Thursday, April 4, 2013

#484 (4/4) "Why Health Care Spending Will Explode Under ObamaCare," Many Doctors Retiring Early

URGENT PRAYERS/PETITIONS:

Same -Sex "Marriage"- PLEASE PRAY WITH ME (every day untill the decision is revealed around mid-June) THAT THE SUPREME COURT WILL VOTE TO UPHOLD THE 2 LAWS REVIEWED SUPPORTING A TRADITIONAL DEFINITION OF MARRIAGE.. PRAY that the Court will resist any pressure to MAKE new law based on "cultural trends." PRAY as though the very future of the institution of the family is at stake because it is. PRAY! -  for the sake of possibly millions of such children, and for our country if it is to continue to be shown any more favor by our Heavenly Father, who I promise you will be very displeased if homosexual marriage is legalized; "GOD IS NOT [TO BE] MOCKED..." - (Gal. 6:7)  - Stan [Be sure to check out my brief essay at post #478.]

CONTINUE TO PRAY FOR PASTOR SAEED (Iranian-born AMERICAN pastor who just started an 8 year sentence for helping the underground churches in Iran) [See 3/25 update below!] - "As Iran continues to abuse imprisoned American Pastor Saeed Abedini, its goal is now clear -- force Pastor Saeed to deny Christ.We've obtained a new letter from Pastor Saeed detailing his continued mistreatment in the deadly Evin Prison, including Iran's efforts to force him to convert from Christianity back to Islam. Pastor Saeed writes: "[A]fter all of these pressures, after all of the nails they have pressed against my hands and 'feet, they are only waiting for one thing…for me to deny Christ.' Yet he is standing strong, declaring '"they will never get this from me.' (Read of the inspiring  letter he has written from prison at http://aclj.org/iran/pastor-saeed-writes-psychological-warfare-physical-violence-death-threats-iranian-prison) UPDATE of 3/25 - 1) Those in support of Pastor Saeed have testified at the UN meetings in Geneva for several weekst to the Human Rights Commission; 2) The American Center for Law and Justice testified before a committee of the House of Rep. on Friday about Pastor Saeed and other persecuted Christians in the Middle East  PRAISE GOD, over the weekend the Secretary of State finally spoke out clearly for the release of Pastor Saeed (though they've known of his plight since last JULY!) as did the UN Human Rights Commission! If you have not already, please join nearly 500,000 (was recently250,000) who have signed the petition  for Pastor Saeed's release and tell your friends about it.  http://aclj.org/iran/save-american-pastor-from-iranian-prison-sentence 

As the Lord leads, please pray: *For Pastor Abedini as he endures one of Iran’s most deadly prisons, potentially beaten and abused regularly, simply because of his Christian faith.
  • For the pastor’s wife and family and the Holy Spirit’s comfort upon them.
  • For God to visit his tormenters and all in his cell with him with supernatural dreams of the risen Christ, and use the pastor's actions and words to draw them to repent and turn to Christ; that God would use the pastor's time in that prison to spark a genuine spiritual revival that will bring scores of Iranians to Christ..
  • For the U.S. State Department to get involved in a significant way to obtain the pastor’s release.

[NOTE: Following are two articles that explain the dangers of the President's Health Care plan and the consequences America will have to endure because of it. PRAY that efforts in Congress to reduce the negative impact of this very ill-advised legislation will gain sufficient support in time.

]"Why Health Care Spending Will Explode Under ObamaCare," April 2, 2013  http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_ID=23016&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=DPD

If historical trends in Medicare are any indication of the future, health care spending under the Affordable Care Act ("ObamaCare") will rise significantly. Despite repeated claims by President Obama and Democrats that insuring every American will lower insurance, the empirical and historical evidence suggest spending will explode, says Merrill Matthews, a resident scholar at the Institute for Policy Innovation.
  • When the Medicare program was introduced in 1966, roughly 7.5 percent of the U.S. population received health insurance at about the same time through the program. According to government estimates, ObamaCare will provide coverage for about 32 million Americans, equal to about 10 percent of the population.
  • By 1970 Medicare had caused a 37 percent increase in hospital spending.
At the time, the House Ways and Means Committee estimated that projected costs would grow from $5 billion in the first year to an inflation-adjusted $12 billion in 1990, a prediction that mirrored the expected wage growth from 1975 onward.
  • Instead of $12 billion in Medicare expenditures in 1990, costs grew at roughly 2.4 times the rate of inflation and ballooned to $110 billion.
  • One reason health care spending rose so significantly is because people receive additional care they might not have received when they have health insurance.
  • With a third-party payment system, patients have less incentive to be more cost conscious about health care expenditures.
ObamaCare, which it is estimated will provide coverage for about 32 million Americans (equal to about 10 percent of the population), creates more price insulation by furthering a system that has the health insurance system pay the health care providers directly.
  • For example, under ObamaCare, contraceptives are free, meaning individuals have little incentive to choose a $10-a-month pill when there are new products that cost $150-a-month.
  • Spending on hospital care has grown between $30 billion and $40 billion a year between 2006 and 2013.
  • Following full implementation of ObamaCare in 2014, the government estimates that spending may rise by $60 billion to $70 billion per year.
While Obama administration officials continue to claim that costs will go down in the future, Medicare provides an example of how costs can rise unexpectedly. It is clear that costs are already rising and will continue to do so as ObamaCare commandeers the health care system.

[bold and italics emphasis mine]

Source: Merrill Matthews, "Why Health Care Spending Will Explode Under ObamaCare: Evidence From Medicare," Forbes Magazine, March 22, 2013.

"Doctors Skeptical About Future of U.S. Health System," April 2, 2013 http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_ID=23019&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=DPD


As the health care system changes drastically over the next three years, more doctors than ever are planning on retiring. The retirements will occur as autonomy decreases under federal oversight and income falls under price controls.  A survey of 600 doctors finds that physicians are pessimistic about the future, says Everyday Health.
  • Six out of 10 physicians in the survey said that it is likely that many of their colleagues will retire earlier than planned in the next one to three years.
  • The survey, which was conducted by the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions, found that this perception is constant regardless of the respondent's age, gender and specialty.
  • Fifty-five percent of physicians surveyed believe that other doctors will reduce the number of hours they work because of the changes that are occurring in the health system.
Changes to the health care system under ObamaCare are forcing doctors to abandon their individual practices and instead become hourly employees of hospitals.
  • Between 2011 and 2012, four in 10 doctors reported their take-home pay decreased and more than half of that number said the pay cut was 10 percent or less.
  • Of the doctors who reported a decrease in pay, four in 10 blamed the Affordable Care Act and 48 percent believed their income would drop as a result of the ObamaCare mandate.
  • Roughly 66 percent of the survey participants believed that physicians and hospitals will become more integrated.
Since 2011 alone, more than 31 percent of the doctors in the survey had moved into a larger practice and nearly eight in 10 believe midlevel providers will become more prominent in providing primary care.
  • The survey also found that 26 percent of doctors believe Medicare's sustainable growth rate formula will be repealed in the next one to three years and one in 10 believe that medical liability reform will pass Congress in the next one to three years.
  • About 25 percent of physicians would place new or additional limits on accepting Medicare patients if there were payment changes.
  • Only 31 percent of respondents gave the U.S. health care system a grade of A or B, down from 35 percent in 2011.
[bold and italics emphasis mine]
Source: David Pittman, "More Docs Plan to Retire Early," Everyday Health, March 21, 2013.
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