CONTEXT ADDED BY ADMIN:
END OF CONTEXT
Within 5 years we will be limited to do and say whatever the HHS Secy mandates. All insurance will be governed by Medicare rules and reimbursements, this is going to expand Medicaid to 45%, and you will lose your insurance unless it is one deemed by the HHS SECY as "quailfied" (meaning under the thumb of CMS regulations and reimbursements).
Private practice healthcare will wither on the vine unless it can convert to cash only in order to avoid the excessive regulation and low reimbursements brought on by this (the alternative would be the government raises reimbursements-which is what I think they will do to prevent the healthcare system from imploding- but that will make this a budget buster and make healthcare even MORE expensive). So you will have a division with wealthy Americans being able to get to see the good primary care doctors for cash and everyone else seeing the not so good doctors under the government plan. Specialists will leave private practice for salaried jobs, with the best ones moving out of the country where the systems and pay may be similar but there is no medmal.
Elective things, such as open heart, hip replacements etc will move offshore to the hospitals currently being built in Mexico, Canada and the Carribean by well known "brand name" American hospitals.
In brief-healthcare just became more expensive, of lower quality and less accessible for most Americans. And the federal government now controls 30% of GDP (and climbing).
