Why do so many people dislike Obamacare?
Many people that ‘hate’ Obamacare, love their insurance under the Affordable Care Act, not realizing they are one and the same.There has been a concerted propaganda effort regarding the ACA under the name ‘Obamacare’, and so those who regularly consume ‘news’ and entertainment sources that engage in this propaganda have come to believe that Obamacare is some horrendous useless thing.For others - they misunderstand the source of increase in costs for their medication. A friend of mine recently ranted on his hatred of Obamacare due to the increase in insulin prices. When I pointed out that this was actually due to oligopoly pricing abuse by pharmaceuticals and the price increases he was complaining about had started long before Obama took office, he insisted it was due to Obama and the ACA.For others they are severely obese and the ACA allows employers to charge a higher premium (extra 50$ a month) for those that are severely obese (perfectly rational since this is largely behavioural and this behaviour results in dramatically increased risk for all sorts of chronic diseases - diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, etc.).There are also those who have had increases in their insurance prices from the ACA - namely those who were gambling that they and their family wouldn’t need anything other than extremely basic health care and would have gone bankrupt if a severe illness occurred.There are some (a tiny minority) who oppose it on ideological reasons - that there be a purchase mandated by the government.That isn’t to say that the ACA is perfect, but most of the hatred is based on disinformation or based on things that are actually features.
With ObamaCare, Will It Help Or Hurt Doctors?
According to the American Association of Medical Colleges, we face a shortfall of more than 150,000 doctors over the next 15 years. This shortfall, combined with skyrocketing demand due to demographics, third party payment, and other issues is why medical prices are skyrocketing. ObamaCare did not even attempt to solve these core issues and instead focussed on the SYMPTOM of coverage. Estimates suggest that on average physicians are reimbursed at roughly 78% of costs under Medicare, and just 70% of costs under Medicaid. ObamaCare is going to increase the number of people on Medicare. That is how they got rid of the public option, they just assume Medicare will pick up the tab and eventually people will advocate for something better than medicare since Medicare is a lousy program. Roughly 40% of doctors are age 55 or over. Are they really going to want to stick it out for a few more years if all they have to look forward to is more red tape (both government and insurance company) for less money? Remember, the average medical school graduate begins their career with more than $295,000 in debt. A 2010 IBD/TPP Poll found that 45% of doctors would at least consider leaving their practices or taking early retirement as a result of the new health care law. And, an online survey by Sermo.com, a sort of Facebook for physicians, found that 26% of physicians in solo practices were considering closing In fact, we have already seen the start of this process in Massachusetts, where Mitt Romney's health care reforms were nearly identical to President Obama's. Romney's reforms increased the demand for health care but did nothing to expand the supply of physicians. In fact, by cracking down on insurance premiums, Massachusetts pushed insurers to reduce their payments to providers, making it less worthwhile for doctors to expand their practices. As a result, the average wait to get an appointment with a doctor grew from 33 days to over 55 days.