“This is now part of the fabric of how we care for one another, this is healthcare in America! It seems so cynical to want to take health care away from millions of people.”-Barack Obama, making an Orwelian Double Speak statement about ObamaCare to the Catholic Health Association, 09 June 2015
Health Affairs has published a study which says at least 50 U.S. hospitals overcharged for services rendered by as much as 1-thousand percent!
Nightly Business Report revealed that ObamaCare insurance companies are merging and that will result in higher costs to individuals and less access to healthcare: “The best available economic evidence out there suggests that when insurers consolidate, premiums go up…..no evidence that to the extent that there are price decreases to providers, that these get passed on to consumers…..when there is less competition in a marketplace…there would be potentially a reduction in quality of plan as well, simply because you don’t have to compete as hard to gain business.
So, the real question is, with these transactions, are any of them motivated by the potential to really bring down cost and improve quality?”-Leemore Dafny, Kellogg School of Management
The following is an incomplete list of healthcare (and other industries) job cuts that took place, or were announced, from April to June 2015, and were directly or indirectly blamed on Obama Care:
Japan based legal drugs maker Eisai announced it will eliminate more than 2-hundred jobs within the United States! Eisai has ops in Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, North Carolina and Pennsylvania. Administrators blame the job cuts on a 47% drop in profits.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) laid off employees in New York, Washington DC, California and Wyoming. ACLU administrators blamed it on the loss of a major donor, but also mentioned the increased employee health care costs, caused by Obama Care.
California: In Sacramento, Response 1 Medical Staffing now chapter 11 bankrupt busted. Managed health care provider Health Net issued three mass layoff WARNs saying 2,122 health insurance related jobs will be eliminated on 26 June 2015! (and never mind the reports that Health Net is being sued for canceling their customer’s treatments, resulting in at least one death!) In Joshua Tree, Hi-Desert Memorial Health Care issued a mass layoff WARN saying 541 healthcare workers will become unemployed at the end of June! In Yucca Valley, Hi-Desert Memorial Health Care issued a layoff WARN saying at least 42 healthcare workers will become unemployed at the end of June. Bankrupt Daughters of Charity Health System tried to sell-off six hospitals but nobody wanted to buy, so now at least 280 healthcare workers will become unemployed! Administrators stated that the current layoffs will barely “restore our hospitals to break-even status financially” due to Obama Care insurance reimbursement cuts. To make matters worse, and guarantee a total hospital system shutdown, government Obama Care administrators have told ten insurance companies to stop sending their customers to Daughters of Charity Health System! In Berkeley, East Bay Perinatal Medical laid off 34 people. In Burbank, Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center blood donor service, 34 jobs lost. In San Pablo, taxpayer funded Doctors Medical Center shutdown at the end of April, and failing to find a new owner/operator it will be carved up and sold-off. 80% of the customers are on Medicare or Medicaid (Medical in California) and Obama Care drastically cut reimbursements, and even forces Medicare/Medicaid recipients to stop going to hospitals. Local news reports said the loss of the hospital results in the residents of West Contra Costa County losing 79% of their access to healthcare: “The mortality rates will increase, we will have deaths related to the closure of Doctors Medical Center.”-Maria Sahagun, registered nurse
In Poway, Palomar Health shutting down their Pomerado Hospital, hundreds of jobs lost and hundreds of patients affected! And in Escondido, Palomar Health reports that ObamaCare is causing their Palomar Medical Center to lose $20-million USD per year! As a result they’re considering shutting it down (despite a previous announcement that the 56 acre hospital was going to be doubled in size!), forcing the 8-thousand patients who use the hospital to travel at least 12 miles for healthcare: “The right thing to do and the right decision at the right time is to make the recommendation to the board of directors they should close the downtown campus.”-Bob Hemker, CEO
Head Start Child Development issued dozens of WARNs saying they are shutting down operations throughout California, hundreds becoming jobless by the end of June! In Laguna Hills, Herren Enterprises to shutdown their Doctor’s Ambulance Service in July and issue a WARN saying 117 EMT related jobs will be eliminated! Fireman’s Fund Insurnace Company issued a WARN saying they will layoff employees in July. Hollywood Presbyterian Medical issued a WARN saying 87 people will be laid off in July. In Elk Grove, Sutter Medical Foundation issued a WARN saying 17 people will be laid off in July. Western Dental Services to stop taking low income patients at 13 California offices, a shutdown WARN indicated 237 jobs could be lost: “…the extremely low funding and reimbursement levels …..have finally proven impossible to bear.”-official Western Dental Services statement
Colorado: In Longmont, the legal drugs seller Walgreens announced it will shutdown its Main Street store in June. Company administrators would only say “We are closing a number of stores that are underperforming around the country.”
Connecticut: ObamaCare forced Bristol Hospital to layoff 37 employees, and shutdown six vacant positions. Hospital administrators blamed state ‘lawmakers’ for cutting $2-million in Medicaid reimbursements, but directly blamed ObamaCare for the loss of $3-million in Medicare reimbursements! Administrators also warn of more layoffs as they are expecting another $7-million in losses over the next two years! Bloomfield based global health insurance company Cigna is fighting off attempts by Indiana based Anthem. Recently Anthem tried to buyout Cigna for $53.8-billion. If a takeover is successful you can bet they’ll be massive layoffs in an attempt to eliminate all the redundant jobs as a result. Yale-New Haven Health System shutting down their East Haven and Branford clinics, through taxpayer funding cuts. 31 jobs lost. Hartford HealthCare to eliminate 355 full-time jobs, plus many part-time jobs, at two of its hospitals; Backus and Windham. Hartford laid off 350 healthcare workers in 2014: “Despite our best efforts to reduce costs and increase revenues this year, Hartford HealthCare faces additional Medicaid cuts, bringing our total Medicaid payment reductions from the State of Connecticut to more than $100-million over five years. The magnitude of these cuts makes our model unsustainable going forward.”-Jeffrey Flaks
Florida: 50 years old Campbellton-Graceville Hospital to shutdown, at least 95 jobs lost. Administrators said Obama Care was the final straw, causing a huge drop off in people coming in for help, and causing a huge drop in insurance reimbursements. Panama City’s Crothall Healthcare issued a WARN saying 167 people will become unemployed in July! In Lake Mary, Access MediQuip laid off 84 people and shutdown, without warning. 46 jobs lost with non-profit OneBlood blood collection service: “More stringent transfusion protocols, advances in medical science and Health Care Reform continue to impact how the blood supply is managed.”-Forbes
Hawaii: The state run ObamaCare Hawaii Health Connector laid off 25 people. It’s because state administrators are shifting from running their own ObamaCare website to the federal government’s insurance exchange website. Taxpayer funded Hawai’i Health Systems Corporation’s eliminating 87 jobs in its East Hawai’i Region. That includes Hilo Medical Center, Ka’u Hospital, and Hale Ho’ola Hamakua. Administrators estimate that increasing costs and decreasing Obama Care reimbursements will cost the state hospital system $7-million USD in revenue losses for fiscal year 2016! Administrators warned that Obama Care is actually restricting access to healthcare: “Some healthcare services for our communities will be reduced and disrupted….As a result of operational efficiencies and cost reductions we’ve already instituted, we are able to complete our current fiscal year intact, but those action are not enough to make up for the coming year’s shortfall….it saddens us that very capable people who help care for our community will lose their jobs.”-Dan Brinkman, interim CEO
Idaho: Assurant eliminating 65 health insurance jobs in Boise by August. It’s all part of their plan to get out of the healthcare insurance business, blaming ObamaCare (see New York below).
Illinois: Hospital operator Porter Health eliminating 70 administrative/IT jobs. In a complicated way administrators blamed the new electronic medical records system pushed by ObamaCare. Chicago based Allscripts Healthcare Solutions to layoff 250 healthcare information tech employees across the United States! It was implied that electronic healthcare records keeping will be, or already has, been moved to India. Deerfield based legal drugs pusher, commonly known as Walgreens, announced they will shutdown 2-hundred U.S. stores between now and the end of 2017, in order to cut $1.5-billion from their budget. Walgreens shutdown 76 stores in 2014. This comes after Walgreens spent $16-billion to merge with United Kingdom based Alliance Boots, it’s now officially called Walgreens Boots Alliance. More cuts will follow: “These American markets are ready for more consolidation…..We will be at the forefront of consolidation…..we should every year review all the stores and if every year we have to close ten stores…do it.”-Stefano Pessina, acting CEO of Walgreens Boots Alliance
Indiana: Symmetry Medical Manufacturing to shutdown its Noble County factory by the end of the year, 130 jobs lost (layoffs start in June)! 67 Goodwill employees suddenly lost their jobs at the Richard K. Roudebush VA Medical Center. Goodwill administrators said that “Specifically, the Medical Center unexpectedly ended its longstanding contractual relationship with Goodwill without any prior notice of performance problems.” They also hinted at Obama Care, blaming “unforeseeable business circumstances”. Mental Health America Day Homeless Shelter shutdown. Administrator Jennifer Flora says the police state federal government is forcing cities to round up homeless people into one location: “They’re wanting individuals who are homeless to be able to go to one place…”
The Community Blood Center shutting down its donor centers in West Chester and Richmond by September. This seems to be part of a secret plan connected to ObamaCare: “More stringent transfusion protocols, advances in medical science and Health Care Reform continue to impact how the blood supply is managed.”-Forbes
Iowa: God refuses to stop ObamaCare from shutting down ‘his’ Quakerdale residential treatment programs. Administrators say since ObamaCare went into effect referrals have crashed and state funding has dried up.
Kansas: Select Specialty Hospital shutting down their ops within the Saint Francis Hospital in Topeka. Administrators directly blamed Obama Care for changing the rules for reimbursing healthcare providers for long term acute care. News reports say about 1-hundred jobs lost! In Wichita, after 90 years (surviving the Great deflationary Depression and numerous recessions) Rieger Medical Supply shutdown. The owner blamed the internet and “massive government regulations”, but the final straw was when her husband died: “A family business doesn’t do well without a family.”-Karin Rieger
Kentucky: Louisville based health insurance company Humana is considering a takeover bid by Connecticut based Aetna. If the deal is accepted then the 12-thousand Humana employees, and the more than 47-thousand employees with Aetna, will be threatened. In Louisville, Indiana based Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield laying off 54 people in July. Administrators swear they warned employees back in May. Administrators blame it on mergers with other ObamaCare insurance companies.
Louisiana: State Civil Service administrators revealed that 8-thousand 4-hundred ‘classified’ state employees have been laid off since 2008! The majority of layoffs are directly connected to the taxpayer funded LSU Hospital system! Civil Service administrators point out that the number of layoffs reported do not include those employees who were pushed to retire early or quit. They admitted that the original goal was to eliminate 13,615 ‘classified’ state employees!
Maine: Parkview Adventist Medical Center now chapter 11 bankrupt busted. They plan to merge with Mid Coast Health Services, 180 jobs affected!
Maryland: The first medical research school in the United States, John Hopkins University, announced they must eliminate jobs due to crashing federal taxpayer funding, and increased costs artificially created by new federal regulations. At this point 109 jobs being eliminated or “reorganized”! However, unnamed employees say they’ve been warned that 10% of the 20-thousand employees will eventually be laid off! Teen pregnancy prevention op Teens Have Choices shutdown due to lack of funding caused by declining teen pregnancies.
Massachusetts: Medical device maker Grove Instruments now chapter 7 bankrupt busted and liquidating. Symmetry Medical Manufacturing to shutdown its New Bedford factory over the next 12 months. Layoffs begin in June, 190 jobs lost! In Boston weak, Lahey Health to eliminate 130 jobs at three of its hospitals! Administrators referred to Obama Care as “an exceedingly challenging health care environment”. They also blamed the implementation of a new healthcare information sharing system called EPIC. Partners Health Care-North Shore Medical Center shutdown their Union Hospital, about 1-hundred jobs lost! Administrators say because of ObamaCare slashing and burning reimbursements they have no choice but to consolidate hospitals.
Michigan: Insurance provider HealthPlus to eliminate 5-hundred jobs! The layoffs will begin in July. HealthPlus is selling its Medicaid and MIChild contracts to a competitor.
Minnesota: Minnetonka based IMRIS (Innovative Magnetic Resonance Imaging Systems) to go chapter 11 bankrupt busted. Reports say the company could be taken over by vulture capitalist Deerfield Management. In Saint Paul, after 40 years Pro Pharmacy shutdown. The owner has sold it to Walgreens-Boots Alliance, which just happens to be in the process of shutting down 2-hundred Walgreens stores.
Mississippi: Garden Park Medical Center to shutdown eight of its 10 clinics! News reports say the shutdowns will begin in May and end by October, and that hospital administrators have ordered employees not to talk to the media about it, or they will lose their jobs. Administrators say Obama Care is forcing them to cut costs drastically.
Missouri: Mercy Health eliminating 474 jobs across their multi-state hospital system! I guess ObamaCare showed them (Missouri is nicknamed The Show Me State)! Mercy administrators directly blame ObamaCare: “…Mercy faces increasing challenges to our reimbursement structure as we adjust to reductions mandated by the Affordable Care Act and other budget cuts, as well as the lack of Medicaid expansion in most of our states.”
New Jersey: Continuum Health Alliance killed off 88 jobs. Administrators referred to Obama Care as “today’s rapidly changing health care landscape”.
New York: The Veterans Affairs New York Harbor Healthcare System announced it is shutting down its Brooklyn unit in July. VA administrators said that with the drastic budget cuts for next fiscal year, the only way to continue funding programs was to shutdown inpatient care. Brooklyn Kidney Center announced they are selling off their New York Dialysis Services, 65 jobs threatened. Medical tech company Getinge Sourcing issued a WARN saying they will shutdown their Rochester operations in September, 68 jobs lost. Ortho Clinical Diagnostics turning over their Rochester operations to Nypro in July. They expect at least 105 of their 1-thousand jobs to be lost in the transfer! Visiting Nurse Service Home Care issued several layoff WARNs saying at least 50 people will be jobless by the end of July. Legal drugs maker Forest Laboratories reminded state employment administrators that they’ve been sold to Ireland based drugs maker Actavis, and that Actavis plans to move New York ops to New Jersey, 5-hundred jobs affected! Non-profit Saint John’s Riverside Hospital shutting down and selling off their Michael Malotz Skilled Nursing Facility, 226 jobs to be lost starting in July! LifeMed Pharmacy has been sold, 65 employees now unemployed. Catholic Charities Neighborhood Services issued a mass layoff WARN saying they are canceling funding for all Residences and Day Habilitation operations across the state! At least 719 jobs lost by August! In Rockaway Beach, Visiting Nurse Service of New York Home Care announced it is forced to hand over their Headstart Program to another operator in July, 48 jobs affected. Mount Kisco Medical Group eliminating 109 jobs over the next 90 days! In order to deal with reduced reimbursements the largest physician group in the Lower Hudson Valley is outsourcing billing operations. NYC based Assurant selling-off their Health Insurance ops, claiming that even with the Obama Care payment reductions they are still going to lose $90-million for their 1st quarter of 2015. Basically the Assurant CEO, Alan Colberg, said Obama Care isn’t slashing & burning health care funding big enough or fast enough: “The health and employee benefits business segments possess differentiated capabilities in their respective markets, but we do not believe they can meet our return targets at the pace we require.”
According to a report by Modern Healthcare “Assurant Health also blamed losses on low recoveries from the ACA’s [Affordable Care Act, Obama Care] insurance risk programs and the policy shift that allowed people to stay in plans that are not compliant with ACA standards.” The sale of Assurant Health will affect access to health care for 1-million people! One more thing; Assurant Health admits that the insurance industry written Obama Care failed in estimating just how many sick poor people there are in the U.S., saying the Affordable Care Act “had worse morbidity characteristics than we had assumed”.
North Carolina: Physicians Choice Laboratory Services laid off 120 people at their Rock Hill Riverwalk Business Park! Christine Marks, vice president for marketing, directly blamed ObamaCare/healthcare reforms for reduced reimbursements from Medicare and private insurance. It’s been revealed that for-profit managed county owned Yadkin Valley Community Hospital shutdown, 150 jobs lost at the end of May! News reports blame disputes between the greedy for-profit managers and the county over the lease.
Ohio: Regency Hospital of Akron shutting down, 85 jobs lost. New York based insurance company Assurant laid off 125 people in Dayton and Springfield due to lack of sales! In Dayton, the Community Blood Center shutting down its Donor Testing Laboratory in September. This seems to be part of a secret plan connected to ObamaCare: “More stringent transfusion protocols, advances in medical science and Health Care Reform continue to impact how the blood supply is managed.”-Forbes
Oregon: After 20 years the operators of Oregon Coast Periodontics announced it will shutdown, supposedly because the owner moved to Louisiana, which they called “unfortunate circumstances”. After 43 years the Grande Ronde Child Center shutting down. It’s blamed on the loss of a contract with Greater Oregon Behavioral Health. State mental health administrators blame ObamaCare: “The services currently being offered by GRCC are not in line with the direction health care reform is going.”-Henry O’Keefe, Greater Oregon Behavioral Health
Pennsylvania: ObamaCare caused a riff between the the Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia Daily News, Philly.com and the employee’s Newspaper Guild. The employers did not want to pay more to cover increased health insurance costs, but after negotiations they agreed to pay more for the ObamaCare insurance but in exchange there will be no pay raises for the next two years! In Bethlehem, Metro Ambulance Service ceased to exist. Cumberland Family Practice to be merged with Good Hope Family Physicians, and forcing Baughman Family Medicine to shutdown! Doctor Paul Baughman directly blamed ObamaCare for “…dropping reimbursement, increasing overhead and a few unexpected bumps in the road.” Administrators with insurance company Capital BlueCross admitted that ObamaCare was going to drive up the cost of healthcare, ironically by forcing people back into emergency rooms as more health clincs shutdown or consolidate due to reduced reimbursements: “If they have health issues, they may have to go to the ER, hopefully an urgent care clinic, and the ER is an expensive place to get primary care. That adds to the cost.”-Aji Abraham
Rhode Island: non-profit Rhode Island Blood Center to layoff 60 people. Administrators say changes caused by ‘health care reform’ will increase their costs of testing for blood-borne disease by at least $2-million per year!
South Dakota: In Sioux Falls the Veteran’s Outreach Center shutting down in August due to lack of funding. It’s connected in part to the collapse of New York based Volunteers of America, but also because the Obama regime’s Veterans Affairs (VA) has canceled their contract with Veteran’s Outreach Center. Essentially the VA admitted they can’t pay for the care of military veterans!
Texas: In Heights, Select Specialty Hospital issued a shutdown WARN for July, eliminating 222 jobs! Administrators called Obama Care “business reasons”. Taxpayer funded non-profit El Paso Children’s Hospital to go chapter 11 bankrupt busted! In Houston, Access MediQuip laid off at least 80 people and shutdown without warning.
Virginia: Richmond based Health Diagnostic Laboratory now chapter 11 bankrupt busted, after announcing it will layoff 42 more employees across the country. Last year the medical testing company laid off 162 people! It’s connected to a federal investigation, and subsequent $47-million fine, in which the company is accused of bribing doctors and hospitals. Thrive Healthcare shutdown blaming debts. Tax-sucker General Dynamics laid off 137 IT workers! Those information technology employees were supporting the Healthcare Quality Improvement Systems contract to “monitor and improve utilization and quality of care for Medicare and Medicaid”. General Dynamics lost the contract.
Washington: In Castle Rock, Peace Health shutting down their clinic by the end of September. 1-thousand 6-hundred primary and pediatric care patients affected! Customers are being told they will have to travel to Longview for services.
Wisconsin: Health care provider GeminiCares eliminated 7-hundred jobs! Assurant announced that 1-thousand 2-hundred people in Milwaukee will be laid off starting in August and running into 2016! It’s the result of Assurant getting out of the health insurance business (see above). Assisted living center Emeritus Senior Living laid off 10 HQ employees.
So Barack Obama, what was that about taking away healthcare “from millions of people”?
WARN=Worker Adjustment & Retraining Notification
1st quarter 2015: “more change than we’ve seen in the past 75 years combined.”