New Jersey Practice Struggles With Health Care Changes

Heritage  "But the Schwartzes’ ability to meet the needs of patients and the financial demands of their business has been tested.For example, insurance plans in New Jersey have changed. The various plans the Schwartzes purchased for themselves and their employees last year are no longer available. This year, they had to pay 25.5 percent more per employee in insurance premiums — about $20,000 total. Many of their patients were forced to change plans, too, which has affected the Schwartzes’ reimbursement rates. Their staff has had to deal with increasingly uncooperative insurance companies that no longer cover important tests their patients need. And every prescription has seemed to require more paperwork."

The Start of the Debate
•Should the federal government control America’s $2.5 trillion health sector, fully one sixth of our economy?
•Should government bureaucrats decide what form of health coverage is “acceptable”?

Government officials

•Should these bureaucrats be given the legal authority to require all Americans to purchase government-designed health plans and levy penalties on those who don’t comply?

•Should the federal government require the States to devote scarce resources to the creation of federally designed health exchanges that State lawmakers may feel inadequately address the unique needs of state residents?

•Should the federal government expand the Medicaid program so dramatically that States face a Hobson’s choice – either shoulder billions in new fiscal commitments (on top of an already unsustainable budget mess) or withdraw from the program entirely?

•What about employers who want to continue to provide their employees with health coverage but learn that federal bureaucrats deem the coverage they can afford to provide insufficiently generous?