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Air Date: June 20, 2013
Host: Vic Eliason
Guest: Jane Orient
Dr. Jane Orient is a medical doctor and is the executive director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons. She has been in solo practice of general internal medicine since 1981 and is a clinical lecturer in medicine at the University of Arizona College of Medicine. She is the author of, Your Doctor is Not In: Healthy Skepticism about National Healthcare.
What connection is there between healthcare and tax revenues? Under Obamacare the IRS will determine whether or not you have acceptable health insurance coverage or if you’re eligible for tax subsidies that will make the premiums affordable. According to Dr. Orient, the only way the IRS can determine if premiums are affordable when they’re going up 100% is by making someone else pay for them. In other words, the IRS will handle various complicated calculations to determine if your household income is a certain percentage above the poverty line and they will then give money, not to you, but to your insurance company. If they pay too much, they will collect it back from you via your tax return and not from the insurance company.
Where this is all headed was best summed up by Dr. Orient when she described the Oath of Hippocrates which seeks the good of the patient and not to do harm to anyone. The new medical model looks at the Oath of Hippocrates as an impediment to achieving the goal of maximum population health for the state as a whole. In other words, how can you have optimum population health when you have a lot of sick, 80 year old people around.
Under certain circumstances could the IRS deny access to medical care?
Can they be trusted to keep our medical records confidential?
Will the traditional medical ethic become a thing of the past under Obamacare?
These questions and more are answered as this Crosstalk looks at your healthcare future.
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