Construction of 45 new hospitals ceases due to new Healthcare bill - January 5th, 2011 11:49 am ET
You would think that the advent of healthcare for all would engender the creation of new hospitals to service a new group of consumers who will have access to treatments under the new Healthcare bill passed last year in Congress, but in fact, new regulations have actually made it detrimental to companies building new facilities. In an article<http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/obamacare-ends-construction-doctor-owned-hospitals_525950.html> yesterday by The Weekly Standard, Physician Hospitals of America reported that they will have to cease construction on 45 new facilities because the new healthcare law would actually cancel medicare reimbursement to them if they finished the projects. Under the headline, "Construction Stops at Physician Hospitals," *Politico reports today that <http://www.politico.com/politicopulse>* "Physician Hospitals of America says that construction had to stop at 45 hospitals nationwide or they would not be able to bill Medicare for treatments." Stopping construction at doctor-owned hospitals might not seem like the best way to boost the economy *or* to promote greater access and choice in health care, but that exactly what Obamacare is doing. Kenneth Artz of the Heartland Institute explains, "Section 6001 of the health care law effectively bans new physician-owned hospitals (POHs) from starting up, and it keeps existing ones from expanding." This little-noticed but particularly egregious aspect of Obamacare is, by all accounts, a concession to the powerful American Hospital Association (AHA), a supporter of Obamacare, which prefers to have its member hospitals operate without competition from hospitals owned by doctors. Now we know why Speaker Pelosi told Americans that they had to pass the bill before they could find out what was in it. A healthcare bill that picks and chooses service providers and protects one corporation over others. This bill is not about healthcare, its about money. -- Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more.
