Here's where the White House says it will be saving $309 billion from Medicare and Medicaid (exactly how is not specified. Buying fewer paper gowns?)
This CNN piece has more. The White House says they'd like to cut $110 billion from scheduled increases in Medicare payments. This will "encourage health care providers to increase productivity."
Okay, but what about the proposed legislation from the Senate and the House? Medicare cuts are there, too. The House plan calls for $472.8 bilion in Medicare cuts over the next 10 years. The Senate finance committee ("Baucus bill") calls for $377 billion in Medicare cuts. (A
source for more info).
There are three potential things a person can believe regarding this issue:
A)
Medicare is a wasteful program and can easily absorb these cuts. We know that low medicare reimbursement rates are already impacting the quality of care for some people. But, to those who believe that Medicare is loaded with fat and able to absorb these giant cuts, I would ask why we are considering handing over
more responsibility for US health care to the federal government if they can't fix the waste and insure adequate delivery of services in the government-run health care program that is already in place. If these cuts are possible and prudent now, then the administration should be making them regardless of the other health care reform issues.
B)
Medicare is not wasteful, but these cuts will be made anyway. Seems to me that this would give anyone destined to be a Medicare recipient (e.g. almost any US citizen who will ever be older than 65) real reason to oppose this legislation.
C)
These cuts are just being included as window dressing to lower the sticker shock of the proposed legislation, the cuts will never be made. History supports this view. The Senate leadership is trying to stop Medicare reimbursement cuts scheduled for
this year, why should anyone believe cuts will be made for many successive years as called for in the legislation? Medical care costs are escalating, there's no way these cuts will occur. So, let's be realistic and put the true price tag on this legislation--it won't be paid for by cuts in Medicare. Let's see the real cost without the phony Medicare cuts and
with the true (giant) costs of the federal subsidies to individuals once employers stop providing insurance. Then we can have an honest national discussion on health care and health care costs.