Again I don’t comment a lot on politics lately however some things are so monumental that even I need to comment on it and today that would be the new healthcare law. I spent 20 years in the healthcare industry both for doctors and for insurance companies so I do know a little about the subject so here are my less than 2 cents.
The first thing I want to comment on is the fact that this is not a blow against the insurance companies. Some insurance companies will make mad money over this. I use the example of Medicare for this. While Medicare is technically run by the government it’s actually administered by the insurance companies. A handful of insurance companies have the government contract to process Medicare claims in their region. I would almost guarantee that the public option will be handled the same way.
Secondly, I think instead of legislating healthcare they should have investigated and regulated the insurance companies on a state by state basis because in every state there are only one or two choices of insurance companies that you actually have. I personally think that the insurance companies are colluding with each other as there is no real competition in any state I’ve ever lived in.
If the law ever sees the light of day I think it will contribute to the end of the private practice. I think that all these large hospital networks like CMC and Novant here in North Carolina lit the fuse on this however the law will be the death knell for private practices as doctors will flock to these networks just to feed their families.
Lastly, and this is the most important part, just because the law has been passed does not mean that things will change overnight. There will be more challenges to this law than you can ever imagine. This law will be tied up in courts for years until it’s completely unrecognizable.
In 2012 I think that President Obama will be reelected however I think because of the healthcare law the Republicans will retake congress. If that sounds familiar it’s because the same thing happened in 1996 except former President Clinton couldn’t get anything passed.
The Trench Reynolds Report 