Readers React: The ‘low’ average premium increase is nothing to cheer

To the editor: Covered California Executive Director Peter V. Lee and UC Berkeley health economist James C. Robinson are not convincing as to the success of Obamacare in California. (“Obamacare works in California. Here’s why,” op-ed, July 27)

A 4% annual premium increase is still well above inflation, and it says nothing about the quality of care. Primary-care physicians are still underpaid and under siege by unreimbursed government mandates, especially the problematic electronic health systems available.

A credible report on Obamacare must include the deficiencies that physicians face as well as the exorbitant prices the public must pay to be a player. The free-market forces alluded to are a fiction that the health insurers have gamed. Consolidation in the industry has locked in the high prices in spite of Covered California.

Government price controls are a necessity.

Jerome P. Helman, MD, Venice

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To the editor: From a physician’s perspective (unfortunately no one seems to be particularly interested in how this is affecting the providers), Obamacare is unworkable. The reimbursement rates are so low that fewer and fewer providers are accepting Covered California’s approved amounts as payment in full. We are going to a cash basis and telling the patient that they will have to deal with the payers themselves, a task for which they are poorly equipped.

This limits access and Obamacare utilization. So it’s no wonder the coffers for insurers remain relatively full as the premium payments roll in but the payouts dwindle. And this, predictably, is the soft underbelly of Obamacare.

Patients are startled and angry when they receive only $40 against a $155 charge. But there is no way physicians can keep their offices open with a reimbursement rate that is less than the resource cost (overhead).

The Times should do a poll to find what percentage of patients with healthcare problems are finding lack of access to care, especially to specialists. Where is the “patient protection” in that equation?

Stanley J. Alexander, MD, Arcadia

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