Obamacare’s official name is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Other than protecting actual patients and making healthcare affordable, it’s doing a bang-up job.
Take the Seattle Children’s Hospital, for instance. Its administrators tell KING-TV that thanks to Obamacare, many of the sick kids in its facilities can not get the care that they need. The hospital sought approval to care for more than 100 kids under Obamacare, and got silence and a handful of denials in return.
Dr. Sandy Melzer from Seattle Children’s Hospital: “Well, some of the patients who were denied are ones who would clearly fall into that unique category [of needing specialty care]: a two year old with a new, significant neck mass that was being evaluated for infection or malignancy, an older child with a chronic, severe medical condition requiring multidisciplinary care here, a baby that had a skull abnormality.”
In all, the hospital says it has applied to the government for care for 125 children. Only 20 have gotten replies, and 8 of those were denials.
So, 12 of the 125 kids who need care — less than 10% — actually got approval.
The hospital went ahead and cared for all of them, picking up the tab — which it can’t afford to keep doing without reimbursement. Obamacare turns out to be an excellent way to bankrupt hospitals, chase doctors out of practice, and wreak havoc in the personal lives of millions of Americans.
Republicans could be building their 2014 campaign around this and stories like it. Instead, they’ll take a little of this plus a destructive battle over immigration that hardly anyone wants to have.
Because they’re idiots.
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