So...is this good news?

[anesguy]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100612/ap_on_bi_ge/us_obama_medicare_5

Opinions? Isn't this great news?

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[Noyac]

Well it's not bad news. And lately, there has been only a sea or better yet a gulf of bad news.

 

[scoobydum]

Noyac's right. It's certainly not bad news, but it may just be more of the same rhetoric: lots of talk, but no action.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100612/ap_on_bi_ge/us_obama_medicare_5

Opinions? Isn't this great news?

 

[Chloroform4Life]

I'm kinda hopeful as well, but if you read the article, it says

"absolutely willing to take the difficult steps necessary to lower the cost of Medicare and put our budget on a more [COLOR=#366388 ! important][COLOR=#366388 ! important]fiscally [COLOR=#366388 ! important]sustainable [/COLOR][COLOR=#366388 ! important]path[/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR]. But I'm not willing to do that by punishing hardworking physicians or the millions of Americans who count on Medicare."

I wonder, how is he going lower the cost of medicare if more and more baby boomers enter the medicare age bracket. Something has to be cut.

 

[Narcotized]

I hate to be the killjoy, but I'm a firm believer in being a nonhypocritical objective thinker. Medicare is nothing but another government subsidy that has the country on track for ruin. We basically don't deserve any of this money. It's another in a long line of left wing handouts to the public. The problem is the entire profession has grown dependent on it, and once you go down the road of screwing with the markets, it's very hard to undo all of the damage.

You'll never see me cry about government cutting our Medicare. You can't cry about wasteful spending on welfare, social security, mortgage bailouts, AIG, etc and then kick and scream because they cut back our special interest. I don't expect this to make me popular around here, but I am consistent.

 

[pgg]

I hate to be the killjoy, but I'm a firm believer in being a nonhypocritical objective thinker. Medicare is nothing but another government subsidy that has the country on track for ruin. We basically don't deserve any of this money. It's another in a long line of left wing handouts to the public. The problem is the entire profession has grown dependent on it, and once you go down the road of screwing with the markets, it's very hard to undo all of the damage.

You'll never see me cry about government cutting our Medicare. You can't cry about wasteful spending on welfare, social security, mortgage bailouts, AIG, etc and then kick and scream because they cut back our special interest. I don't expect this to make me popular around here, but I am consistent.

I agree - except I will cry about Medicare cuts if (when) they're accompanied with laws making it illegal for us to decline to accept Medicare patients. The day is coming when state medical boards will decline to license physicians who refuse gov insurance patients.

 

[SleepIsGood]

I agree - except I will cry about Medicare cuts if (when) they're accompanied with laws making it illegal for us to decline to accept Medicare patients. The day is coming when state medical boards will decline to license physicians who refuse gov insurance patients.

Massachusetts being one of them I think

 

[Voodoo]

I get reimbursed 21 cents on the dollar by medicare (approx). Cut my pay 20% - whoa, you just took 4 cents away. I know it's a crappy attitude, but let the physicians who are actually reimbursed by medicare at an acceptable rate spin their wheels about this and let's spend our efforts as a specialty elsewhere and ride their coattails.

Here's the bigger problem that's NOT addressed by the article - congress passes cuts and they're undone annually blah blah we've all heard it before. What they're not addressing is that congress is actually DOING NOTHING about this, and has been doing nothing for years. But it appears that they are, they factor these cuts into budget predictions, and they ARE STILL COLLECTING A SALARY AND STAYING IN OFFICE WHILE DOING THIS.

If I sat around and did nothing for 2 days in a row, I would be fired. WTF is wrong with this country? Have we all become such a bunch of uneducated slobs who don't see the forest anymore??

 

[notinkansas]

I hate to be the killjoy, but I'm a firm believer in being a nonhypocritical objective thinker. Medicare is nothing but another government subsidy that has the country on track for ruin. We basically don't deserve any of this money. It's another in a long line of left wing handouts to the public. The problem is the entire profession has grown dependent on it, and once you go down the road of screwing with the markets, it's very hard to undo all of the damage.

You'll never see me cry about government cutting our Medicare. You can't cry about wasteful spending on welfare, social security, mortgage bailouts, AIG, etc and then kick and scream because they cut back our special interest. I don't expect this to make me popular around here, but I am consistent.

Kudos. I hadn't thought of this, but I have to say I agree. Very insightful. And consistent.

Decoupling the user of a product/service from payment of that product/service always screws up the market.

 

[Narcotized]

I will cry about Medicare cuts if (when) they're accompanied with laws making it illegal for us to decline to accept Medicare patients. The day is coming when state medical boards will decline to license physicians who refuse gov insurance patients.

Yeah, that's not cool. Medicare should have probably never existed, but now that it does, practice models and even residency reembursement are heavily dependent on it. You start screwing with the works, and you just screw it up even more as we see. The Medicare situation is just one symptom in our meltdown. The founding fathers are sitting around somewhere feeling embarassed of how bad this country screwed up what they worked so hard for.