19% health care pros say Americans 'will die earlier' due to Obamacare

19% health care pros say Americans 'will die earlier' due to Obamacare

By PAUL BEDARD

A unique new survey of health care professionals finds that 56 percent oppose Obamacare, with more than nine in 10 believing that there could be major negative impacts such as a drop in quality care. A shocking 19 percent believe Americans will die earlier.

In its 2013 Health Care Survey of 200 top health care professionals nationally, Coupa Software told Secrets that health care professionals are worried about a number of setbacks that the health law could result in. Asked to list the “negative impacts,” of which they could pick several, here's what Coupa found:

-- 53 percent, “Quality of health insurance policies will suffer.”

-- 51 percent, “Quality of care will go down.”

-- 49 percent, “The law is overly complicated.”

-- 42 percent, “Insurance exchanges will be poorly managed.”

-- 37 percent, “The law still allows insurance companies to be the middleman.”

-- 32 percent, “Too complex for businesses.”

-- 19 percent, “Americans will die earlier.”

The company provides cloud-based finance applications for many of the nation’s health care providers and is especially focused on waste in the health care system. Their survey found that the health care professionals expect that many inefficiencies, such as unnecessary emergency room visits, will be fixed under Obamacare.

The survey displayed the split in the community over the law, with both positives and negatives being found. While 93 percent cited negative impacts, 74 percent also found positive outcomes from the law, the biggest being the availability of health insurance to those who don’t have it.

But that support for the law is offset by the overall view of the law by the health care community. The poll, which is being released Monday but was provided in advance to Secrets, found that 56 percent oppose most or all of the Affordable Care Act’s provisions. Only 6 percent favor all of the law, and 38 percent favor most of it.

Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner's "Washington Secrets" columnist, can be contacted at pbedard@washingtonexaminer.com.

 

http://washingtonexaminer.com/19-of-health-care-pros-say-americans-will-die-earlier-due-to-obamacare/article/2536481