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Obamacare Pushing Puerto Rico Further Into Social Welfare State, Doctors Warn | |
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Offer Upgrade User ID: 37271772 United States 12/15/2013 03:40 AM Report Abusive Post Report Copyright Violation | People in the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico may not be grappling with the botched Obamacare website rollout, but the program could spell disaster for the island, which is facing a financial crisis and where half the population already is dependent on free health insurance, members of the island's medical community warned. Puerto Ricans, who are born U.S. citizens, do not enroll on the healthcare.gov because their government decided not to offer health-insurance exchanges, which offers private plans. Instead, the Affordable Care Act, commonly dubbed Obamacare, has mostly arrived on the island in the form of a $6.3 billion social welfare check allocated to the government to continue to pay for its Medicaid and for its separate, free state-run insurance program called "Mi Salud," between 2014 and 2019. And that could be disastrous for Puerto Rico. Roughly 1.7 million Puerto Ricans already depend on free health insurance in the island and local doctors are concerned that the additional financial infusion to the program will make the territory even more dependent on welfare. Critics in the medical community said the move could prove to be a disaster, considering the U.S. territory is already deemed as the “Next Detroit” and "America's Greece." The island's government is over $70 billion in debt and about 45 percent of Puerto Ricans have incomes below the U.S. federal poverty line and nearly 40 percent of all households receive food stamps. Despite the bleak economic outlook, Puerto Rico’s surprisingly low 7.2 percent uninsured rate is actually second-lowest compared to all states, behind Massachusetts. “Our healthcare system is going to be entirely a welfare system," warned Dr. Guillermo Tirada, an internal medicine specialist in Puerto Rico for 18 years. "It's sad." Because of its U.S. territory status, Obamacare gave Puerto Rico the choice to either allocate $925 million dollars — of the total $6.3 billion package destined to the island — toward establishing health care insurance exchanges or to opt to use the money to fund its Medicaid program until 2019. The nearly bankrupt government took the second option and is channeling the funds through "Mi Salud," something critics like Dr. Tirada said was a wrong and desperate step in the government's desperate search for temporary financial relief. The move, critics said, takes Puerto Rico further away from a free market privatized health care system and speeds up the ongoing exodus of doctors, who are flocking to the U.S. mainland in search of higher salaries and better reimbursements from insurers. Rest at Link: [link to latino.foxnews.com] GLP Disclaimer DON'T BELIEVE A DAMN WORD YOU READ ON THIS WEBSITE! The reader is responsible for discerning the validity, factuality or implications of information posted here, be it fictional or based on real events. Moderators on this forum make every effort to review the material posted on this site however, it is not realistically possible for our small staff to manually review each and every one of the more than 20,000 posts GodlikeProductions gets on a daily basis. The content of posts on this site, including but not limited to links to other web sites, are the expressed opinion of the original poster and are in no way representative of or endorsed by the owners or administration of this website. The posts on this website are the opinion of the specific author and are not statements of advice, opinion, or factual information on behalf of the owner or administration of GodlikeProductions. This site may contain adult language, if you feel you might be offended by such content, you should log off immediately. Not all posts on this website are intended as truthful or factual assertion by their authors. Some users of this website are participating in internet role playing, with or without the use of an avatar. NO post on this website should be considered factual information on face value alone. "If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen."- Samuel Adams "...It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds.." --Samuel Adams A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on. --John F. Kennedy The cost of freedom is always high, but Americans have always paid it. And one path we shall never choose, and that is the path of surrender, or submission. --John F. Kennedy Mankind must put an end to war before war puts an end to mankind. --John F. Kennedy All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree. --Albert Einstein |
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