Comment
Written by a doctor friend:
Some people have asked my opinion on Obamacare. Well the fact that I refer to it as Obamacrap should give you some insight. But as a primary care physician let me tell you about my experiences.
First let me preface by saying that if you were somehow helped by this plan you will think it's great. If you were hurt by this plan then you will think it's garbage. Well I've seen both ends of the spectrum as well as the impact on physicians and so I feel qualified to talk about it.
When the (not so) affordable health plan went into effect I received a big influx of new patients. Many of these were women who came in wearing burkas and did not speak english, many were young people (20-30's) who wanted a physical because they hadn't seen a doctor. Unfortunately I also received phone calls from patients informing me they could no longer afford their meds or to come see me because they had to give up their affordable health care where they only had to pay a $20 copay for my visit and copays for their meds and now are paying 2-3 times more for their insurance with an insanely high deductible (anywhere from $3-$6,000). As time went on I found my practice going from 10% of medicaid patients to over 50%. Many of those who came in (because they finally had insurance) were surprised to find out they had a deductable and a co-insurance (they thought it was going to be paid in full by the insurance company). We spent many hours each day explaining to people what a deductible is and what co-insurance is and many dollars on billing to try and collect the money owed.
One story still hearts my heart to this day. I had a patient who had healthy NY at the time was undergoing testing to rule out cancer. Unfortunately for her it occurred right at the time Obamacrap went into effect. She was forced to pay over $1000 a month for insurance she couldn't use because she had a $3000 deductible (so in essence she was paying for someone else to have insurance while she went without). She ended up not taking insurance and paying the penalty because it was cheaper. Since she was going to turn 65 in about a year and she would continue the workup then when she was eligible for medicare. Well unfortunately prior to her 65 birthday she required hospitalization for stage 4 lung cancer and passed away.
Another thing that struck me as strange was that I was getting requests from multiple people for extra meds cause they were going back to "their country". When I told them they would have to see a doctor in "their country" they informed me that they would have to pay for it there, here they get it for free.
Just as another example. Had a patient go to the ER for a headache., via ambulance. After doing the multimillion dollar workup they gave her 2 tylenol, which worked and then sent her home via medicaid cab. When she came into my office I asked her via translator why she didn't just take tylenol she said she didn't have a prescription. I told her she could get some at the dollar store, she replied well this way I got it for free.
I also saw many people out of work or put on part time because their employers couldn't afford to give them insurance. Guess no job and no insurance is better then no insurance--oh wait they can go on welfare now and get medicaid. (guess that's the affordable part).
So, in general, I have seen more people HURT by the not so affordable Obamacrap then I have seen helped by it. What is interesting is that once Trump was elected I stopped seeing these people wanting extrameds to "go back to their country". Also once the mandate was lifted many people were able to pay to see me and thanks to good-rx are able to afford their meds.
Again these are my experiences and my opinions.
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