Report: Health bill would reduce senior care

A plan to slash more than $500 billion from future Medicare spending — one of the biggest sources of funding for President Obama's proposed overhaul of the nation's health-care system — would sharply reduce benefits for some senior citizens and could jeopardize access to care for millions of others, according to a government evaluation released Saturday.

www.msnbc.msn.com...

Backed by the AARP, let me remind you. It sounds like either someone at AARP didn't bother to read the bill or is ready to throw lots of their constituents under the bus just to make a profit.

And the source is the Washingpost, published on MSNBC for those of you inclined to scream that this is just selective journalism.

If you support this health care bill then clearly you don't give a damn about the senior citizens that this bill will affect.

[edit on 15-11-2009 by sos37]

reply to post by sos37



And clearly you don't know what you are talking about. Here go to this website and check your "facts"

www.politifact.com...
www.factcheck.org...

reply to post by December_Rain


Oh I don't, huh? Clearly you didn't even bother to read the article, so let me highlight the important parts in response to your knee-jerk reaction.

* The report comes from Richard S. Foster from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. It was requested by House Republicans, because they are the primary group standing up to the bill Nancy Pelosi is trying to ram down people's throats.

* The report concludes that Medicare (care going to senior citizens) cuts contained in the CURRENT health care package are likely to prove "so costly to hospitals and nursing homes that they could STOP TAKING MEDICARE ALTOGETHER."

* The report questions whether the nation's network of doctors and hospitals "would be able to cope with the effects of a reform package expected to add more than 30 million people to the ranks of the insured, many of them through Medicaid, the public health program for the poor."

What the report alludes to there is in the light of increased demand for services, providers are very likely to charge HIGHER fees or cherry pick patients that they will see which will be the ones with the highest paying insurance OVER MEDICARE RECIPIENTS. That would make the situation even as it is right now much worse.

* Again, this is a Washington Post column. And it states "The report offers the clearest and most authoritative assessment to date of the effect that Democratic health reform proposals would have on Medicare and Medicaid, the nation's largest public health programs."

So if you're going to challenge the story and the content then next time I expect you to come back with something that actually addresses the conclusions made in the story. Your knee-jerk response only serves to make YOU look foolish, sir.

[edit on 15-11-2009 by sos37]