Today is the day for Medicare

[Gaspar]

Today Medicare reimbursement rates are set to be slashed by 21% and many doctors will no longer be accepting Medicare patients.

Congress and the media was hoping this one would squeak by.  If you or a relative relies on Medicare, it might be a good idea to check with your doctor, and look into supplemental plans.

[sgrizzle]

Having trouble finding it on any regular news sites, but here is a link:
http://www.fwbusinesspress.com/display.php?id=12066

[Gaspar]

WSJ reported on it last week and CNN Money made it a back page article.  I just IM'd a MD friend of mine. She says she stopped accepting Mcare patients two weeks ago! She is also exiting the program by making arrangements to transfer existing patients.  She says getting out of it is not easy.

[guido911]

WSJ reported on it last week and CNN Money made it a back page article.  I just IM'd a MD friend of mine. She says she stopped accepting Mcare patients two weeks ago! She is also exiting the program by making arrangements to transfer existing patients.  She says getting out of it is not easy.

Just another greedy doctor only thinking about herself. When will these people learn that they should be providing free health care services?

/sarc (if anyone thought otherwise)

[Breadburner]

Just another greedy doctor only thinking about herself. When will these people learn that they should be providing free health care services?

/sarc (if anyone thought otherwise)

Thank god you put that I was gettin ready to reem your azzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz..!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[we vs us]

Today Medicare reimbursement rates are set to be slashed by 21% and many doctors will no longer be accepting Medicare patients.

Congress and the media was hoping this one would squeak by.  If you or a relative relies on Medicare, it might be a good idea to check with your doctor, and look into supplemental plans.

A little background:  this is part of Republican Jim Bunning's one-man filibuster of the Senate's job bill.   In addition to the Medicare support (covering that 21% cost gap) the bill would also extend unemployment benefits and COBRA coverage to literally millions of jobless citizens.

Bunning (in a Coburnesque move) has decided to block the bill because it's unfunded, which -- as a moral stance -- would have a much bigger punch behind it if the Republican party didn't line up to a man to defeat PAYGO limits.

But all of that is to say that, yes, without the bill being passed, Medicare will go up, along with several million people will having their unemployment/COBRA shut off as well.

This was an instructive article, showing that the 21% increase in fees is actually part of the mandated structure of payment tied to Part B, which tracks GDP.  From the article: 

The scheduled cuts are mandated under the sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula -- the Medicare accounting scheme that links Part B reimbursement to the gross domestic product (GDP). The formula has mandated large cuts every year over most of the last decade, forcing organized medicine to rally the troops to fight the cuts.

[Gaspar]

Who cares.  Medicare cannot afford to pay doctors, and doctors cannot afford to accept Medicare. 

Now we want to make everything Medicare?

[we vs us]

Who cares.  Medicare cannot afford to pay doctors, and doctors cannot afford to accept Medicare. 

So let's call the whole thing off?

[guido911]

A little background:  this is part of Republican Jim Bunning's one-man filibuster of the Senate's job bill.   In addition to the Medicare support (covering that 21% cost gap) the bill would also extend unemployment benefits and COBRA coverage to literally millions of jobless citizens.

Bunning (in a Coburnesque move) has decided to block the bill because it's unfunded, which -- as a moral stance -- would have a much bigger punch behind it if the Republican party didn't line up to a man to defeat PAYGO limits.

But all of that is to say that, yes, without the bill being passed, Medicare will go up, along with several million people will having their unemployment/COBRA shut off as well.

This was an instructive article, showing that the 21% increase in fees is actually part of the mandated structure of payment tied to Part B, which tracks GDP.  From the article: 

I cannot recall, is this 21% medicare payment issue part of the "doc fix" plan from last fall? If so, a couple of things: 1) the cost of this thing was around $200B dollars; and 2) Congress has been trying to get something done (unsuccessfully) on this for a long time.

As for Bunning, I applaud his efforts at trying not to spend what we do not have. He wanted to use stimulus money to cover the $10B price tag but that went nowhere.

[rwarn17588]

Attaboy, Jim.

[guido911]

Bunning sticks to his guns:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2010/03/bunning_defends_his_position.html

[rwarn17588]

Bunning sticks to his guns:

And shooting himself in both feet, apparently.

[guido911]

And shooting himself in both feet, apparently.

Why, because he wants the government to quit spending money like crazy? You really are a "gimme gimme gimme and let someone else pay for it" sort of have not aren't you.

[we vs us]

Why, because he wants the government to quit spending money like crazy? You really are a "gimme gimme gimme and let someone else pay for it" sort of have not aren't you.

He's single-handedly branding the GOP as the party that refuses to help regular Americans.   I'll be interested to see at what point the Republican leadership decides that that is NOT a winning message.

[Hoss]

He's single-handedly branding the GOP as the party that refuses to help regular Americans.   I'll be interested to see at what point the Republican leadership decides that that is NOT a winning message.

You make that sound like they're in the process of branding themselves that way.  They've been like that for years.  They're just more out in the open about it now, trying to make healthcare 'his Waterloo'.  

Now I guess they're trying to make big-bad government leaner at the expense of the people who were most affected by the years of republican mis-management of the economy.  Or at least THEY had the majorities where the purse-strings were concerned.

I know of at least four of my friends who will be affected by this grandstanding Southerner.

Hell, even members of his own party are trying to reason with him.