Posts by Stephen Lendman"
href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/author/stephen-lendman">Stephen
Lendman</A></DIV>
<DIV class=grDate>Global Research, September 15, 2013</DIV></DIV></DIV><A
href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/profit-driven-health-care-obamacare-rips-off-americans/5349963">http://www.globalresearch.ca/profit-driven-health-care-obamacare-rips-off-americans/5349963</A><BR></DIV>
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<DIV class=postThumbnail><IMG
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<DIV id=yui_3_7_2_1_1379273500815_1919>
<DIV id=yiv1971573734>
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<DIV id=yui_3_7_2_1_1379273500815_2130>
<DIV id=yui_3_7_2_1_1379273500815_2129>
<DIV id=yui_3_7_2_1_1379273500815_2185><EM>It’s a plan to enrich insurers, drug
companies, and large hospital chains. It’s market-based for profit. They
let business benefit at the expense of ordinary people.</EM></DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_7_2_1_1379273500815_2187><EM>Tens of millions are left uninsured.
Millions more are underinsured.</EM></DIV>
<DIV>On August 12, The<A
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/13/us/a-limit-on-consumer-costs-is-delayed-in-health-care-law.html?ref=politics&_r=1&pagewanted=all&"
rel=nofollow target=_blank> New York Times</A> headlined “A Limit on Consumer
Costs Is Delayed in Health Care Law,” saying:</DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_7_2_1_1379273500815_2189>Obama delayed a “significant consumer
protection.” He did so until 2015. He did it secretly. He did it last
February.</DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_7_2_1_1379273500815_2190>According to The Times, he “obscured (it)
in a maze of legal and bureaucratic language that went largely unnoticed.” Labor
Department officials confirmed what happened.</DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_7_2_1_1379273500815_2192>Discovery will likely fuel greater
debate. ACA’s a healthcare disaster. Millions already can’t afford high costs.
Obama may delay key consumer protections longer. Maybe he’ll suspend them
altogether.</DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_7_2_1_1379273500815_2194>The longer they’re deferred, the more
consumers pay. Doing so makes Obamacare less affordable than already.</DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_7_2_1_1379273500815_2195>Out-of-pocket deductibles and co-pays
weren’t supposed to exceed $6,350 for individuals and $12,700 for families.
Federal officials granted insurers and employers one year’s grace.</DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_7_2_1_1379273500815_2197>Obama touted caps as a key Affordable
Care Act (ACA) provision. Deferring them increases costs significantly. Doing so
makes ordinary people bear burdens they can’t afford.</DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_7_2_1_1379273500815_2198>They’ll be denied vital care when most
needed. They’ll be debt burdened to buy mandated coverage. They won’t get what
they pay for. They’ll be ripped off so healthcare giants can profit.</DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_7_2_1_1379273500815_2199>Cap-free coverage isn’t what people
expected. Lots more surprises await. More on that below.</DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_7_2_1_1379273500815_2200>According to The Times, (f)ederal
officials said that many insurers and employers needed more time to comply
because they used separate companies to help administer major medical coverage
and drug benefits, with separate limits on out-of-pocket costs.”</DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_7_2_1_1379273500815_2201>Buying this rubbish doesn’t wash.
Companies had years to prepare. Instead they pressured for relief. They
usually get what they want. Doing sostraps debt burdened households.</DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_7_2_1_1379273500815_2203>Who’s advocating on their behalf? Who’s
listening? What administration officials care? None did before. None do now.
Sink or swim is official Obama policy. So is enriching corporate
predators.</DIV>
<DIV>Millions of households struggle to get by. Protracted Main Street
Depression conditions makes everything less affordable.</DIV>
<DIV>After rent or mortgage payments, healthcare coverage is the greatest burden
most face.</DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_7_2_1_1379273500815_2207>A senior administration official spoke
anonymously to avoid embarrassment, saying:</DIV>
<DIV>“We knew this was an important issue. We had to balance the interests of
consumers with the concerns of health plan sponsors and carriers. They asked for
more time to comply.”</DIV>
<DIV>Ordinary people were thrown under the bus. It was done to benefit them.
Expect lots more corporate giveaways ahead. Expect them harming consumers.</DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_7_2_1_1379273500815_2210>In July, administration officials
announced another major one-year delay. It requires large employers provide
healthcare coverage for full-time employees.</DIV>
<DIV>They’ll do it later, not sooner. Perhaps they’ll weasel out of it
altogether. Obama waivers are easy to get.</DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_7_2_1_1379273500815_2211>Senior Obama advisor Valerie Jarrett said
delay shows “we are listening” to business. Complaints about complex reporting
requirements were addressed.</DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_7_2_1_1379273500815_2212>They don’t wash. Large employers have
professionals able deal with all issues. Consumer concerns don’t matter. Bottom
line priorities alone count.</DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_7_2_1_1379273500815_2213>Although both delays are unrelated, they
show ACA is less than meets the eye. It falls way short of providing equitable
healthcare. It’s a boon to industry profiteers.</DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_7_2_1_1379273500815_2214>National Health Council head Myrl
Weinbert said:</DIV>
<DIV>“The government’s unexpected interpretation of the law will
disproportionately harm people with complex chronic conditions and
disabilities.”</DIV>
<DIV>People with major illnesses face tens of thousands more annually in
out-of-pocket costs. Unaffordability means greater pain and suffering. It risks
shorter life spans.</DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_7_2_1_1379273500815_2221>In 2009, Obama said “limit(s) (will be
placed) on how much you can be charged for out-of-pocket expenses, because in
the United States of America, no one should go broke because they get
sick.”</DIV>
<DIV>In June 2009, <A
href="http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/jun2009/db2009064_666715.htm"
rel=nofollow target=_blank>BloombergBusinessweek</A> said “(m)edical problems
caused 62% of all (2007) personal bankruptcies.”</DIV>
<DIV>Surprisingly, “78% of those filers had medical insurance at the start of
their illness. Over 60% had private coverage.”</DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_7_2_1_1379273500815_2224>Medically-related bankruptcies rose
steadily for decades. In 1981, only 8% of families were affected.</DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_7_2_1_1379273500815_2225>Given years of protracted hard times,
they’re by far today’s leading cause of consumer insolvency. Obama’s mindless of
the problem. It’s far greater than when he took office.</DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_7_2_1_1379273500815_2226>Expect it to worsen ahead. ACA makes it
more likely, not less. Consumer advocates know they’re sold out. Rose garden
promises were fake.</DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_7_2_1_1379273500815_2227>National Multiple Sclerosis Society vice
president Theodore Thompson said:</DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_7_2_1_1379273500815_2228>“The promise of out-of-pocket limits was
one of the main reasons we supported health care reform. So we are disappointed
that some plans will be allowed to have multiple out-of-pocket limits in
2014.”</DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_7_2_1_1379273500815_2229>ACA requires dental care for children.
Providers can offer separate coverage. Federal rules say free-standing dental
plans must have “a reasonable annual limitation on cost-sharing.”</DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_7_2_1_1379273500815_2231>No matter. Out-of-pocket costs and co-pay
limits can be delayed. Gaming ACA for greater corporate profits is official
Obama policy.</DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_7_2_1_1379273500815_2233>Another loophole lets employers offer
bare-bones plans. Minimal services are provided. Hospitalizations and surgeries
can be excluded. What good’s healthcare coverage without what’s most needed?
What good’s having what doesn’t help?</DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_7_2_1_1379273500815_2235>ACA’s fundamentally flawed. Universal
coverage alone works. Everyone in equitably. No one left out. Obama’s
fundamentally opposed. He’s pro-business at the expense of consumers.</DIV>
<DIV>On August 7, the Wall Street Journal headlined “<A
href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324522504578654193173779414.html"
rel=nofollow target=_blank>Members Only: How the White House is weaseling
Congress out of ObamaCare</A>,” saying:</DIV>
<DIV>White House officials released “legal details behind its ObamaCare bailout
for Members of Congress and their staffs.”</DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_7_2_1_1379273500815_2239>Details are worse than suggested. They
reflect “(i)llegal dispensations for the ruling class, different rules for the
hoi polloi.”</DIV>
<DIV>Senator Chuck Grassley’s 2010 ACA amendment said “the only health plans
that the Federal Government may make available” to Congress are those “offered
on ObamaCare insurance exchanges.”</DIV>
<DIV>Congressional members and aides aren’t pleased. They don’t qualify for ACA
subsidies.</DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_7_2_1_1379273500815_2254>They’ll lose government contributions.
They get them under Federal Employees Health Care Program (FEHBP) provisions.
They cover about three-fourths of premium costs.</DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_7_2_1_1379273500815_2255>“At President Obama’s personal request,
the Office of Personnel Management decreed that the Members don’t have to get
off the gravy train after all.”</DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_7_2_1_1379273500815_2256>“The eat-your-own-cooking provision
begins with the phrase ‘Notwithstanding any other provision of law.’ “</DIV>
<DIV>It’s a giant loophole. It leaves FEGBP’s 1959 law unchanged. Congressional
members and staff benefit. The White House says they’re entitled to enroll in
FEHBP concurrently with exchanges.</DIV>
<DIV>Doing so excludes them from Obamacare inequity. “Millionaire senators and
affluent” bureaucrats were supposed to be treated like everyone else. They were
supposed to play by the same rules.</DIV>
<DIV>Not in America. “It would have been fairer and less corrosive to the rule
of law had Congress simply passed a bill giving their workers a raise to make up
for the lost compensation of dropping out of the FEHBP,” said the Journal.</DIV>
<DIV>“But that would mean an ugly political fight that voters might
notice.”</DIV>
<DIV>“It’s so much easier to slip through this political fix in August when
Congress is out of session and the press corps can’t wait to hit the
beach.”</DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_7_2_1_1379273500815_2261>On August 8, <A
href="http://thehill.com/blogs/healthwatch/health-reform-implementation/316045-obamacare-cost-cutting-board-faces-growing-opposition-from-democrats"
rel=nofollow target=_blank>The Hill </A>headlined “ObamaCare ‘death panel’ faces
growing opposition from Democrats.”</DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_7_2_1_1379273500815_2262>It’s designed to limit Medicare and
Medicaid costs. Congressional democrats facing tough 2014 reelection battles
want Obamacare’s Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) repealed.</DIV>
<DIV>So do the American Medical Association, American Hospital Association, and
other healthcare related groups.</DIV>
<DIV>Critics call IPAB a death panel. It gives appointed bureaucrats life and
death powers. They can cut essential care when most needed.</DIV>
<DIV>They can stop or limit expensive treatments. They can make costs for
administering them unaffordable. They can let providers charge whatever they
wish.</DIV>
<DIV>IPAB’s designed to begin when Medicare cost growth exceeds a certain level.
Medicaid’s affected the same way.</DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_7_2_1_1379273500815_2263>Appointed bureaucrats decide what’s
approved, what’s not, what’s limited, and what care costs.</DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_7_2_1_1379273500815_2264>Doing so rations healthcare. It doesn’t
matter. Congress is required to fast-track its recommendations.</DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_7_2_1_1379273500815_2266>ACA ostensibly precludes rationing.
Reducing provider reimbursements works the same way. Healthcare providers won’t
offer unprofitable treatments. Patients needing them won’t get them.</DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_7_2_1_1379273500815_2267>House and Senate IPAB repeal measures
have 192 and 32 co-sponsors respectively.</DIV>
<DIV>In mid July, the <A
href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324634304578539823614996636.html"
rel=nofollow target=_blank>WSJ</A> discussed “an Obamacare board answerable to
no one.”</DIV>
<DIV>The law’s “most disturbing feature may be” IPAB, it said. Letting
unaccountable bureaucrats make vital medical decisions raises disturbing
questions.</DIV>
<DIV>At stake are life and death issues. IPAB authority begins within two years.
Members will control over half a trillion dollars of federal spending
annually.</DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_7_2_1_1379273500815_2271>They’re mandated to “develop detailed and
specific proposals related to Medicare.” They include cutting costs below a
statutorily required level.</DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_7_2_1_1379273500815_2272>IPAB’s empowered to make rules “related
to” Medicare. Medicaid’s affected.</DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_7_2_1_1379273500815_2273>ACA stipulates “no administrative or
judicial review.” Board decisions are nearly “untouchable.”</DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_7_2_1_1379273500815_2275>Members are “presidentially nominated.”
They’re Senate confirmed. They’re on their own. They can only be fired for
“neglect of duty or malfeasance in office.”</DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_7_2_1_1379273500815_2277>Congress alone can overrule IPAB
decisions. It can only do so through “unprecedented and constitutionally dubious
legislative procedures.”</DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_7_2_1_1379273500815_2278>Debate’s restricted. Congressional
committee deadlines are mandated. So are other accelerated procedures.
Super-majoritarian voting’s required.</DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_7_2_1_1379273500815_2279>“The law allows Congress to kill the
otherwise inextirpable board only by a three-fifths supermajority, and only by a
vote that takes place in 2017 between Jan. 1 and Aug. 15.”</DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_7_2_1_1379273500815_2280>“If the board fails to implement cuts,
all of its powers are to be exercised by HHS Secretary Sebelius or her
successor.”</DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_7_2_1_1379273500815_2281>Obama wants Medicare spending insulated
from the political process. He wants bureaucrats able to make life and death
decisions. He wants Medicare recipients denied care when most needed.</DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_7_2_1_1379273500815_2282>Authority this great is at odds with
supposed separations of powers. No branch is supposed to have more than
others.</DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_7_2_1_1379273500815_2283>It never worked that way. It doesn’t now.
Checks and balances are illusions. They don’t exist. Democracy’s a figure of
speech. Government operates free style.</DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_7_2_1_1379273500815_2284>It does what it wants. It does so without
popular approval. It does it by narrowly interpreting law. It does it
fancifully. It does it extrajudicially.</DIV>
<DIV>It’s autonomous. It’s detached. It’s unresponsive to popular interests. It
operates in a realm of its own. It’s self-serving.</DIV>
<DIV>It’s no government of, by and for everyone. It does what it wants with
impunity. It lets presidents get away with murder. It’s unlikely to reverse IPAB
powers.</DIV>
<DIV>They’re “breathtaking,” said the Journal. Congress relinquished its
authority to unaccountable bureaucrats.</DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_7_2_1_1379273500815_2289>In Mistretta v. United States (1989), the
Supreme Court ruled that Congress must establish an “intelligible
principle.”</DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_7_2_1_1379273500815_2290>It must “confine the discretion of the
authorities to whom Congress has delegated power.”</DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_7_2_1_1379273500815_2291>Congress must take responsibility for
fundamental policy decisions.</DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_7_2_1_1379273500815_2292>IPAB has “no such intelligible
principle,” said the Journal. On the one hand, ACA lets board members impose
deep Medicare cuts.</DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_7_2_1_1379273500815_2293>On the other, it’s prohibited from
rationing care. Reducing provider payments achieves doing so. It forces
providers to limit or stop seeing Medicare patients. The same holds for
Medicaid.</DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_7_2_1_1379273500815_2315>Doing so denies patients care or enough
of it. Expensive illnesses will be impacted hardest.</DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_7_2_1_1379273500815_2294>Giving IPAB unaccountable powers raises
disturbing questions. It “could decide to make cuts beyond the statutory
target,” said the Journal.</DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_7_2_1_1379273500815_2295>“It could require that insurers or
gynecologists make abortion services available to all their patients as a
condition of doing business with Medicare, or that drug companies set aside a
certain percentage of Medicare-related revenues to fund ‘prescription drug
affordability.’ “</DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_7_2_1_1379273500815_2296>There’s no limit. IPAB’s no traditional
government agency. It’s a power unto itself. Congress effectively abdicated.
Judicial review’s excluded.</DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_7_2_1_1379273500815_2297>Patients and providers have nowhere to
turn for relief. Congress can repeal IPAB’s authority. It can defund its
operations.</DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_7_2_1_1379273500815_2298>Doing either won’t be easy. It’s
unlikely. Patient/provider relations won’t be the same. Unaccountable
bureaucrats will decide what care they get, how much, and at what cost. Many
will end up on their own sink or swim.</DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_7_2_1_1379273500815_2299>It bears repeating. Obamacare’s a health
rationing scheme. Patients suffer at the expense of bottom line interests.</DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_7_2_1_1379273500815_2300>They’ll do so when treatment’s most
needed. They’ll be denied or limited when bureaucrats say so. They deserve
better. They won’t get it. Obama wants it that way.</DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_7_2_1_1379273500815_2301><EM><STRONG>Stephen Lendman</STRONG>
lives in Chicago. He can be reached at
lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. </EM></DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_7_2_1_1379273500815_2313><EM>His new book is titled “Banker
Occupation: Waging Financial War on Humanity.”</EM></DIV>
<DIV
id=yui_3_7_2_1_1379273500815_2311><EM>http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanII.html</EM></DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_7_2_1_1379273500815_2309><EM>Visit his blog site at
sjlendman.blogspot.com. </EM></DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_7_2_1_1379273500815_2302><EM>Listen to cutting-edge discussions
with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive
Radio Network.</EM></DIV>
<DIV id=yui_3_7_2_1_1379273500815_2303><EM>It airs Fridays at 10AM US Central
time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy
listening.</EM></DIV>
<DIV
id=yui_3_7_2_1_1379273500815_2304><EM>http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour</EM></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></BODY></HTML>