Negative Quiddity: Obamacare

Sally Pipes is CEO of the Pacific Research Institute and writes on health care. She has a book on this subject coming out next month. She also wrote an opinion piece for the December 26, 2011 Forbes magazine. Her article included the following points:

• Almost two-thirds of doctors expect the quality of medical care to decline under Obamacare, according to a survey from consulting firm Deloitte. Only 27 percent of doctors expect the law to lower costs.

• Nine of ten doctors expect insurers to raise premiums for employers and individuals. One one quarter of doctors feel Obamacare will reduce health insurance costs for consumers.
• Health are takes about $1 for every $6 in the economy – by 2020, it will account for about $1 in every $5, a fifth of the nation’s GDP.

• The Congressional Budget Office expects that Americans in the "non-group market" will see premiums rise by $2,100 under Obamacare.

• The Kaiser Family Foundation states that 2011 family premiums topped $15,000, a nine percent increase over 2010. The year before Obamacare was passed, 2009, premiums went up by three percent.

• Half the nation’s doctors expect access to care to diminish because health reform will result in the closure of hospitals.

Ninety percent of doctors fear they will receive inadequate payments and suffer higher administration costs. Less than one-quarter of doctors think paperwork requirements will ease up. Sally Pipes notes that, "Time spent wading though paperwork is also time no longer available for actually practicing medicine."

Pipes’ new book, The Pipes Plan: The Top Ten Ways to Dismantle and Replace Obamacare, will be released in January.

Summarized from:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/sallypipes/2011/12/26/doctors-say-obamacare-is-no-remedy-for-u-s-health-woes/