Obama called the Mayo Clinic a “national model for efficient health care – now, Mayo says it will no longer treat Medicare patients

The President called the Mayo Clinic a national model for efficient health care during his initial push to pass his ill-conceived Obamacare health reform.  While it seemed that early on the Mayo clinic was a full supporter of the Democrats health care reform ideas, as actual details came forth, they distanced themselves from the President’s ‘reform’ plans.

The number one long term goal of President Obama and Democrats in Congress is to have a single payer system.   Most Democrats realize they have to do this in steps in order for the US citizens to accept it.  Some say like the old folk warning that if you put a frog in boiling water it will jump out, but if you put it in cold water and gradually raise the temperature, it will boil to death without ever realizing what was happening.  However, while most Democrats realize they have to take the ‘slow boil’ approach, others have said the only real reform is to immediately move to a single payer system, and simply expand Medicare to cover all US citizens.  Last month, prior to Harry Reid’s now famous payoffs to key Senators to pass his health care bill, a compromise that was discussed was expanding Medicare to all people 55 and older, which much to Reid’s chagrin, several Democrats in congress honestly admitted was a great triumph for those pushing for a single payer system.

In December, when Harry Reid was attempting to expand Medicare, the Mayo Clinic warned that an expansion of Medicare could force out of business many hospitals and doctors already struggling to stay afloat.   A spokesperson for Mayo said that last year the Mayo Clinic lost $840 million dollars treating Medicare patients.

On Thursday, the Mayo clinic announced that it would no longer treat Medicare patients in its Glendale Arizona hospital, and associated clinics.  They said that the Glendale hospital had lost $120 million last year treating Medicare patients.

Bloomberg (via BigGovernment) reported on further fallout that might be coming:

Mayo’s move to drop Medicare patients may be copied by family doctors, some of whom have stopped accepting new patients from the program, said Lori Heim, president of the American Academy of Family Physicians, in a telephone interview yesterday.

“Many physicians have said, ‘I simply cannot afford to keep taking care of Medicare patients,’” said Heim, a family doctor who practices in Laurinburg, North Carolina. “If you truly know your business costs and you are losing money, it doesn’t make sense to do more of it.”