Budget fight on health care cuts just beginning

[cali]

By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR, Associated Press – 1 hour ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — When it comes to Medicare and Medicaid, the debt deal raises more questions than it answers.

The giant health care programs serving some 100 million elderly, low-income and disabled Americans were spared from the first round of cuts in the agreement between President Barack Obama and congressional leaders. But everything's on the chopping block for a powerful new congressional committee that will be created under the deal to scour the budget for savings.

And if that hunt leads to a dead end, the agreement decrees an automatic 2 percent cut to Medicare providers such as hospitals. That's on top of a 6 percent cut already enacted to finance Obama's health care law, which is just being phased in.

"The story isn't over," said Joe Baker, president of the Medicare Rights Center, a New York-based advocacy group. "The future of the programs really hangs in the balance. It could lead to deep cuts and irreversible changes to Medicare and Medicaid that shift costs to beneficiaries."

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http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hB1BYAzoBGSIimr6mwrpbwm3steQ?docId=986070e538ae4e34999ff0e15ab9209e

[indurancevile]

1. death by a thousand cuts. cut it outright, cut providers so they'll opt out,

increase paperwork requirements, institute "race to the top" type competition as a way to deny funding --

they're criminal liars. they're killing people.

i believe they're getting direction from bill frist's (hospital corp of america) think tank. hca being the institution that ripped off more money from medicare than any other. why that bastard still walks the streets i don't understand.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bipartisan_Policy_Center

"bipartisan policy center". i'm sick of bipartisan rape & pillage.

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. I'd like to know what the details of "cuts to Medicare providers" are

I presume, since it's 'triggered', then it is already specified exactly in the bill, rather than being up for future negotiation. How much of that is hospitals, how much is drug companies, and how much other things? If the savings came from Medicare actually negotiating lower prices for drugs, it'd be a good thing. The details are important, but I don't see them reported.