Obamacare and why the Cleveland Clinic is really cutting jobs

And now, the latest Obamacare consequences. A hospital the president has said is a model of effective health care will be making cuts.

“President Obama praised the Cleveland Clinic, world renowned, as an exampled of what’s right with America’s health care system,” explained KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson. “The Cleveland Clinic is forced to cut more than $300 million from it’s annual budget and lay off employees because of Obamacare related costs, the clinic announced yesterday.”

FOX did this story, too. Wyoming Senator John Barrasso was on with Greta Van Sustreren.

“President Obama pointed to the Cleveland Clinic as a place for great care and lower costs. The Cleveland Clinic announced this week they are laying off many employees. And they’re cutting $300 million because of the health care law,” said Barrasso.

“I don’t know if Toby Cosgrove, who is the CEO and whether he was back pedaling or not, but I talked to him a couple hours later and he thought we were taking it out of context,” said Van Sustreren.

Cleveland Clinic officials were unhappy because media folks like Dori or the guys on FOX were making it look like Obamacare was somehow sabotaging the Cleveland Clinic.

But what that version of the story leaves out is that one of the reasons the Cleveland Clinic is cutting its budget is that under Obamacare, hospitals get less money from Medicaid and Medicare.

That’s one of the ways costs are controlled.

And what surprised me about the way this story was played up is that it’s the people who think the government spends too much who are pointing to this as an example of the problem with health care reform.

But in fact, this is one of those examples of the government actually spending less money.

When the government spends less, yeah, jobs get cut.

You kind of have to choose which side of the seesaw you want to be on.

If you hate government spending, you should be happy the government is spending less on Medicaid and Medicare, and that the Cleveland Clinic is making a 5 percent cut in its budget to get ready for that.

When you cut costs as the clinic is doing, and as it’s supposed to do, if we’re going to save money on health care, what has to happen? Some people have to lose their jobs.

Like when people clamored for the government to cut spending, and then say, “Will you look at that, unemployment is up!” Well, how do you think you cut spending? You cut salaries or fire people.