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Eighteen acute-care hospitals across the United States shut their doors in 2013.
At least 12 more hospitals have closed this year in rural areas alone. More are getting out the plywood to nail over windows and barricades for doors.
Don’t worry, it’s just the new normal under Obamacare, says Lee Hieb, M.D.
“Events happening now give us some idea of what medicine will be reduced to in the future,” Hieb writes in her forthcoming book, “Surviving the Medical Meltdown: Your Guide to Living Through the Disaster of Obamacare.”
“Today, all over America, small and midsize hospitals as well as hospitals in inner-city, poor areas are closing,” she said.
Hieb is an orthopedic surgeon and past president of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons.
She said the reasons for the closures aren’t complicated. Most of the victims are smaller hospitals or those in poor areas, which often serve the greatest number of Medicare and Medicaid patients.
A report at Modern Health Care just a few weeks ago confirmed that among just the critical-access hospitals, which have 25 beds or fewer, there were 14 closures in 10 states in 2013.
And the federal bureaucracies that set reimbursement rates for needy patients simply aren’t keeping up with the costs, she said.
Hieb writes that “whereas private insurance might pay the surgeon $4,500 for a spinal surgery (my specialty), Medicare paid less than $1,200.”
In addition, she says the federal government refuses to pay hospitals for certain services, deeming them “not medically necessary,” regardless of what doctors and patients say.
“The result is predictable: economic failure of hospitals and physician practices that have become dependent on government payment for large segments of their population,” Hieb writes. “The hospitals and offices that will close are those with the least private insurance.”
"In fact, this coming year, Americans are facing big fines if they don't have insurance -- two percent of their adjusted gross income, with additional fines for your spouse and each of your kids," McCaughey told Fox News's Neil Cavuto on Wednesday. "So, many, many families are going to be paying thousands of dollars for the privilege of not being insured, or they can fill out form 8966 to try to get an exemption. The instructions to fill out that form are 12 pages long. So, good luck getting that done." McCaughey said a single individual earning $50,000 a year would pay a $1,000 penalty, for example. But a married person would also pay additional penalties for his or her uninsured, nonworking spouse and each child. McCaughey said the process of trying to get an exemption will be "complicated" and "painful for plenty of Americans."
Not only will uninsured Americans be penalized, but Democrats may feel the pain as well, since they are the ones who passed the bill without a single Republican vote: "It will have an impact on the 2016 election," McCaughey told Cavuto. "In fact, the more Obamacare pain Americans feel, the worse it's going to be for Democrats in 2016, especially Hillary Clinton." Mrs. Clinton unsuccessfully tried to push through her own version of government-mandated health insurance in 1993. "So when people reexamine what Hillary Clinton was proposing, they are going to think twice, three times or more about electing her president," McCaughey predicted.
Under the Affordable Care Act, Americans who go without health insurance must make a "shared responsibility payment" with their federal tax return, beginning in 2014. This year, the penalty is $95 per person, or 1 percent of taxable income, whichever is greater. As McCaughey noted, the penalty (tax) rises in 2015 to the greater of $325 or 2 percent of taxable income; and it rises again in 2016, to $695 or 2.5 percent of taxable income, whichever is greater.
McCaughey Americans Facing Big Fines If They Don t Have Insurance CNS News
At a news conference Thursday, Koskinen said taxpayer services will be hurt, and fewer agents will be auditing returns. He said about half the people who call the agency for assistance won't be able to get through to a person. About half the people who call the IRS for assistance this filing season won't be able to get through to a person, Koskinen said. Once tax returns are filed, there will be fewer agents to audit them. "Everybody's return will get processed," Koskinen told reporters. "But people have gotten very used to being able to file their return and quickly getting a refund. This year we may not have the resources, the people to provide refunds as quickly as we have in the past." In recent years, the IRS says it was able to issue most tax refunds within 21 days, if the returns were filed electronically. Koskinen wouldn't estimate how long they might be delayed in the upcoming filing season, which is just a few weeks away. Congress cut the IRS budget by $346 million for the budget year that ends in September 2015. The $10.9 billion budget is $1.2 billion less than the agency received in 2010.
The cuts come as the IRS is starting to play a bigger role in implementing President Barack Obama's health care law. For the first time, taxpayers will have to report on their tax returns whether they have health insurance. Millions of taxpayers who are receiving tax credits to help pay insurance premiums will have to report them as well. Some Republicans in Congress have vowed to cut IRS funding as a way to hurt implementation of the health care law. Koskinen has said it won't work. He said the IRS is required to enforce the law, so other areas will have to be cut, including taxpayer services and enforcement.
Kosinen said the IRS is imposing a hiring freeze, except for emergencies, and is eliminating almost all overtime. "In some ways, these budget cuts are really a tax cut for tax cheats," Koskinen said. "Because to the extent we have fewer people to audit and enforce the tax code, that means some people cutting corners on their taxes or not complying are going to get away with it, and that is a decision that Congress has made." The National Treasury Employees Union represents IRS workers. Union President Colleen M. Kelley said waits at IRS walk-in centers will stretch for hours and "correspondence will continue to pile up and taxpayers will wait longer and longer for a response." "Starving the IRS hurts more than just the agency's workforce, it hurts all taxpayers," Kelley said.
Koskinen called Thursday's news conference to highlight tips for choosing a qualified tax preparer. He said it is important to check preparers' qualifications and work history, confirm their fees and always review the tax return before signing it. He said taxpayers should be wary of preparers who promise big refunds. The tax filing season generally starts in mid-January, though it has been delayed in recent years because of last-minute tax changes enacted by Congress. Once again, Congress passed a tax bill this year just before going home for the holidays, extending more than 50 temporary tax breaks that had expired. Koskinen, however, said the filing season would start on time next month, though he said the agency was not yet ready to announce the exact date. Each year, millions of taxpayers file their returns in the first few weeks of the filing season so they can get fast refunds. This year, refunds averaged about $2,800.
IRS Head We May Not Have the Resources...to Provide Refunds as Quickly CNS News
