Obamacare: Disaster for Iowans
By Dr. Patrick Bertroche, 3rd Congressional District Candidate
Lost in the megalomaniacal debate over health INSURANCE reform, formally known as “health care reform”, is how bad it really will be for Iowa. Nowhere is the negative impact of this horribly conceived monument to Obama’s ego on Iowa being discussed. I don’t see any articles of Obamacare and its impact on Iowa, or any news stories. So let me detail the problems Iowans will face if Obamacare is completed.
The most obvious way Iowa will be negatively impacted is the reduction in reimbursement to physicians and hospitals that is scheduled to take place during 2010 if Obamacare is passed in 2009. Physicians and hospitals are scheduled to “receive” a “pricing structure readjustment” of 21%. That means that every doctor and hospital in Iowa will receive 21% less for treating seniors. And since Iowa already has the least reimbursement of any other state or territory, including Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., our ability to treat the elderly and infirm is threatened. Doctors, who face the decision of closing their doors or not taking Medicare, are not going to take Medicare.
Hospitals are FORCED to take Medicare, or they cannot be hospitals. In order to survive, they will cut services and staffing, and will not be able to provide the services elderly and rural Iowans need. Most elderly Iowans already drive at least an hour to get their medical care now. If you put this kind of unsustainable pressure on the rural hospitals, some will close, and others will cease to be hospitals and convert to urgent care clinics.
Group home, independent living homes, assisted living homes, and nursing homes will all refuse to accept Medicare, because they can’t remain open with these budget cuts. That means people recovering from cancer won’t have care, people with Alzheimer’s won’t have care, kids who have no family and nowhere to go will be homeless, and people with debilitating diseases will have no care.
The next obvious way Iowans will be affected by Obamacare is the recruitment and retention of physicians. Recruiting a physician is hard enough with Iowa having the lowest reimbursement. Hospitals and physician groups often give much more money than they can hope to recoup just to get a physician to practice in Iowa. Add to that the National Health Service Loan Repayment Program, you are spending a tremendous amount to get a physician to Iowa. And then he discovers Iowa’s 10% tax bracket. So guess what happens when his/her contract expires?
They leave Iowa.
And they take our investment in them, with them. If you reduce reimbursement further, how does Iowa expect to retain physicians?
The next problem is far more subtle, but costs Iowans far more than the points already mentioned. Medicaid is a program partially funded by the federal government, and partially by the state. The state runs the program to help its citizens, and they are the ones who qualify a person for Medicaid. In Iowa, we have a 70/30 split with the federal government. The federal government pays 70% of Iowa’s Medicaid program. Usually, there is some kind of matching grant or fund that accompanies the federal payment for Medicaid and the support services that Iowans need.
Since Iowa Medicaid receives its 70% from Medicare, Medicaid recipients and the doctors and hospitals that provide care for them, will be reimbursed even less. This means doctors and other providers will not be able to provide the services needed for our citizens, and our neediest citizens won’t be able to get services. Since they cannot get the services they need, they will visit emergency rooms to get care, driving up costs that hospitals will recover from the private sector, and the dance goes on.
And now we talk about how our embattled Governor, Chet Culver, put the last straw on the camel’s back. With most non-profit health care entities, such as Children and Families of Iowa, who provide care and nurturance to victims neglect and abuse, or Orchard Place, who provide homes and care for children of sexual abuse and much worse, or Youth Homes of Mid America, who provide a home for homeless and abandoned youth, the funds they receive from the state, are matched with federal funds. So if the state grants $100,000 to a facility to treat our citizens, the federal government will match it. With Culver’s 10% across the board reduction, he effectively screwed our non-profit health care providers, the very ones who will care for the people no one else will care for. You see, when you have to make a 10% across the board cut with matching funds, it is effectively a 20% across the board cut. Coupled with the reduction of 21% in Medicare payments, the cuts are unsustainable for our health care providers.
How do you sustain a facility that provides care for people who don’t pay when your own Governor stabs you in the back like that?
The answer is, you don’t. You make cuts to the programs that, by the very nature of the people it serves, don’t make money. Now what will those people do? We are talking about children molested and abandoned by their families, schizophrenics who have finally found a home and peace in their lives, and the elderly who have no one else to take care of them.
Is this the Iowa you want? I don’t want an Iowa like that.
If I am elected, I will work hard for fair reimbursement for seniors and the ill. I will work closely with state and local officials to make sure OUR needs are met. I will LISTEN to Iowans, and get the help to our neediest citizens in a fiscally responsible manner.
For more information, you can check out his website, www.bertroche4congress.com, you can call the campaign headquarters at 515-556-0526, or his Campaign Chairman at 515-710-0798. Email: PatBertroche4congress@yahoo.com.
You can also follow him on Twitter at PatBertroche, and on Facebook, Pat Bertroche.
