In the fall of 2009, prior to the passing of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA – aka Obamacare), I attended Healthcare
Finance & Management Conferences that provided key note or breakout
sessions regarding the then proposed law. Since its passing, I have spent
countless hours with professionals of every area of healthcare; and while the
jury is still out until after 2014 – things do not look good.
During one conference in the Fall of 2009; one of the key
note sessions was a speaker known as Joseph Quinlan; who is a highly respected
Global Economist who works as a professor at Fordham University and is the Managing
Director & Chief Market Strategist, U.S. Trust, Bank of America Private
Wealth Management. The audience was several hundred professionals, all from
some the best Healthcare and Hospital Provider systems in the Mid-Atlantic
States. There were CEO, CFO’s and Directors of Patient Services from many healthcare
systems in Virginia, Baltimore, DC – all a stone’s throw away from our Capitol.
In the midst of his keynote address; Mr. Quinlan asked said
and asked the following… “By a show of hands, how many of the executives and
leaders in this room – how many of you or any members of your organization were
contacted by the Obama Administration or HHS and asked to provide input and
direction in the crafting of the Federal Healthcare law”…. NOT ONE HAND WAS
RAISED!
You heard that right! Hundreds of healthcare experts from
states all around the beltway – none of them or anyone in their organizations were
asked by the Obama Administration to provide input.
I remember to this day, the feeling of despair and a ting of
fear that gripped me at that very moment.
A photo from my Congressman - all of the regulations written to date - since the passing of Obamacare; stacked up in his office.
Remember there are over 1,000 'the HHS Secretary Shall_____ (fill in the blank). The regulations already over 20,000 pages and are just over half written with more yet to come!
NUTS!
We are now finding out that in nearly every case; the litmus
test for determining an invite is whether they were a Republican or a Democrat –
NOT – if you were an expert in healthcare.
Now this week I read this…
While the White House appears to
have consulted many experts during Obamacare’s formative months, they also hung
up twice on Dr. Ben Carson as he offered his advice.
Why did the White House hang up on
the world-renown African-American neurosurgeon? Because he admitted to being an
Independent, not a Democrat. Dr. Carson, who is director of pediatric
neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins, has been openly critical of the U.S. current
health care system. He has also made it clear; however, that he thinks Obama’s
Affordable Care Act is not the answer.
Dr. Carson should understand better
than almost anyone in the White House the importance of affordable access to
health care for the poor and needy. He was born in Detroit and raised by a
single mother. He overcame early struggles in his life to graduate from Yale
and University of Michigan’s Medical School and made medical history in 1987
when he successfully separated the Binder Twins, who were conjoined at the
head.
Whether the topic of discussions are:
- How drive down the cost of healthcare?
- How to be sure we have enough trained doctors to provide services to all the newly insured citizens?
- How the PPACA will impact business owners, employees and consumers?
- Will the PPACA add to the national deficit?
- How will PPACA impact our economy?
- In general – will PPACA deliver what it has promised?
I have researched, discussed with professionals, blogged and
posted on nearly all of these subject focuses. From nearly every angle or every
focus – the details show that Obamacare will fail in nearly every goal it sets
out to achieve.
We will certainly know more as the full implementation of
the law begins after January of 2014. From a professional, educated and
informed point of view – I predict that it will be more failure than success.
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