When it comes to illustrating the adverse effects of the 'Affordable' Care Act, it'll be tough to top the Pennsylvania news report we highlighted last week. But accounts of Obamacare harming children are right up there. We've amplified a number of such examples in the past, and here's another upsetting story from Seattle's KING-TV (via the Free Beacon):
Administrators at Seattle Children's hospital told the news station that they predicted these types of incidents prior to Obamacare's implementation, but the new reality is actually worse than they'd expected. Of the 125 appeals they've filed on behalf of young patients so far, fewer than 20 percent have received a response, and nearly half of those were denials. For the time being, the hospital has been treating the kids anyway, but officials say they can't afford to keep doing so in perpetuity. This law rations care -- not only for the elderly, but for ill children, too. Meanwhile, employees at Minnesota's world renowned Mayo Clinic are also feeling the impact of Democrats' signature law:
The Mayo Clinic hadn't changed its health benefits in a decade; Obamacare has forced their hand. Individual employees will now pay $180 more per year, and families will shell out nearly $600 more. These decisions have left workers "upset, confused and frustrated," according to KTTC-TV's report. In addition, Dan recently noted Sen. Tom Coburn's recent revelation that his new Obamacare plan does not cover the oncology specialist he's been seeing as he battles prostate cancer. Coburn says he been blessed with the means to pay the additional costs out-of-pocket. The ever-compassionate Paul Krugman slammed Coburn's explanation as a "garbage story," citing no evidence whatsoever that contradicts the Senator's account:
I'll leave you with a powerful letter one doctor wrote to health insurer Aetna, canceling her contract. "I will not comply:"
You see, health insurance has evolved such that insurers and government have inserted themselves smack-dab in the middle of the once sacred patient-doctor relationship. I am called a provider- not a doctor. My patient is now yours- not mine. What I can do as a physician now has strangulating strings and nonsensical numbers attached- to you and government and money-not the best interests of the patients....Obamacare, the “law of the land”, contains ever-changing-at-the-whim-of-HHS, politically-expedient mandates, rewards, penalties, rules and regulations with which I cannot rationally or morally treat my patients and run a practice, much-less interpret, implement, or comply....You must explain this to your patients. You must tell them that they have purchased a product that was misrepresented to them and that you cannot deliver. It saddens me to think of the decreased access to care from actual physicians and the shockingly increased costs Aetna patients will now experience because of your choice to collude with big government rather than collaborate with patients and physicians.
She tweeted about her decision, calling the situation "heart-aching:"
Just sent this to Aetna. Never dreamed this would be a chapter in my life in medicine. Heart-aching. pic.twitter.com/YE1OCrGhVF
— Kris Held,MD (@kksheld) January 30, 2014
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