ObamaFail

Even the New York Times is starting to notice Obamacare's failure:

...even as many beneficiaries acknowledge that they might not have insurance today without the law, there remains a strong undercurrent of discontent. Though their insurance cards look the same as everyone else’s — with names like Liberty and Freedom from insurers like Anthem or United Health — the plans are often very different from those provided to most Americans by their employers. Many say they feel as if they have become second-class patients.

The problem for patients is finding doctors who accept Obamacare coverage. Between doctors who don't accept the insurance and doctors who won't accept the coverage, the Obamapatients are getting underserved by American healthcare. Some of the statistics are Obamafying:

The research thus far suggests that the differences between plans offered through the A.C.A. and those offered by employers may be quite significant. A study in the policy journal Health Affairs found that out-of-pocket prescription costs were twice as high in a typical silver plan — the most popular choice — as they were in the average employer offering. In research conducted with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Dr. Polsky found that 41 percent of silver plans offered a “narrow or very narrow” selection of doctors, meaning at best 25 percent of physicians in an area were included. The consulting firm Avalere Health found that exchange plans had 42 percent fewer cancer and cardiac specialists, compared with employer-provided coverage.

...when Simon F. Haeder of the University of Wisconsin and his colleagues studied the plans sold on the California exchange, they found that they included 34 percent fewer hospitals than those sold on the open market and tended to exclude the priciest medical centers, like Cedars Sinai, a highly regarded hospital that runs the largest heart-transplant program in the country.

Maybe it's just me, but when I read an article in the New York Times which is critical of President Obama (D-IL), my b.s. detector lights up like a 5 year old in a candy store. So what are they up to?

This disappointment is fueling renewed interest in a “public option” that would supplement current offerings. That idea found support from both Senator Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton as the Affordable Care Act was making its way through Congress. It was taken up again last week by Mrs. Clinton, when she suggested allowing people 55 and over to buy into Medicare, the government-run insurance for people 65 and over, which is accepted by virtually all hospitals.  

Just when you thought it was safe to go to the doctor...SOCIALIZED MEDICINE 2!

One nice thing about Democrats is they never met a failed idea they couldn't resurrect, as long as it spends other people's money.

Even though Europe is imploding under it's socialist weight, they still roll it out as the "see? They have working healthcare" model. Just don't look behind the curtain for the rich guy paying for it. The "Wizard of Social-Oz'd Medicine" isn't real. The Greeks are realizing it now, and it's only a matter of time before other countries do too. But let's bring it to the U.S. because it hasn't failed (yet) in Europe (don't look at Greece!).

Here's a crazy nutty idea: Why don't we just pay doctors out of pocket for routine stuff, and then return insurance to what it is supposed to do, and that is handle catastrophic situations? Do we hate our doctors so much that we can't write our own checks? Is this really preferable to paying for it ourselves:

 (hat tip to Quotes Gram for the pic)