Your doctor will most likely be glad to see the end of ObamaCare, writes Dr. Marc Siegel, a New York internist and Fox medical correspondent.
The system has been a nightmare for doctors and patients alike and hasn't provided the coverage it promised.
After recounting several stories that illustrate how badly the system works (as opposed to what designers promised), Seigel notes:
Such encounters happen much more often now because ObamaCare has added low-quality heavily subsidized insurance that claims to be comprehensive and inflates patient expectations. This has bled into the entire health-care system, where more and more patients come to doctors expecting far more than we can possibly deliver regardless of their insurance.
Government regulations cause patients to buy expensive insurance policies. One example is ObamaCare’s requirement that everyone on the exchanges, Medicaid patients and businesses with fewer than 50 employees that provide coverage all be covered for maternity care and other benefits whether or not they need them. The fear of malpractice causes doctors to order extensive tests. Insurance companies exploit a patient’s fear to charge high (and rising) premiums, while the government takes a victory lap for the millions of new people who sign up on the exchanges.
Who, Dr. Siegel asks, is paying for this system?
Well, it't not milliennials. The system was built to saddle these healthy young people with the costs generated by older, sicker people. They were too smart to bite. Less than 30 percent of ObamaCare customers are millenials.This has led to skyrocketing premiums and insurance companies scrambling to cover the chronically sick.
Patients had become disconnected from the real costs of health insurance before ObamaCare, a process that started when health insurance came to be viewed not for serious sicknesses but for every minor medical event. ObamaCare accelerated this detachment from the real costs of medical procedures.
The repeal of ObamaCare could see the return of policies that handle catastrophic care only and government-run clinics for those without any insurance or with pre-existing conditions. When ObamaCare is repealed, tort reform, Siegel argues, will be important to reduce the number of unnecessary tests doctors order for the sole purpose of defending themselves in lawsuits.
Siegel concludes:
President-elect Trump has proposed expanding tax-deductible Health Savings Accounts so every family member can use them. The accounts would roll over year to year and one generation to the next, becoming part of your estate. They can be used to pay for nose jobs or liposuction or other elective procedures or tests. If you are paying for a nonessential service yourself, you will be aware of who charges the highest price and who provides the best service. Providers will be aware that you are aware and will compete to get your service by lowering the price.
Consumer awareness and price competition are what keep product costs low or at least under control for most U.S. households. Granted, health care is a much more serious purchase than a cellphone plan, but similar economic principles can guide health-care customers to finding the best value.
Prepare for those who cling to ObamaCare (they are known as elected Democrats on Capitol Hill) to decry these suggestions as inhumane and insist that ObamaCare remain in place because, even though it doesn't work, it is a perfect expression of the pro-government philosophy of the progressives.