A little-known rule, a provision of Obamacare, went into effect this week. Starting this month, hospitals with high re-admission rates will be penalized to the amount of 1% of their Medicare payments. For hospitals, who often operate on slim margins, this penalty is serious. But then next year the penalty doubles to 2%, and the following year becomes 3%.
It’s an ugly rule, and they dress it up as an effort to promote quality of care. But we all know that it’s a push to contain costs. And we know from hearing what some of these liberal mastermind healthcare people think that when care has to be rationed (and it always has to be), they feel that the money is best spent on the young and productive. Defective babies – we abort them. Sick, elderly people – we help them commit suicide, or, as Obama once announced in a town hall meeting, if Grandma needs expensive medical treatment, maybe we should just give her a pain pill and leave it at that.
The Fox News article referenced above quoted Dr. Sunil Kripalani, a professor at Vanderbilt University Medical Center who studies hospital re-admissions, who said, “Among patients with heart failure, hospitals that have higher re-admission rates actually have lower mortality rates.” Mark Levin had a caller recently, Duane from Oklahoma City, a cardiologist, who made the same point.
Welcome to Universal Health Care. Isn’t it wonderful to have everyone “covered” under a government-mandated health plan?
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