Local physicians fear ObamaCare

Home City News Local physicians fear ObamaCare

Anxieties about the Affordable Care Act caused an abnormal decrease in the number of patients at Hillsdale Community Health Center this fall.

These concerns largely stem from many Hillsdale residents receiving notices that their insurance policies will be canceled on Dec. 31. Local insurance agency owner, Clint Barrett said this is because insurance companies must cancel policies that aren’t compliant with ObamaCare’s requirements.

“When Obama went on the news and said if you like your policy you can keep it, he was totally uninformed and hadn’t read his own bill,” Barrett said.

Dr. Dale Mccririe said usually Hillsdale’s hospital is “inundated” between Halloween and New Year’s because people want to take care of things while they have a zero deductible.

“We’re not seeing that uptick as we have seen for the last 20 years,” Mccririe said.

Mccririe attributes this decrease largely to concerns about the ACA and the fear people have that they are not going to have coverage.

In the past month, Barrett has met with more than 200 people regarding changes in their health insurance, and he said that his office has only seen three clients successfully acquire a healthcare policy on the Health Insurance Marketplace.

“It’s a huge challenge right now, because it’s a broken system,” Barrett said.

Barrett said while he sees benefits derived from 10 percent of the ACA, he thinks it could cause a monopoly situation arise in Michigan, and that the new healthcare system is unsustainable.

“I don’t know how we can have taxpayer money pay for everyone’s insurance the way it’s designed,” Barrett said. “But it’s the law of the land right now, and we’re working with it.”

Mccririe and other local healthcare providers also worry about the effects ObamaCare will have on Hillsdale.

“I don’t have so much of a problem with healthcare reform,” Physician’s Assistant at Primary Care Associates Andrew Scholl said. “But I think what we’ve got is not healthcare reform, but just more bureaucracy. You have a government that thrives on bureaucracy and now they’re dabbling in medicine. From my perspective, that all takes away from face-to-face patient care.”

Scholl said many of ObamaCare’s mandates are what cause time to be taken away from patient care. This is because ACA changes the way in which many doctors are paid for their work. In order to receive compensation for the care given to patients, doctors must choose from over 118,000 codes to show how the patient was treated.

“This is administrative, clerical work that we’re having to learn outside of what we’re trying to achieve with the patients,” Scholl said. “And it doesn’t give an accurate portrayal of your patient care. It’s no longer about whether or not I fixed your problem and you are happy with the care, it’s going to come down to how I have to code it and someone else will determine whether or not I get paid.”

One of the ACA’s primary aims is to cover anyone who previously did not have insurance. Scholl said he worries about whether or not Hillsdale’s healthcare providers will be able to handle the new patients.

“It’s estimated that Hillsdale county is going to have 6,000 new patients,” Scholl said. “I don’t know where 6,000 people are going to go.”

Mccririe added that the changes in the healthcare system will likely cause many doctors to retire early and steer potential medical students away from medical careers.

“The thing that really drives me and most physicians is that your investment is your reward,” Mccririe said. “But when you become a de facto employee of the government, a lot of that incentive goes away. We’re going to continue doing everything we can, but there’s going to be constraints that we can’t surmount. I think we’re going to watch humanity suffer.”

Mccririe and Scholl admit that certain parts of healthcare should be reformed, but ObamaCare is not the answer.

“All I can hope is that people remember that doctors didn’t create this,” McCririe said.

Both physicians hope that changes will be enacted to counteract the ACA’s current gloomy course, but said they will continue to give their patients the best possible care.

“We just want to take care of patients and once in a while get told ‘thank you,’” Mccririe said. “Instead what we got are politicians who have decided that they’re going to impose their will on other people.”