In todays Journal. Not one mention of lack of Medicaid expansion. Duncan: Replace Obamacare By NORMAN CANNADA THE JOURNAL SENECA — As Monday’s deadline for signing up for healthcare coverage through the Affordable Care Act without penalty nears, U.S. Rep. Jeff Duncan says he still wants to see the national health insurance initiative replaced. “I think we really need to pull back and evaluate it all,” Duncan said in an interview with The Journal during a visit to Seneca last week. “My position is this, you make me king for a day and I’m going to replace Obamacare with something that is more free-market oriented and provides more options for individuals, for families and parents. There are options that we should look at before we allow the government to take over healthcare.” One of the areas where Duncan said he would like to see the plan change would be to give more flexibility to people. “You should own that policy and you should be able to take it with you whether you move from South Carolina to Tennessee, Texas or West Virginia,” he said. “You should be able to have some portability. You should also be able to buy across state lines.” He used as an example a man in Abbeville who was not allowed to stay on his wife’s policy, but was required to buy a policy though his employer. “It cost him $96 or $98 more a month,” Duncan said. “He had to buy a worse plan and it cost more. Tell me how that is right for America? He wasn’t able to keep the plan he had.” Duncan added that Obamacare is also contributing to problems in smaller hospitals such as Laurens County Memorial in his home county and Oconee Medical Center in Seneca. Laurens joined Greenville Health System (GHS) last year and Oconee is currently looking at an affiliation with GHS. “You’re seeing Greenville look at these small hospitals and create a regional force because they’re having to spread their risk; they’re having to diversify,” he said. “The small hospitals like what you see in Laurens and Oconee are going to find it tough to make it because costs are continuing to go up. “I remember a meeting I had with the leadership team at Oconee Medical talking about reimbursement rates,” he added. “They were talking about not being reimbursed at 100 percent for Medicare and I said, ‘Well, Obamacare is starting to limit access; I don’t know that you’re going to get reimbursed at any higher rate than you are currently.’ Their whole concern was the people they weren’t getting any money from. They felt, under Obamacare, they would get some reimbursement for those people. They’re seeing some of that but they’re also seeing reimbursement rates for Medicare being reduced. The whole healthcare arena is a difficult balance of income and expenses.”
Posted on: Sat, 29 Mar 2014 15:08:03 +0000
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