Medicare bill fails to pass SO CALL !!!!

[GassiusClay]

The bill to stop Medicare cuts from happening this July has been stopped due to lack of necessary votes. I believe it had to be at least 60.

Too much partisan politics. Contact your US senators and representatives to support NO cuts starting July 1.

This is for every medical student to attending in this country. A measly 10 minutes will help to stop the idiocracy going on. 10 minutes is all you need to get connected to the offices and support S 3101, HR2053/S2056, and HR 2260. Meanwhile, support changes to block non-docs acting like docs.

PLEASE CALL NOW AND OFTEN. YOU MATTER WHEN THEY THINK YOU CARE AND WILL VOTE FOR THEM. Politics is dirty and so every bleeding heart physician has to vote for themselves over everyone else. You will be thrown to the curb if you don't care. Don't listen to the old docs who know nothing about today's medicine in politics. M1s will even be affected by this.

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[deleted128562]

The bill to stop Medicare cuts from happening this July has been stopped due to lack of necessary votes. I believe it had to be at least 60.

Too much partisan politics. Contact your US senators and representatives to support NO cuts starting July 1.

This is for every medical student to attending in this country. A measly 10 minutes will help to stop the idiocracy going on. 10 minutes is all you need to get connected to the offices and support S 3101, HR2053/S2056, and HR 2260. Meanwhile, support changes to block non-docs acting like docs.

PLEASE CALL NOW AND OFTEN. YOU MATTER WHEN THEY THINK YOU CARE AND WILL VOTE FOR THEM. Politics is dirty and so every bleeding heart physician has to vote for themselves over everyone else. You will be thrown to the curb if you don't care. Don't listen to the old docs who know nothing about today's medicine in politics. M1s will even be affected by this.

My dad says he's really glad I want to go into medicine. That way there will be at least one doctor still willing to treat him and my mom when they're over 65.

 

[igotshoe]

paying for someone elses healthcare....i don't think i want to do that.

 

[Dirt]

paying for someone elses healthcare....i don't think i want to do that.

Good for you. What does that have to do with trying to pass a bill preventing cuts to reimbursement from medicare?

 

[psy]

paying for someone elses healthcare....i don't think i want to do that.

Do you have health insurance? If you do then this will affect you. If medicare rates get cut by 10 percent health insurance reimbursement will decrease the same amount. That means you will have to pay more in copay or any extra amount to cover the expense gap. So it's not really paying for another person's health care...this is paying for YOUR health care.

 

[skee lo]

let them cut it. matters not to i

 

[Sol Rosenberg]

Do you have health insurance? If you do then this will affect you. If medicare rates get cut by 10 percent health insurance reimbursement will decrease the same amount. That means you will have to pay more in copay or any extra amount to cover the expense gap. So it's not really paying for another person's health care...this is paying for YOUR health care.

Uh, no. The doctors take it in the shorts and the insurance companies see the savings. There is no difference to the patient -- he/she pays the same copay, but the "contracted amount" that is paid from the insurance company to the doctor is decreased. Don't expect the general public to care one iota about this....

 

[futuredo32]

Uh, no. The doctors take it in the shorts and the insurance companies see the savings. There is no difference to the patient -- he/she pays the same copay, but the "contracted amount" that is paid from the insurance company to the doctor is decreased. Don't expect the general public to care one iota about this....

Fewer physicians will be willing to accept Medicare. Senior citizens will have a difficult time finding a physician to treat them. Seniors care. Children with parents over 65 care.

 

[Sol Rosenberg]

Fewer physicians will be willing to accept Medicare. Senior citizens will have a difficult time finding a physician to treat them. Seniors care. Children with parents over 65 care.

Maybe so, but the previous assertion was that copays would go up. I doubt that that will happen as a result of this round of cuts.

 

[southerndoc]

Here's hoping that every physician in America stops accepting Medicare patients. It's sad that I have to say that considering I'm a believer in universal healthcare coverage for all, but there comes a point where seeing patients at such a low reimbursement rate isn't capable of sustaining all the overhead involved with a practice. What's sad is that HMO's usually follow what Medicare does, so if we don't take a stand the HMO's will be cutting their reimbursement rates as well. Balance billing is illegal, so the only option is to stop taking Medicare patients.

 

[futuredo32]

Here's hoping that every physician in America stops accepting Medicare patients. It's sad that I have to say that considering I'm a believer in universal healthcare coverage for all, but there comes a point where seeing patients at such a low reimbursement rate isn't capable of sustaining all the overhead involved with a practice. What's sad is that HMO's usually follow what Medicare does, so if we don't take a stand the HMO's will be cutting their reimbursement rates as well. Balance billing is illegal, so the only option is to stop taking Medicare patients.

Not to get too off topic, but I have a question about your post. Medicare isn't reimbursing physicians enough. What would make you think that universal health coverage would be any different for physicians?

The government doesn't seem to notice or care that people with government funded health insurance (Medicaid, Medicare, Romneycare) are having trouble finding healthcare providers. The legislators just pat themselves on the back for making sure that less people are uninsured. It doesn't matter that those people can't find care, they have insurance.

 

[Faebinder]

I disagree with stopping medicare cuts. let them cut and cut and cut and cut till no doctor wants to take medicare. Watch the aftermath.

 

[southerndoc]

Not to get too off topic, but I have a question about your post. Medicare isn't reimbursing physicians enough. What would make you think that universal health coverage would be any different for physicians?

The government doesn't seem to notice or care that people with government funded health insurance (Medicaid, Medicare, Romneycare) are having trouble finding healthcare providers. The legislators just pat themselves on the back for making sure that less people are uninsured. It doesn't matter that those people can't find care, they have insurance.

The difference would be that overhead by the universal insurer would need to be reduced. This is key to a single payer system surviving.

 

[futuredo32]

The difference would be that overhead by the universal insurer would need to be reduced. This is key to a single payer system surviving.

You're far more optimistic than I am about how universal healthcare would impact healthcare providers and patients. Our government provides unrealistic reimbursement to physicians caring for patients receiving VA healthcare, Medicaid , and now Medicare patients and these patients receive craptastic care.

I really hope that they reverse the cut to Medicare, and soon.

 

[southerndoc]

You're far more optimistic than I am about how universal healthcare would impact healthcare providers and patients. Our government provides unrealistic reimbursement to physicians caring for patients receiving VA healthcare, Medicaid , and now Medicare patients and these patients receive craptastic care.

I really hope that they reverse the cut to Medicare, and soon.

Nobody said the single payer system had to be a government system. A non-profit company could administer the plans.

Regardless, this is a topic for another day.

 

[futuredo32]

According to the noon news, the cut to Medicare has been "frozen" (won't take place just yet) until after the legislators return from their vacation. Maybe there's hope.

 

[futuredo32]

Congress overrides Bush Medicare veto
The House and Senate reject the presidential veto of a bill to halt doctors' Medicare payment cuts.
Last Updated: July 15, 2008: 6:55 PM EDT
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Both houses of Congress voted Tuesday to halt planned cuts in Medicare payments to doctors, overriding a veto by President Bush for the third time of his presidency.

The 70-26 vote in the Senate was a much narrower margin than in the House of Representatives, where the vote was 383-41. Each chamber needs a two-thirds majority to pass a law over the president's objections.

The new law stops a 10.6% cut in Medicare payments to doctors, part of a scheduled cost-saving formula that went into effect July 1. The money for the doctors will be taken from the Medicare Advantage program, which subsidizes private insurers to cover seniors who would otherwise be treated through conventional Medicare.

Congress previously had passed only two bills over Bush's objections - a $23 billion water-project legislation that the president vetoed in 2007, and a $300 billion farm bill he spiked in May.

http://cnnmoney.printthis.clickabil...e_bill/?postversion=2008071518&partnerID=2200