ObamaCare currently has no impact on Medigap policies that would be obvious to the senior consumer as being directly attributable to ObamaCare. It doesn't phase them out or end them and they aren't subject to the more direct attacks this administration has made on Medicare Advantage plans.
The effects of ObamaCare on the Medicare population will be more subtle. Even before ObamaCare was passed, Medicare reimbursement rates were at levels where growing numbers of physicians were making business decisions to limit the number of Medicare patients they would take in their practice, freeze their number of Medicare patients at current levels, or stopping accepting Medicare patients entirely.
While going through all the legislative and budgetary gyrations that resulted in the passage of ObamaCare in 2010 the administration deemed it critical that the projected 10-year cost projections of the law come in under 1 trillion dollars. Why? Because that was approximately what we had spent on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the argument was that if we could afford to spend that much on wars then surely we could afford to spend that much on providing health insurance. An important aspect of how this was accomplished from a budgetary perspective was that the law transfers future funds from the Medicare trust funds to pay for various aspects of ObamaCare. It was projected that these transfers would reduce the future increases in spending on Medicare over the coming decade by about $700 billion. In Washington speak this means that we'll still be spending more on Medicare (which with our growing Medicare population is only logical) but we'll be reducing reimbursement levels to doctors, hospitals, etc., by $700 billion less than would have otherwise been the case.
From studies I have seen, this will begin taking Medicare reimbursement levels below those of Medicaid in the not too distant future. So, if many healthcare providers were barely breaking even or losing money on Medicare patients at the old reimbursement levels it doesn't take much imagination to guess what their reaction will be to even lower reimbursement levels in the years to come. So, the main challenge many senior citizens on Medicare will be faced with in coming years that is severely aggravated by ObamaCare will be finding healthcare providers who are willing to accept them.
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The effects of ObamaCare on the Medicare population will be more subtle. Even before ObamaCare was passed, Medicare reimbursement rates were at levels where growing numbers of physicians were making business decisions to limit the number of Medicare patients they would take in their practice, freeze their number of Medicare patients at current levels, or stopping accepting Medicare patients entirely.
While going through all the legislative and budgetary gyrations that resulted in the passage of ObamaCare in 2010 the administration deemed it critical that the projected 10-year cost projections of the law come in under 1 trillion dollars. Why? Because that was approximately what we had spent on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the argument was that if we could afford to spend that much on wars then surely we could afford to spend that much on providing health insurance. An important aspect of how this was accomplished from a budgetary perspective was that the law transfers future funds from the Medicare trust funds to pay for various aspects of ObamaCare. It was projected that these transfers would reduce the future increases in spending on Medicare over the coming decade by about $700 billion. In Washington speak this means that we'll still be spending more on Medicare (which with our growing Medicare population is only logical) but we'll be reducing reimbursement levels to doctors, hospitals, etc., by $700 billion less than would have otherwise been the case.
From studies I have seen, this will begin taking Medicare reimbursement levels below those of Medicaid in the not too distant future. So, if many healthcare providers were barely breaking even or losing money on Medicare patients at the old reimbursement levels it doesn't take much imagination to guess what their reaction will be to even lower reimbursement levels in the years to come. So, the main challenge many senior citizens on Medicare will be faced with in coming years that is severely aggravated by ObamaCare will be finding healthcare providers who are willing to accept them.