Lindsay L. Pratt - Lets Fix Medicare, Replace Medicaid, and Repealthe Affordable Care Act: Here Is Why and How.

Lets Fix Medicare,
Replace Medicaid,
and Repealthe affordable Care Act

Here is Why and How.

Lindsay L. Pratt, M.D.
202 S. Pebble Beach Blvd.
Sun City Center, Florida 33573
813 394 5132

AuthorHouse

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.authorhouse.com

Phone: 1-800-839-8640

2012 by Lindsay L. Pratt, M.D.. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

First published by AuthorHouse 01/06/2012

ISBN: 978-1-4678-8237-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4678-8238-5 (ebk)

Printed in the United States of America

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery Thinkstock.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

Those Costly Demands That Have
Increased Healthcares Costs

Changing How Health Insurance Reimbursements
are Calculated And Awarded

Changes In How Hospital Insurance Payments
are Calculated

The Challengers and
The Five Changes

I f you are you a Medicaid patient, or if you are a patient without any health insurance, Im aware of the difficulty you have had, and are having, obtaining your healthcare services, and I agree with you. The existing investor owned and profit driven healthcare delivery system is not a friendly delivery system for those patients unable to pay for their healthcare services. But, in its place, if you are supporting the Affordable Care Act, please reconsider your support, and consider the recommendations in this book.

In this book, Im offering everyone without the ability to pay for their healthcare services, the opportunity to obtain the same quality, comprehensive, and easily available healthcare services as the services provided patients who are purchasing their healthcare services. Neither Medicaid nor the Affordable Care Act can provide those same services, and the reasons why are discussed in this book.

Furthermore, in addition to the difficulty patients with Medicaid and without Medicaid are having obtaining their healthcare services, patients with health insurance, regardless of its source, need to be prepared for the probability, not the possibility, of their having difficulty obtaining their healthcare services in two years when the Affordable Care Act becomes their healthcare delivery system.

The frustration with Medicaids inadequate services is understandable, and the confusion about the future among patients with health insurance is understandable. The problem for both is the many articles written about what is happening, and will be happening, in healthcare have not correctly identified the causes of, or offered realistic solutions for, what is happening, and will be happening, in healthcare. The problem with those articles is their misinformation and their use of conjecture. Misinformation is offered in some of those articles to support the authors agenda.

Conjecture is used by other authors. They are too young to have witnessed what happened during the 1950s and 1960s to cause what has happened in healthcare.

As a practicing physician/surgeon during the 1950s and 1960s, I witnessed what happened during those years to cause our healthcare delivery systems present problems. Also, having witnessed the cause, Im aware fixing Medicare, replacing Medicaid, and repealing the Affordable Care Act are realistic solutions for all of healthcares present problems. Defending those three solutions is the message in this book

C ongress has foolishly and irresponsibly proposed and adopted the Affordable Care Act as the solution for what is happening in healthcare. But instead of providing the solution, the Act is making what is happening worse. The Affordable Care Act must be repealed.

It is an aberration. It is not a healthcare document. The Act was never intended to provide patients quality, comprehensiveness, and easily available healthcare services less expensively.

How could it? The Act was written by bureaucrats who do not practice medicine, and who do not possess the knowledge necessary to know what is necessary to provide patients quality, comprehensive, and easily available healthcare services less expensively.

Instead, of being a healthcare document, the Affordable Care Act is a political document. The Act was conceived to offer government the opportunity it has been seeking since the 1950s to control healthcare. Controlling healthcare creates an enormous voting block dependent on government for their healthcare services. Such a voting block provides politicians enormous political power. More about this is discussed in the book.

But, lets put aside the fact the legislation is a self serving political document. A more serious problem for the public to consider is the Act gives government the administrative responsibility of managing our countrys future healthcare delivery system. Is our government capable of managing and funding a system that provides more than three hundred million people their healthcare services?

Lets examine some facts. Social Security needs to be maintained.

But, although trillions of dollars have been paid into the Social Security Trust Fund over the years, its future solvency is in question. Why? The government has mismanaged the fund.

Reports have confirmed Congress has spent many of the dollars paid into the Social Security Trust Fund to fund other social programs, and Congress has replaced those dollars with IOUs. IOUs to be paid by tax payers. For example, the funds for Social Security have been reduced by more than one hundred billion dollars during 2011. An election year political program to attract voters has been introduced reducing the pay roll contributions [tax] to Social Security by three or four percentage points. The political rhetoric is the program is a tax reduction. Nonsense! Now, they want to extend the program for another year and cause the Social Security Fund to lose another more than one hundred billion dollars.

The Transportation Dept. is another example of government mismanagement. The Dept. has received trillions of dollars over the years from gasoline taxes, etc. But in 2011, the Dept. has fiscal problems, and has the need to borrow money to maintain our highways infrastructure. Why? Government has mismanaged the fund. Congress has spent many of the tax dollars collected to fund our highways infrastructure to fund other social programs.

The Department of Education is another example of government mismanagement. The Dept. has received trillions of dollars over many years, and each year the Dept. wants more dollars. But the Dept. has failed to provide our country an education system as good as, or as inexpensive as, the education systems in most other industrialized countries. Why? The government has allowed increasing amounts of educations tax dollars fund a hugh, expensive, and unnecessary education bureaucracy for political expediency.

Educations decisions would be returned to local communities were those decisions were made when I was attending the public school system in the 1930s.

Also, think about this. If you think the influence of lobbyists is a problem, and if you think the legislative favors politicians offer to obtain political contributions are a problem, just wait until government is controlling a system as large as healthcare.