Maine Writer

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Wednesday, January 04, 2017

In other words Dr. Rand Paul understands uncompensated care is no care

Repeal of the Affordable Care Act or ACA, aka "Obamacare" will leave providers uncompensated and 30 million people without insurance coverage. Dr. Rand Paul has a better idea. He wants to repeal Obamacare, but replace it immediately, with an alternate plan. Good idea, except no Republican plan is ready to replace Obamacare. HELLO?
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Repeal of the Affordable Care act will increase uncompensated health care - a very bad public policy.

Although Dr. Rand Paul, a US Senator from Kentucky, wants to see the Affordable Care Act aka "Obamacare" repealed, he has no plan in mind to replace it. Although his opinion is wrong mided, he's pragmatic enough to know how repeal will harm the health care industry. In other words, 30 million people without health coverage is unacceptable, especially when these beneficiaries are paying for their coverage and providers deserve the compensation.

Kellyanne Conway the #Trump_microphone for #fakenews, said to Matt Lauer on the Today Show (and she has no understanding about how insurance works) that people are complaining about the quality of health care provided under Obamacare. That's a lie. People choose their own health care providers so the quality is consistent with patient provider choice. 

Moreover, the worst quality health care is uncompensated care. Hopefully, Conway must know enough about insurance to realize how people who don't have insurance are at risk for deteriorating health because they aren't covered.

(CNN) reports:As Republicans are taking control of Congress, Sen. Rand Paul is warning fellow lawmakers of the possible dire consequences of killing Obamacare piecemeal. Paul, in an op-ed published Monday, called for the total repeal and immediate replacement of the Affordable Care Act. The Kentucky senator argues that keeping popular provisions of President Barack Obama's signature health care law, while eliminating less popular, structural pieces, would "only accentuate the bankrupting of the insurance industry." Writing for the website Rare, Paul explained that Republicans needed to vote for a complete repeal of Obamacare, while simultaneously voting on an adequate replacement. 

"As we repeal Obamacare,we would be wise to vote on its replacement at the same time," Paul wrote. (This Dr. Paul double speak means "save the providers reimbursement" - a good idea.)

He added: "If Congress fails to vote on a replacement at the same time as repeal, the repealers risk assuming the blame for the continued unraveling of Obamacare."

The popular parts of the law -- such as one that allows individuals with pre-existing conditions to buy insurance after their diagnosis -- only work when the other parts like the individual mandate are maintained, Paul argued.

"If you repeal this mandate, but leave in place dictates as to whom may purchase insurance, you create a business model doomed to fail," he wrote.

Still, Paul avoided providing much in the way of specifics about a potential replacement system.

Instead, he suggested that "perhaps we should try freedom," (OMG- this is another double speak concept- freedom of choice already exists!) and sketched out four principles that should guide the formation of a potential replacement -- maintaining freedom of choice, offering health savings accounts  (these accounts only work for people who really use the benefit and hardly cover anything except for some copays, over the counter drugs and eyeglasses), removing state-by-state barriers, and providing "the freedom for all individuals to join together in voluntary associations to gain the leverage of being part of a large insurance pool."  (Dear Dr. Paul, you obviously have no understanding at all about how insurance works- ie, "part of a large insurance pool" is exactly how insurance already works...)

I have the best plan- the "Medicare for All" plan. Think about it. Medicare works, beneficiaries pay for the benefit and it's already in place.  Moreover, Medicare for All provides quality and compensated care, a win-win for patients and providers.

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