Thanks to Brandon Dutcher for passing this along, an article that contains an admission by the “president” that his own health care bill is a failure.  That’s right.  He has rescinded the cuts in the “uncompensated care” payments to the hospitals because….ready?….because the Unaffordable Care Act will do nothing to lessen the amount of uncompensated care!  

This is embarrassing.  This is also devastating for the hospitals attempting to continue to spew propaganda about how the states need to expand Medicaid in order to make up for their loss of uncompensated care payments.  I wrote in August of 2012 that the hospitals would perhaps support the Unaffordable Care Act and in return agree to let their uncompensated care payments go, only to get these payments anyway. 

It will be interesting to see if this mess continues to unravel or if Uncle Sam starts to play rough.  Kudos to the governors (ours, Mary Fallin, included) who have said no thanks to the exchanges and the expansion of Medicaid.  The political pressure by the hospital lobby here in Oklahoma has been intense, just as I am sure it has been in other “rebel” states.

G. Keith Smith, M.D.