The problem with Medicaid expansion isn't that the services shouldn't be offered. The problem is recent health care reform didn’t fix the cost issues associated with our nation’s health care system.
Considering how many times the law has been “adjusted” since the Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) last update, I have found assessing the financial implications of expanding Medicaid in North Carolina difficult.
On March 21, the Obama administration’s Whitehouse.gov stated “the Affordable Care Act (ACA) reduces the deficit, saving over $200 billion over 10 years”.
...But the latest ACA deficit reducing accounting appears to no longer be operable.
The last CBO projections didn’t include changes and delays affecting total cost results instituted after December 2013, including delayed penalty revenues and patients retaining the ability to keep and/or purchase low cost catastrophic policies that were supposed to have been replaced with higher priced alternatives in 2014.
More enrollees signed up for 100 percent subsidized care than anticipated. The Obama administration’s math needed about 40 percent of 18 to 34 year-olds to offset the higher costs of older enrollees. The latest youth number is about 27 percent, and a good chunk might not necessarily be healthy.
According to the American Medical Association, Congress and both Bush and Obama didn’t enforce the Sustainable Healthcare physician Growth Rate (SGR) 16 times at a cost to taxpayers of $154 billion with what’s call the SGR “doc fix”.
The University of Chicago’s Vineet Arora wrote: “Because the ‘doc fix’ costs so much, it was removed from the calculation of the cost of the health reform bill to make it more likely that the [ACA] will pass.”
Former Associate Director of the White House Office of Management and Budget James Capretta wrote “While pushing ACA through Congress, President Obama ... proposed to add [the SGR “doc fix”] to the national debt, but he did not want those costs to count against [the] ACA, because they would explode the myth of deficit reduction. So his solution was to pass the “doc fix” in separate legislation. ...the President’s total bill for health care, with an unfinanced [SGR] “doc fix” shows deficits, not deficit reduction.”
In my view, “Obamacare” is a package of legislation, not just the ACA as has been widely publicized.
A March 2010 letter from the CBO to House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, Obamacare legislation including the ACA disclosed “enacting all three pieces of legislation would add $59 billion to budget deficits over the 2010–2019 period”. Mr. Ryan hasn’t said much about the issue since. According to opensecrets.org, Ryan’s career to date health industry contributions total $1,636,911.
The health and insurance industry’s large political campaign contribution track record correlates to taxpayer funded subsidized healthcare having the highest price inflation of any sector of the economy since 2000.
December 9, 2010’s SGR “doc-Fix” altered ACA subsidy formulas. If the SGR cut scheduled for April 1, 2014 doesn’t occur, at least $140.4 billion of Obamacare’s expected 10-year deficit reduction math looks to be in jeopardy, as Medicaid payment levels are tied to some Medicare reimbursements and correlated to private health care premiums.
My understanding of CBO rules, is if the SGR repeal becomes permanent, the $140.4 billion then counts as deficit increasing, as opposed to its current state of legal limbo, under which the CBO doesn’t have to score the SGR as a deficit expense. The CBO did not reply to inquiries for comment.
I believe the ACA was passed without fixing what’s broken, but preserved the worst of it, making our fiscal situation even more precarious without public disclosure.
It feels like America’s health and insurance industries don’t maintain high profit margins by providing superior care and/or medicine, but by financing the political process with wealth transferred from patients and taxpayers.
In my view, many Democrats are just as guilty as some Republicans for allowing our health care system to become what appears to be a skimming operation. Some campaign contributions look like legal forms of extortion on the part of elected officials via the SGR “doc fix” among other extensions, as some healthcare and insurance industry donors appear to legally bribe legislators in exchange for artificially inflated taxpayer-funded profit.
http://npaper-wehaa.com/yes-weekly#2014/03/26/?article=2186021
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My last 4 Yes Weekly Articles
ON CRONY CAPITALISM IN GREENSBORO
http://www.yesweekly.com/triad/article-17291-on-crony-capitalism-in-greensboro.html
PAY TO GET PAID AND THE CITY OF GREENSBORO
http://www.yesweekly.com/triad/article-17258-pay-to-get-paid-and-the-city-of-greensboro.html
ON THE STEVEN TANGER PERFORMING ARTS CENTER (GPAC)
http://www.yesweekly.com/triad/article-17227-on-the-steven-tanger-performing-arts-center-(gpac).html
ON GREENSBORO’S CIVIL RIGHTS MUSEUM
http://www.yesweekly.com/triad/article-17199-on-greensbororss-civil-rights-museum.html
Showing posts with label Medicare. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Medicare. Show all posts
3/26/14
3/11/14
Richard W. Fisher of the Dallas Federal Reserve and Charles Hugh Smith on how much America has promised more than can be provided
The entire notion of entitlements based on age
requires an ever-expanding population of working contributors
and an ever-expanding economy.
If either condition isn't met, then the programs fail.
Fisher's message is clear:
our entitlement programs will fail because there is no way to raise $100 trillion
in additional taxes in a declining economy.
Charles Hugh Smith
"Please sit tight while I walk you through the math of Medicare.
...The infinite-horizon present discounted value of the unfunded liability for Medicare A
is $34.4 trillion.
The unfunded liability of Medicare B is an additional $34 trillion.
The shortfall for Medicare D adds another $17.2 trillion.
...If you wanted to cover the unfunded liability of all three programs today,
you would be stuck with an $85.6 trillion bill.
That is more than six times as large as the bill for Social Security.
It is more than six times the annual output of the entire U.S. economy.
I want to remind you
that I am only talking about the unfunded portions of Social Security and Medicare.
It is what the current payment scheme of Social Security payroll taxes,
Medicare payroll taxes, membership fees for Medicare B, copays, deductibles
and all other revenue currently channeled to our entitlement system
will not cover under current rules.
These existing revenue streams must remain in place in perpetuity
to handle the “funded” entitlement liabilities.
Reduce or eliminate this income and the unfunded liability grows.
Increase benefits and the liability grows as well.
To solve the entitlement deficit problem,
discretionary spending would have to be reduced by 97 percent
not only for our generation, but for our children and their children
and every generation of children to come.
And similarly on the taxation side,
income tax revenue would have to rise 68 percent
and remain that high forever.
...For the existing unfunded liabilities to be covered in the end,
someone must pay $99.2 trillion more or receive $99.2 trillion less
than they have been currently promised.
This is a cold, hard fact."
Richard W. Fisher
Dallas Federal Reserve
$100 trillion in unfunded liabilities is the number now,
but if spending continues rising at triple the rate of the real economy,
then that number will only grow.
If we're honest about our accounting,
then the U.S. economy hasn't grown at all since 2008; it's shrunk by $6 trillion,
a sum we have masked by borrowing and spending $6 trillion in Federal debt,
money that replaced the decline of private borrowing and spending.
...We need a national conversation about reality, not wishful thinking.
We need to grasp the nettle and talk about triage,
about conserving Social Security for those with no other sources of income,
and about devoting our scarce resources for palliative and preventive care.
The Status Quo is completely, utterly unsustainable,
but that needn't bring the nation to its knees--unless we actively insist that it does so.
2/5/12
A profound truth on actual tax rates, by Michael Kinsley
"It’s really impossible to defend a system
where people at the bottom pay 30 percent or 35 percent
(including Social Security and Medicare taxes)
while people at the top who’ve arranged their affairs correctly
-- not all that hard -- pay 15 percent, as Romney did last year."
Michael Kinsley
where people at the bottom pay 30 percent or 35 percent
(including Social Security and Medicare taxes)
while people at the top who’ve arranged their affairs correctly
-- not all that hard -- pay 15 percent, as Romney did last year."
Michael Kinsley
1/25/12
Dear Cone Health: Free drug price comparison app debuts
"A new and free app
...lets you compare local prescription and generic drug prices.
...lets you compare local prescription and generic drug prices.
Does Cone Health compare prices?
1/17/12
Healthcare Ethics: "The anatomy of a ripoff": If Ed Cone is on the board of Cone Health, and Jim Melvin thinks the merger is a great idea, how do they feel about this?
"...my teenage son was rushed by ambulance
...to Good Samaritan Hospital in Suffern after choking on a piece of turkey.
The care he received was appropriate; the bill was anything but.
The charges, in fact, were mind-boggling.
A statement the hospital sent to my insurance company
...showed that Good Samaritan billed $22,214.92
for a four-hour emergency room visit that included a physical exam,
sedation, endoscopy and extraction of the stuck food.
...it’s easy to think that he was seen less as a patient
and more as an ambulatory cash machine...
Even more astonishing, Aetna agreed to pay only $2,885.67 for the services
— just 13% of the bill — and the hospital settled for that amount.
...my son had a second choking episode two weeks after the first,
and the charges for his treatment at Somerset Hospital in Pennsylvania
were included on the same ...statement.
So I was able to compare bills for similar procedures at two emergency rooms.
What I learned was that the numbers printed on hospital bills
often bear no relation to reality.
That hospitals grossly inflate their charges,
expecting insurance companies to radically cut the bills
while hoping to wring bigger fees out of the uninsured.
That the bill inflation can include double-charging for procedures.
...to Good Samaritan Hospital in Suffern after choking on a piece of turkey.
The care he received was appropriate; the bill was anything but.
The charges, in fact, were mind-boggling.
A statement the hospital sent to my insurance company
...showed that Good Samaritan billed $22,214.92
for a four-hour emergency room visit that included a physical exam,
sedation, endoscopy and extraction of the stuck food.
...it’s easy to think that he was seen less as a patient
and more as an ambulatory cash machine...
We must tear down the entire medical system in this nation
and imprison virtually all of the financial folks involved in it
-- especially Hospital-affiliated entities.
Karl
Even more astonishing, Aetna agreed to pay only $2,885.67 for the services
— just 13% of the bill — and the hospital settled for that amount.
...my son had a second choking episode two weeks after the first,
and the charges for his treatment at Somerset Hospital in Pennsylvania
were included on the same ...statement.
So I was able to compare bills for similar procedures at two emergency rooms.
What I learned was that the numbers printed on hospital bills
often bear no relation to reality.
That hospitals grossly inflate their charges,
expecting insurance companies to radically cut the bills
while hoping to wring bigger fees out of the uninsured.
That the bill inflation can include double-charging for procedures.
This sort of game-playing, where the intent is to catch "uninsured" people
and "gotcha" them into bankruptcy,
would be felonious in virtually any other line of business.
Karl
12/8/11
"America’s most serious budgetary problem is Medicare"
"Its spending has been growing faster than the economy for years, a key reason why total US health spending as a share of gross domestic product is double that of countries such as the UK.
Back in 1997 Republicans and Democrats joined together to implement a programme that would permanently restrain the growth of Medicare spending.
...as soon as it began to bite in 2003, Congress intervened to prevent doctors’ fees from being cut. It has continued to do so every year since. This annual exercise is known in Washington as the “doc-fix”.
But the original law remains in force. If it were simply allowed to take effect without congressional interference, payment to doctors for Medicare services would be cut by 30 per cent on January 1.
...if Congress would just rebase the SGR formula to this year, and allow it to operate from now on, it would save about $300bn over the next 10 years, plus another $50bn in debt service.
...a tax provision called “the alternative minimum tax” ...has also been subject to an annual congressional fix to keep it from affecting too many taxpayers.
...The so-called Bush tax cuts are now scheduled to expire at the end of next year. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that allowing them to expire on schedule, as well as foregoing another minimum tax fix, will raise revenues by almost $4,000bn through to 2021, plus saving almost $700bn in debt service.
...the joint select committee on deficit reduction announced that it could not agree on a viable alternative, thus leaving in place a $1,200bn spending cut beginning in 2013.
Thus we see that laws already in force would reduce projected deficits by approximately $5,500bn over the next 10 years, plus another $1,000bn in debt service savings.
...neither Congress nor the White House has shown any inclination to allow the laws on the books to take effect.
...no new laws are needed to get the US on a stable fiscal course."
Bruce Bartlett
Treasury department and White House official
Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations
Back in 1997 Republicans and Democrats joined together to implement a programme that would permanently restrain the growth of Medicare spending.
...as soon as it began to bite in 2003, Congress intervened to prevent doctors’ fees from being cut. It has continued to do so every year since. This annual exercise is known in Washington as the “doc-fix”.
But the original law remains in force. If it were simply allowed to take effect without congressional interference, payment to doctors for Medicare services would be cut by 30 per cent on January 1.
...if Congress would just rebase the SGR formula to this year, and allow it to operate from now on, it would save about $300bn over the next 10 years, plus another $50bn in debt service.
...a tax provision called “the alternative minimum tax” ...has also been subject to an annual congressional fix to keep it from affecting too many taxpayers.
...The so-called Bush tax cuts are now scheduled to expire at the end of next year. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that allowing them to expire on schedule, as well as foregoing another minimum tax fix, will raise revenues by almost $4,000bn through to 2021, plus saving almost $700bn in debt service.
...the joint select committee on deficit reduction announced that it could not agree on a viable alternative, thus leaving in place a $1,200bn spending cut beginning in 2013.
Thus we see that laws already in force would reduce projected deficits by approximately $5,500bn over the next 10 years, plus another $1,000bn in debt service savings.
...neither Congress nor the White House has shown any inclination to allow the laws on the books to take effect.
...no new laws are needed to get the US on a stable fiscal course."
Bruce Bartlett
Treasury department and White House official
Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations
6/27/11
"Obama, Democrats, Republicans AND Bernanke All in a Bind – What they will do and when" Bruce Krasting: Would this be a hidden tax hike by both Dems and Pubs?
"We have two distinct groups in D.C. that are stuck between a very big rock and a hard place.
The first is the Federal Reserve.
The second is the Democrats and Republicans and the battle being waged over the debt limit.
...The Fed is in a bind.
The economy is clearly slowing down again.
Unemployment will soon follow.
According to the Fed’s Dual Mandate they should be doing something about that.
...They can’t do more Large Scale Asset Purchases (“LSAP”).
What has become referred to as “QE”, has not worked.
It was also very unpopular (both in and out of the country).
...Now consider where the politicians are on the inflation story.
Republicans have drawn a line in the sand on the debt limit with their position
of “No New Taxes”.
The Democrats have said pretty much the opposite with, “No spending cuts”.
...to go to August 2 without a resolution is just a dumb move.
...the next presidential election is riding on the outcome.
...The “side” that gets the blame will lose the election. And both sides understand this.
So where’s the compromise?
...The government has got to get out of its inflation indexed obligations.
You don’t have to raise tax brackets to raise revenues or cut expenses.
You can mess with inflation adjustments to achieve these ends.
Both sides can appear to win if this is accomplished.
Consider the words last week of Brian Graff of ASPPA (Lobby for pensions and actuaries)
(The conference was sponsored by the IRS!!)
"Eliminating indexing is one of the proposals receiving serious consideration
as Congress enters “uncharted territory” with legislation to raise the debt ceiling.
If Congress were to stop indexing for a period of time, which would affect tax brackets,
individual retirement account contributions, and contribution limits under tax code Section 415,
“you could raise a lot of money, and those are the kinds of things they are talking about.”
On the expense side of the equation a great deal of fat can be cut
by eliminating/cutting COLA increases in a variety of programs.
The most important of which would be Social Security.
Depending on how the cuts in COLA are defined and how they are applied
a huge amount of money would be saved over an extended period.
If all social obligations had their COLA increases cut in half
it would (on paper) put the US on a much more solid long-term footing.
It is a very appealing “kick the can down the road” approach.
No cuts in programs (just smaller increases) and no new taxes
(but higher revenue as the inflation adjustments for AMT and other tax issues kick in).
...this is the way it could play out:
We DO go to the 11th hour on the debt limit. But a compromised is reached.
Central to the deal is a broad restructuring
of the way inflation impacts both revenue and expenses at the federal level.
Both sides claim victory."
Bruce Krasting
Do the few who control dissemination of most financial and political information,
enjoy relatively disproportionate levels of influence than the many who don’t?
All warfare is based on deception.
…when able to attack we must seem unable,
when using our forces we must seem inactive,
when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far…,
when far away, we must make him believe we are near.
Sun Tzu
The first is the Federal Reserve.
The second is the Democrats and Republicans and the battle being waged over the debt limit.
...The Fed is in a bind.
The economy is clearly slowing down again.
Unemployment will soon follow.
According to the Fed’s Dual Mandate they should be doing something about that.
...They can’t do more Large Scale Asset Purchases (“LSAP”).
What has become referred to as “QE”, has not worked.
It was also very unpopular (both in and out of the country).
...Now consider where the politicians are on the inflation story.
Republicans have drawn a line in the sand on the debt limit with their position
of “No New Taxes”.
If we cannot raise taxation and we are spending more than we make,
and we cannot borrow more,
where will the money come from to pay for Social Security, Medicare
and Medicaid?
The Democrats have said pretty much the opposite with, “No spending cuts”.
...to go to August 2 without a resolution is just a dumb move.
...the next presidential election is riding on the outcome.
...The “side” that gets the blame will lose the election. And both sides understand this.
So where’s the compromise?
...The government has got to get out of its inflation indexed obligations.
If everything gets more expensive and fixed payments stay the same,
who takes the hit, and who benefits from others having less to spend?
You don’t have to raise tax brackets to raise revenues or cut expenses.
You can mess with inflation adjustments to achieve these ends.
Lying by omission
One lies by omission by omitting an important fact,
deliberately leaving another person with a misconception.
Lying by omission includes failures to correct pre-existing misconceptions.
…Propaganda is an example of lying by omission.
Wikipedia
Both sides can appear to win if this is accomplished.
Consider the words last week of Brian Graff of ASPPA (Lobby for pensions and actuaries)
(The conference was sponsored by the IRS!!)
"Eliminating indexing is one of the proposals receiving serious consideration
as Congress enters “uncharted territory” with legislation to raise the debt ceiling.
If Congress were to stop indexing for a period of time, which would affect tax brackets,
individual retirement account contributions, and contribution limits under tax code Section 415,
“you could raise a lot of money, and those are the kinds of things they are talking about.”
On the expense side of the equation a great deal of fat can be cut
by eliminating/cutting COLA increases in a variety of programs.
The most important of which would be Social Security.
Depending on how the cuts in COLA are defined and how they are applied
a huge amount of money would be saved over an extended period.
If all social obligations had their COLA increases cut in half
it would (on paper) put the US on a much more solid long-term footing.
If some financial estimates and hypothetical illustrations
assume perpetual levels of varying data,
can governmental inflation valuation measures be manipulated
to increase taxes without most understanding what is occuring?
It is a very appealing “kick the can down the road” approach.
No cuts in programs (just smaller increases) and no new taxes
(but higher revenue as the inflation adjustments for AMT and other tax issues kick in).
Why not do the same with federal state and corporate pension funds?
...this is the way it could play out:
We DO go to the 11th hour on the debt limit. But a compromised is reached.
Central to the deal is a broad restructuring
of the way inflation impacts both revenue and expenses at the federal level.
Both sides claim victory."
Bruce Krasting
The Ministry of Peace concerns itself with war,
the Ministry of Truth with lies, the Ministry of Love with torture,
and the Ministry of Plenty with starvation.
These contradictions are not accidental, nor do they result from ordinary hypocrisy.
They are deliberate exercises in doublethink.
George Orwell
Do the few who control dissemination of most financial and political information,
enjoy relatively disproportionate levels of influence than the many who don’t?
“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.”
Exodus 20:13
All warfare is based on deception.
…when able to attack we must seem unable,
when using our forces we must seem inactive,
when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far…,
when far away, we must make him believe we are near.
Sun Tzu
12/14/10
Medicare Accounting Ripoff?
"Senate Democrats and Republicans agreed on -- and passed by a vote of 99-0 -- a one-year extension of the so-called "doctor fix" for Medicare.
The result is almost certainly going to mean higher deficits and more debt piled on the backs of our children.
the Obama administration and congressional Democrats made matters worse by including the "savings" from that 23 percent cut in the cost estimates for the ObamaCare law. This allowed them to pretend that the reform cost less than $1 trillion over its first 10 years...
...Now, faced with having the cuts kick in on Jan. 1, Congress, unsurprisingly, has once again voted to postpone them for a year, at a cost of $15 billion.
But wait. Congress found a way to pay for it: It voted to reduce subsidies under the president's health reforms -- in 2014.
That's right. Congress will spend the money next year, but you needn't worry because it will reduce subsidies four years from now.
...So, four years from now...Congress will use that repayment to repay the money it borrowed to spend this year to avoid making cuts in a program that is trillions of dollars in debt.
Feeling better now?
If November's election meant anything, it was that the American people were fed up with business as usual in Washington.
If this latest Senate deal tells us anything, it's that business as usual is alive and well."
Michael Tanner
The result is almost certainly going to mean higher deficits and more debt piled on the backs of our children.
the Obama administration and congressional Democrats made matters worse by including the "savings" from that 23 percent cut in the cost estimates for the ObamaCare law. This allowed them to pretend that the reform cost less than $1 trillion over its first 10 years...
...Now, faced with having the cuts kick in on Jan. 1, Congress, unsurprisingly, has once again voted to postpone them for a year, at a cost of $15 billion.
But wait. Congress found a way to pay for it: It voted to reduce subsidies under the president's health reforms -- in 2014.
That's right. Congress will spend the money next year, but you needn't worry because it will reduce subsidies four years from now.
...So, four years from now...Congress will use that repayment to repay the money it borrowed to spend this year to avoid making cuts in a program that is trillions of dollars in debt.
Feeling better now?
If November's election meant anything, it was that the American people were fed up with business as usual in Washington.
If this latest Senate deal tells us anything, it's that business as usual is alive and well."
Michael Tanner
11/18/10
Diana Furchtgott-Roth, Former Chief Economist at the U.S. Department of Labor, on Medicare Cuts
...on Dec. 1 all Medicare physicians will face a 23 percent cut in rates, postponed from June.
Reimbursements will decline an additional 2 percent in January.
...To create the appearance, if not the reality, of fiscal discipline in the new health care law,
Congress assumed $455 billion of Medicare and Medicaid cuts
— 73 percent of them in Medicare —
over 10 years, and thereafter 10 percent to 15 percent of annual cuts.
So, physicians’ reimbursements affect not only doctors and seniors and Medicare’s price tag,
but also the cost of the new, national health-care plan.
Freeing Medicare physicians from future cuts could cost $250 billion to $400 billion over 10 years,
depending on how much the government allows doctors’ payments to rise.
San Francisco Examiner columnist Diana Furchtgott-Roth
Former Chief Economist at the U.S. Department of Labor
Reimbursements will decline an additional 2 percent in January.
...To create the appearance, if not the reality, of fiscal discipline in the new health care law,
Congress assumed $455 billion of Medicare and Medicaid cuts
— 73 percent of them in Medicare —
over 10 years, and thereafter 10 percent to 15 percent of annual cuts.
So, physicians’ reimbursements affect not only doctors and seniors and Medicare’s price tag,
but also the cost of the new, national health-care plan.
Freeing Medicare physicians from future cuts could cost $250 billion to $400 billion over 10 years,
depending on how much the government allows doctors’ payments to rise.
San Francisco Examiner columnist Diana Furchtgott-Roth
Former Chief Economist at the U.S. Department of Labor
If Medicare Cuts
are part of what makes the recently passed Healthcare Legislation “deficit reducing,”
and a 23% cut is not enacted in December,
how could those who voted for the legislation
be considered not guilty of misleeding the electorate?
8/5/10
Medicare Accounting Facade?
Trustees: Medicare hospital fund extended 12 years
The annual checkup of the government's big benefit programs for the elderly show that the Obama administration's sweeping health care overhaul will extend the life of the Medicare hospital insurance fund by 12 years.
...That improvement was credited to the cost savings that will occur with the passage earlier this year of health care reform.
The report noted that achieving the health care savings needed to extend the life of the Medicare trust fund "may prove difficult and will probably require that payment and health care delivery systems be made more efficient than they are currently."
...Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, another trustee, told reporters that the trustees assumed current law in making their projections, including a cut in doctor's Medicare payments of 23 percent starting in December.
Congress has for years voted to put more money in the Medicare program to keep such sharp cuts in doctor's payments from occurring.
...An April 22 analysis pointed out that the projected gain of 12 years of additional solvency for Medicare, a figure that was also used in the health care debate, was largely an "appearance," stemming from how Medicare cuts are handled under federal accounting rules. Under the law, savings from those cuts will be used to finance coverage for the uninsured.
"In practice, the improved (Medicare) financing cannot be simultaneously used to finance other federal outlays (such as the coverage expansions) and to extend the trust fund, despite the appearance of this result from the respective accounting conventions," the report said.
A companion report concluded that some of the $575 billion in Medicare savings over 10 years "may be unrealistic" because future Congresses could be pressured to roll back cuts to providers in the health care law.
Ricardo Alsonso-zaldivar and Martin Crutsinger
Associated Press
2/19/10
Does America’s healthcare industry maintain high profit margins by providing superior care and/or medicine, or by financing the political process with profits provided by patients?
You shall do no unrighteousness in judgment
in length, in weight or in measure.Leviticus 19:35
Premiums jump 14 percent on Medicare private plans
Millions of seniors who signed up for popular private health plans through Medicare are facing sharp premium increases this year…
…premiums for Medicare Advantage plans offering medical and prescription drug coverage jumped 14.2 percent on average in 2010, after an increase of only 5.2 percent the previous year. Some 8.5 million elderly and disabled Americans are in the plans…
…Private fee-for-service plans, which offer a broad choice of doctors and hospitals, saw increases averaging 31.2 percent…
...Seniors who did not shop around for lower-priced coverage during open enrollment in the fall got hit with some of the biggest increases, averaging 22 percent…
…higher Medicare Advantage premiums for 2010 followed a cut in government payments to the private plans last year.
… bills pending in Congress call for even more cuts, expected to force many seniors to drop out of what has been a rapidly growing alternative to traditional Medicare.
RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR
Associated Press
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