| The problem with what this doctor and other Obamacare opponents are saying is that it will not massively increase the number of people who get free healthcare. If someone simply cannot afford healthcare, they should he covered by the number of federal, state, and private programs already available. The biggest increase will be from people who do not have insurance available to them through work and those who cannot get coverage due to pre-existing conditions. Yes there will be people in that group who also cannot afford the coverage but currently make too much to qualify for other programs such as medicaid, but that will be a minor segment. As for me, I have been self-employed for 15 years and have several significant pre-existing conditions. I have been turned down numerous times when trying to purchase insurance. Even my wife has been turned down simply for having seen a doctor about headaches. The thing is I could afford even the outrageous non-group rates but no insurance company would have me. Now they can't do that. I am able to purchase insurance coverage from a private company with my own money and pay my own co-pays and deductibles. To a doctor me and millions of other people are no different than any other patient with private insurance. It is extremely misleading to say that Obamacare is all about giving out health care for free. It is mostly about giving us the right to purchase insurance with our own money. Even those who get payment assistance from the government will often still be purchasing their insurance from private companies so there won't be anyone other than the same insurance companies dictating how much a doctor gets paid. In fact, one of the greatest (non-imaginary) shortcomings of Obamacare is that there is nothing in there to keep doctors from pushing fees higher, abusing the fact that everyone will now have insurance. When doctors already charge 2-3 times as much when a patient has insurance, this sounds like a major windfall for everyone in the medical profession. This doctor clearly does not understand Obamacare and apparently this article is more about expressing political views than anything else. |