Obamacare

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Only Trump Can Go To Single-Payer

Today, I want to submit to you that only Trump can make single-payer health care happen in this country. Only a billionaire, surrounded by a cabinet of billionaires, representing a party partial to billionaires, can make that hazardous 180 degrees political turn and better the lives of the American people, and perhaps the entire world as a result. Oh, I know it’s too soon to make this observation, but note that both Mr. Nixon and Mr. Begin were deeply resented (to put it mildly) in their times, by the same type of people who find Mr. Trump distasteful today.

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Opening The ‘Black Box’ Of Health Care Data

Kavita Patel and Domitilla Masi | Brookings | December 4, 2014

Recent efforts by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) provide clinicians, health plans and consumers with ready access to health data that was never before possible. In fact, CMS released millions and millions of lines of data that reveal important information regarding physician payments, prescribing patterns and geographic distribution of health care costs...

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Oregon's Health Care Website Is Worse Than Healthcare.gov

Sophie Novack | Nextgov.com | April 24, 2014

Oregon is set to become the first state to switch over to the federal Obamacare exchange.  The state exchange, Cover Oregon, has been such a failure that moving to the once broken HealthCare.gov seems preferable to trying to salvage its system.

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Oroville Hospital CEO Outlines How VistA Can Help Hospitals Survive the HITECH Act and Obamacare

Press Release | Oroville Hospital | February 21, 2014

Robert Wentz, President and CEO of Oroville Hospital, was one of the keynote speakers at the 28th VistA Community Meeting (VCM) in Sacramento, CA. Wentz's presentation, titled “Obamacare: a provider's perspective. An opportunity for VistA and private sector Hospitals,” outlined the clear advantages of using the VistA EHR as the United States moves towards a new health system based on Obamacare...Wentz detailed in his presentation why VistA is the best option for private hospitals in the US that want to stay in business under the new rules created by Obamacare. Wentz described the major changes currently taking place in the healthcare industry as a result of Obamacare, both in terms of financial issues as well as patient/consumer side...Wentz laid out how Vista coupled with a reshaping of how care is delivered can sustains hospitals through the changes that Obamacare will bring to the healthcare system...

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Political Implications of the Supreme Court Decision on Health Reform

Brian Ahier | Government Health IT | July 2, 2012

Regardless of the facts about the benefits or costs of health reform, a majority of Americans still favor repeal of the legislation. Those numbers rose in the run up to the 2010 elections and helped provide the shellacking the President received in the mid-term elections.
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Profits Vs. Patient Outcomes In The Healthcare Industry

Audrey Erbes | eClinical Trends | May 19, 2014

...In my exposure to healthcare delivery worldwide, I learned that this basic ethic of improving the healthcare of all citizens was not universally accepted by industry and providers globally. Cheating on clinical trials, denying health care to large segments of the population due to cultural bias and politicians twisting the rules of reimbursement to maintain the same false share of medical costs for drugs even if their lowered and offset previous government expenditures for hospitalization and morbidity...

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Republican Health Care Executive on Single Payer: The Remedy is Universal Medicare

Jack Bernard | Physicians for a National Health Program | July 1, 2012

We did end up with a health care reform law. But, strangely enough, it was stolen from Romneycare and the Republican side of the aisle simply because of the political cost to the Democrats of inaction. It is a horse put together by a committee — ineffective, complex and political. If Romneycare is any indication, it will clearly not control costs to the taxpayer, the top health care concern of most Americans. Read More »

SCOTUS majority embraces individual mandate, ACA

Mary Mosquera | Government Health IT | June 28, 2012

The Supreme Court has ruled that it is constitutional to require that all Americans obtain health insurance coverage or pay a penalty, defying the expectations of many that the majority conservative leaning justices would strike it down.

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Small Town Mayor Leads 283-Mile Walk from North Carolina to D.C. June 1-15 to Protest Potential Closing of 283 Rural Hospitals

Press Release | The Walk to DC | May 23, 2015

In 2015, 283 of America’s rural hospitals face the very real possibly of closing down. To draw attention to a life or death situation for some 62 millionAmericans who rely on rural healthcare, The Walk will begin in Belhaven, North Carolina on June 1 and conclude on the steps of the U.S. Capitol on June 15. The Walk will be led by a most unlikely pair, conservative GOP Mayor Adam O’Neal of Belhaven and Civil Rights legend Bob Zellner, whose purpose is to keep hope alive in the rural town of Belhaven (pop. 1,687) and other small towns across the nation, as well as to encourage Congress to enact legislation to sustain rural hospitals.

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SOS: Puerto Rico Is Losing Doctors, Leaving Patients Stranded

Greg Allen | NPR | March 12, 2016

Puerto Rico is losing people. Due to a decade-long recession, more than 50,000 residents leave the U.S. territory each year—most for jobs and new lives on the mainland. This issue is especially affecting healthcare, where it's estimated that at least one doctor leaves Puerto Rico every day. The mass exodus of doctors is creating vacancies that are hard to fill and waiting lists for patient care. Dr. Antonio Peraza is among those doctors who recently left for the mainland. He specializes in internal medicine and for nearly 14 years, had a private practice in Bayamon, Puerto Rico...

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Supreme Court upholds Affordable Healthcare Act

Read the actual Supreme Court's Decision Read More »

The Guy Who Rescued Obamacare’s Website Has A New Project: The VA

Jennifer Bendery | Huffington Post | May 17, 2016

It was October 2013 when the Obama administration triumphantly flipped the switch on Healthcare.gov, the landing page for the White House’s landmark domestic policy achievement. It promptly crashed. As administration officials absorbed the extent of the catastrophe, they realized they had to go outside the usual government channels to get the site up and running. That’s when they brought in Paul Smith, a politically minded coder with a handful of successful startups behind him...

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The Hidden Costs Of Obamacare

Brian C. Joondeph | KevinMD.com | June 21, 2014

It’s the hidden costs that will thin your wallet. Copays, deductibles, and coinsurance to be specific...

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The Man Who Would Be King

Robert Pittenger | CNN.com | July 1, 2014

As President Barack Obama once again announced his intention to bypass Congress and govern through executive order -- this time with Monday's announcement on immigration -- history will ask, is he being presidential or imperial?...

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The Sad State of Uncoordinated Care in the U.S.

Richard Royer | The Doctor Weighs In | September 20, 2016

Care coordination deficiencies in the U.S. healthcare system can be so frustrating that they are (almost) comical. That is a message patient activist Jessica Jacobs aired as she advocated for healthcare operational efficiency improvements and care coordination. Until her death last month, Jacobs blogged and used social media to draw attention to America’s problems with disjointed healthcare. She did this by sharing stories of the numerous system failures she experienced firsthand as a patient with complex care needs...

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