Thousands of doctors dropped as insurers brace for Obamacare impact

Thousands of doctors being dropped from insurance plans as insurers brace for the impact of Obamacare. The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that doctors were being jettisoned leaving many patients, especially elderly Medicare patients, wondering what they can do to continue seeing their doctors.

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LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - The transition to Obamacare is impacting virtually everybody, despite Obama's solemn promises to the contrary. Now, even if people can keep their plans, they might not be able to keep their doctors. The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that doctors in at least 10 states are being laid off from United Health Group because of Obamacare changes.

In their layoff notices, United Health mentioned that the underfunding of Medicare Advantage plans was a major reason in their decision to terminate thousands of doctors.

Insurance companies are ultimately in business to generate profits, not to lose money. As Obamacare cuts payments in certain areas and drives up costs in others, it becomes less profitable for insurers to operate. This squeeze is leading to shortages of insurance plans in some states where people have a choice between only a few insurers.

As Obamacare tightens regulations in the years to come, those plans may become fewer. Concern is now growing amongst ordinary Americans that Obamacare isn't really designed to be a long-term solution, but rather is the first step in a much longer process of moving the nation to a single-payer, socialized healthcare system.

Meanwhile, fears are coming to fruition as the wrong mix of people sign up for Obamacare. Obamacare only works if healthy individuals who use little insurance, buy into the system and pay. However, they have little incentive to do so, since the penalties for not buying insurance are much less than the price of buying it.

It's expected that healthy people will continue to pay the penalty, only using healthcare on an a-la-carte basis, which is, they will just visit and pay doctors cash for services they need. Then, if they develop a catastrophic illness, they will sign up for insurance since they can no longer be denied.

If this becomes reality, then insurers will need to raise their rates substantially just to continue operating. Many will likely quit the market or require generous federal subsidies to stay in business. Federal subsidies come from the taxpayers, so any government aid is essentially paid for by the people, even if the aid is borrowed with deficit spending.

Ultimately, Obamacare is failing much harder than people realize and its collapse will have long-term implications for Americans and their healthcare. By 2015, we can probably expect a major government debate on healthcare with a socialized system now just years away. After all, the private healthcare industry simply can't operate in the brave new world, concocted by Obama.

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