Health care deadline looms
Published September 15, 2013
Editorial by Greenville Daily Reflector, September 15, 2013.
Oct. 1 looms large on the calendar of Pitt County Public Health Director John Morrow. That is the date when more than 1 million North Carolina residents — including many in Pitt County — who do not have health care coverage will be eligible to enroll through insurance exchanges, allowing them to choose from among the 67 plans approved by regulators.
Yet, Morrow likely feels trepidation about the impending deadline since Gov. Pat McCrory and the General Assembly provided little direction or clarity to how the system works. With public health offices being asked to handle a heavier load while receiving less state funding, all eyes are on Raleigh to see if the state’s leaders are prepared for the massive changes to come.
The Affordable Care Act does not represent an ideal resolution of the problem of 47 million Americans who lack adequate health care coverage. President Barack Obama’s plan drew criticism from both sides of the aisle and inspired vehement opposition from a significant segment of the general public, some of whom align themselves with the tea party movement. Though the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed its legality, there remains a movement aimed at withholding funds for its implementation.
That opposition manifested itself in Raleigh earlier this year when, at the governor’s behest, both the House and Senate voted against accepting federal funding to expand Medicaid coverage for 478,000 people who are below 138 percent of the poverty line. A study by the Kaiser Family Foundation showed the decision cost North Carolina billions and is likely to drive up state Medicaid expenditures.
Raleigh’s decision was recently cited by Vidant Health when it chose to shutter its Pungo Hospital in Belhaven. That facility handles a high number of indigent patients and Vidant officials contend that access to Medicaid funding might have helped offset the hospital’s annual losses. Given Vidant’s financial health, there is reason to doubt the organization’s inability to keep the facility operating, but Vidant’s explanation involves it in the greater health care debate.
It is that same issue — providing care for the poorest residents — that now challenges Morrow and others in public health. Without direction from the state, it will be challenging for those working with those patients to help them enroll in coverage plans. North Carolina’s elected leadership may not care for this law, but Oct. 1 is coming and those on the ground need them to step up and help.
September 15, 2013 at 11:47 am
Norm Kelly says:
"Though the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed its legality". This statement is not quite accurate. SCOTUS CHANGED the definition of the law. Congress passed a law which contained a PENALTY for those of us who might choose NOT to participate in socialized medicine. SCOTUS changed that clause to a TAX and said that Congress has the power to tax the citizens.
So the truth of the matter is that SCOTUS DID NOT confirm socialized medicine was legal.
Not only did SCOTUS have to change the definition to accept socialized medicine, but the implementation is going so smoothly that Obama, the person this god-awful law is named after, has violated the law any number of times.
I'll now attempt to finish reading this post. But like so many posts that appear to support socialized medicine, this post starts with a half-truth at best, a lie at worst.
September 15, 2013 at 12:14 pm
Norm Kelly says:
I'm not a legal scholar. I have not read the entire socialized medicine law, and it's accompanying 17,000 pages (or is it more by now?) of regulations. Who has?
As I understand it though, the law provides for 3 options. The first is that states can implement the exchanges on their own. Of course, for a few years, the feds will provide pay-offs to the state as encouragement for the state taking on this responsibility. But the pay-offs are temporary. Never mind that the money coming from Washington came from taxpayers to start with. The fact that the money came from us & is being "given" back to us is supposed to be ignored. The fact that the money is only temporary is also supposed to be ignored.
The second option is to have a fed-state joint venture. The incentive to implement this way seems to be the same type of pay-off.
The third choice is to let the feds handle the entire situation. No pay-off money since the state didn't do any of the heavy lifting.
Any of the choices still has the feds in COMPLETE control of the entire health-care delivery system. The state has virtually zero control over the process.
So what's the incentive for the state to expand an already bloated program? What would the difference be if NC accepted the huge pay-off/bribe from the feds?
I remember when the first term of his holiness promised to make a down-payment on high-speed rail in NC. The legislature chose not to accept the money, knowing that when the money dried up, the state would be left holding a very expensive bag for the rest of the life of the rail system. But Gov Bev, being a good Democrat, vetoed the bill, thereby forcing the state to participate in high-speed rail. This was one of those feel-good moments for the Dems. Eventually the high-speed rail system would cost the state billions (that we can't afford). But for the short term, very short term, the state would get an infusion of federal dollars. The socialized medicine pay-off/bribe strikes me as the same. The feds agree to make it financially worthwhile to get involved in the program for a very short period of time, but then the state is left holding another bag that we can't afford.
Based on all the posts that I've made regarding the horrible law called Obamacare, it is quite obvious what my thoughts are on this. But no one has yet answered the most basic question. Where in the world has socialized medicine been implemented that it has made life better for the citizens? No liberal has answered this question. I know it's because they can't. M. Moore tried to tell part of the story when he documented Cuba's system. But he only told part of the story, which is what is necessary in order to claim that socialized medicine works.
Proponents of socialized medicine say that leaving 47million Americans uninsured is unthinkable, and Obamacare is the solution. They also choose to ignore the fact that after full implementation of socialized medicine around 30million Americans will be uninsured. (liberal estimates, not mine!) So the country is starting to implement socialized medicine to cover only 17million more people? And the definition of "American" under socialized medicine has been changed to include people who reside here. Isn't this contrary to Mr. Obama's own words? (those 47 & 30million Americans include people who simply reside here and may not be citizens.)
There is NOTHING good about socialized medicine, whether the state chose to participate or not. Please document for all of us how states that accepted the federal bribe are implementing socialized medicine better or more efficiently or more cost-effectively than NC. Real-world examples are very convincing. Facts are hard to refute. (well, for conservatives/libertarians, that is. facts are completely ignored by liberals/socialists because they prove the liberal philosophy wrong!) You provide facts about socialized medicine, I'll convert.
September 17, 2013 at 11:52 pm
Norm Kelly says:
New Jersey accepted the federal bribe. New Jersey setup a state run exchange. This post, as well as others, have criticized the Republican leadership for refusing to expand medicaid, for refusing to accept the bribe, for refusing to implement a state-run exchange.
Even after NJ did what this blogger & others wanted NC to do, Aetna is pulling out of NJ. Aetna, a MAJOR health insurance player, will not participate in the NJ exchange.
So, quit your complaining & explain why it would have been better in NC if we had accepted the bribe? How would there be more competition if we had setup our own exchange? How would it have helped cover more people?
(obamacare estimates that there were some 47million uninsured. when socialized medicine is fully implemented, they now estimate that some 30million will remain uninsured. are we really tearing apart the health care delivery system in the entire country, causing us to go bankrupt at the same time, just to cover an additional 17million? the best health care system in the world is going to be thrown out the window and yet leave 30million uninsured. this makes sense to someone besides queen pelosi? why?)
