OBAMACARE STEALS FROM GRANDMA…..BETSY McCAUGHEY
ObamaCare Steals from the Elderly
Betsy McCaughey, NYPOST.com
New projections from the federal Cen ters for Medicare and Medicaid paint a stark picture of the impact of the ObamaCare law: We’re in for a massive redistribution of health resources.
When the projections were released this month, news reports stressed that the president’s “reform” utterly fails to slow the growth of health-care spending. Every year through 2019, employers and consumers will face higher premiums than if the law hadn’t passed.
But worse news is how radically the Obama law spreads the health wealth around.
In 2014, a staggering 85.2 million people — 31 percent of all nonelderly Americans — will be on Medicaid and CHIP (the Medicaid-like children’s health program). This accounts for the majority of those who’d gain health coverage. Amazingly, only 3 percent more people will have private insurance.
President Obama pledged to reduce the number of uninsured by making health plans affordable — but that’s not how his law actually does it. Rather, it loosens Medicaid eligibility by raising the income ceiling and barring asset tests.
In short, it pushes our country toward a welfare state.
Often, workers put up with low salaries to get good health benefits for their families. But the new law stipulates that Medicaid recipients get the same benefits that employers are required to provide workers. That will diminish the incentive to work — another step toward reversing welfare reform. Why stick it out on the job if the benefits are just as good in Medicaid?
ObamaCare is the health component of an overall move to make more people dependent on government. In the last two years, we’ve seen a breathtaking expansion of food stamps, Medicaid, welfare and housing programs. One in six Americans depends on them. [Plus an all-time % of Americans below the poverty level.]
That’s partly due to the recession — but the Obama administration projects roughly doubling spending on these programs by 2018, even in years it predicts the economy will be booming.
Two fundamental American sentiments get trampled in the process: our culture of hard work and self-sufficiency and our commitment to stand by the generation that nurtured us.
To expand Medicaid, the Obama law eviscerates Medicare. It’s like robbing Peter to pay Paul, only it’s robbing grandma and grandpa. The new projections show that in 2019, for example, ObamaCare cuts Medicare funding by $86.4 billion — which works out to $1, 428 less for each elderly patient that year. Baby boomers will face difficulties accessing care that seniors now get. Richard Foster, chief actuary for Medicare, has spoken with brave bluntness about the possible impact, warning that some hospitals might stop taking Medicare. Where will seniors go?
Figures don’t lie. The projections from the Obama administration’s own agency, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, depict the truth in stark terms.
Higher premiums are bad enough, but to see the older generation victimized in order to expand a welfare culture is a total reversal of American values.
Betsy McCaughey is a former New York lieutenant governor and author of “The Obama Health Law: What It Says and How to Overturn It.” betsy@defendyourhealthcare.us
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