‘You can’t keep your doctor’

Thanks to the Obama Administration’s grandfather regulation, more than 3.5 million Americans have lost their health insurance plan. Led by Senator Mike Enzi, Republicans tried to overturn the Administration rule that put strict tests in place employers and individuals must meet in order to keep their health plan. Senate Democrats voted in lockstep to keep the rule on the books.

Washington Democrats believe the federal government knows better than individual Americans what kind of health insurance plan is best for their families. They say the American people should be glad to lose their “substandard” insurance.

Linda DeRight and her husband live in Washington state. Here is their story: “Our [so-called] ‘garbage plan’ had served us really well for 25 years. They mapped us to another plan, but those plans, when we looked further, are so incredibly narrow in terms of providers and benefits, and for us we’re … losing all our providers. That’s what I found to be the dirty little lie about Obamacare … You can’t [keep your doctor].”

As Americans look at their insurance plan options, cost is likely a top concern. Soon, people will start trying to make doctor appointments. Some may be in for quite a shock when they realize their provider network has shrunk. To keep premiums down and increase plan options in the government exchanges, insurers negotiated with hospitals and doctors to accept deep discounts from their customary rates. The provider can be paid less because patients have fewer health provider choices. The health care law’s mandates and regulations left virtually no other options to hold down premiums.

• McKinsey & Co. Analysis. In August, McKinsey & Co. released data reviewing 955 Obamacare insurance plans offered in 13 states. The report found 47 percent contained narrow networks – limiting patient choice of doctors and hospitals.

• New Hampshire. In September, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, the only carrier offering insurance in the New Hampshire exchange, excluded 10 of the state’s 26 hospitals from its health plans. A company spokesman told the New York Times that “premiums for this ‘select provider network’ were about 25 percent lower than they would have been for a product using a broad network of doctors and hospitals.”

• MGMA Physician Survey. In September, a Medical Group Management Association survey – covering more than 1,000 physician practices – confirmed that forty percent of physician practices nationwide say they don’t know if they will participate in the Obamacare exchanges.

• New York State Medical Society Survey. In October, the New York State Medical Society released a survey showing 44 percent of physicians did not plan to participate in any health insurance plan offered on the state exchange.

• Obamacare Failing Rural America. In October, the New York Times confirmed that Obamacare is not promoting robust insurance competition or price reductions in rural and frontier states. The article states: “Of the roughly 2,500 counties served by the federal exchanges, more than half, or 58 percent, have plans offered by just one or two insurance carriers…In about 530 counties, only a single insurer is participating.”

• Top Hospitals Opt Out. In October, U.S. News & World Report surveyed the nation’s premier hospitals. It found that Americans buying in the Obamacare exchanges may be shocked to find they are not included in their insurance plan network.

In 2009, President Obama spoke at the American Medical Association’s annual meeting. He pledged: “If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor. Period.” The truth is that President Obama’s health care law restricts people’s ability to choose the provider or hospital that meets their needs.

The Obama Administration knows that millions of Americans are about to lose access to the doctors their families like and trust. This week, CNN released Administration “Obamacare War Room” documents showing the White House preparing for this next public relations disaster. Not only will many Americans experience sticker shock, they may face access shock as well. Administration officials hoped the public outrage over its disastrous health care law would fade. Instead, it’s just getting started.

Health Care Headlines

The Washington Post: Fact Checker: “The White House effort to blame insurance companies for lost plans” The administration’s effort to pin the blame on insurance companies is a classic case of misdirection. Between 75 and 95 percent of the problem stems from the effective date, but the White House chooses to keep the focus elsewhere. Three Pinocchios.

Bloomberg: Opinion: “Obamacare Shouldn’t Have Been Managed Like a Campaign” Obamacare’s biggest problem was that the architects of the law demanded an enormously ambitious software project on an impossibly hubristic deadline. Whatever slim chance this had of working was ultimately doomed by the Administration’s paranoid and self-destructive decisions to manage a software project as if it were a top-secret campaign strategy rather than a mission-critical component of the most ambitious federal entitlement expansion in almost 50 years.

National Journal: “Obama’s ‘Crisis of Confidence’” When Sen. Barbara Mikulski speaks, President Obama ought to listen. “The launching of the Affordable Care Act has been more than bumpy,” Mikulski said. “I believe there’s been a crisis of confidence created in the dysfunctional nature of the website, the canceling of policies, and sticker shock from some people.”

Washington Post: “For consumers whose health premiums will go up under new law, sticker shock leads to anger” Americans who face higher insurance costs under President Obama’s health-care law are angrily complaining about “sticker shock,” threatening to become a new political force opposing the law even as the White House struggles to convince other consumers that they will benefit from it.

Forbes: “49-State Analysis: Obamacare to Increase Individual-Market Premiums by Average of 41%” The Manhattan Institute has done the most comprehensive analysis yet of premiums under Obamacare for people who shop for coverage on their own. In the average state, Obamacare will increase underlying premiums by 41 percent.