Obamacare only for the wealthy?

Obamacare earmarks for the 1%? The wealthy NE elite? Living in million dollar homes? Political cronies?

The Kerry Kickback: $3.5B ObamaCare Earmark!

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Massachusetts hospitals are poised to receive a $3.5 billion windfall in federal funding over the next 10 years thanks to a little-known provision Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) inserted into the Affordable Care and Patient Protection Act, also known as “Obamacare.”

The increased funding—$367 million a year in the form of Medicare reimbursement payments, according to the Federal Register—would not only come at the expense of hospitals in the 49 other states, but would also directly benefit an organization that has given generously to Kerry’s campaign.

The obscure policy change was formally approved by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in July 2011. It was prompted by a small, 15-bed hospital located on the upscale island of Nantucket, a popular vacation spot for wealthy New Englanders where Kerry and his wife own a $9 million waterfront home.

Nantucket Cottage Hospital, which had been operating under a special “critical access” status, sought a number of years ago to be reclassified as a “rural” hospital. The CMS approved the change for fiscal year 2012—a minor adjustment on paper, but one with profound implications.

The Balanced Budget Act of 1997 established a “rural floor” for hospital labor costs (which are used to determine reimbursement rates) mandating that hospitals in urban areas within a given state cannot be paid less than those in rural areas.

Read more: http://nation.foxnews.com/john-kerry/2012/02/15/kerry-kickback-35b-obamacare-earmark#ixzz1mSt9uD4j

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Members of the group’s board have given generously, and almost exclusively, to Democrats, including tens of thousands to Kerry. Four Partners board members in particular—Anne Finucane, Charles Gifford, Edward Lawrence, and Dorothy Terrell—have collectively contributed more than $200,000 to Democrats since 2007 and nearly $15,000 to Kerry.

I think the Koch brothers collectively gave LESS than $200,000...

Go figure.

Who will take care of the poor in their substandard medical facilities when the money seems to be drained away by the political insiders?