Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : American Presidential Politics and foreign affairs -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: greatplains_guy who wrote (57107)	10/15/2012 8:18:58 PM
From: Hope Praytochange	1 Recommendation Respond to of 71588

Obama's Faulty Medicare Math And The Cost To Seniors One of the primary ways by which President Obama's health law funded its dramatic increase in government spending was by making significant cuts to Medicare. But Obama insists otherwise. "ObamaCare actually strengthened Medicare," he told the AARP last week, by using the law's Medicare cuts "to lower prescription drug costs, and to offer seniors on Medicare new preventive services like cancer screenings and wellness services." But for every $500 that ObamaCare spends on prescription drugs and preventive services, the law cuts other Medicare spending by $7,500. Here's how the math works. According to the Congressional Budget Office's most recent estimates, over the next 10 years ObamaCare increases net spending on Medicare's prescription drug program by $48 billion. The law also spends $4 billion over that period on preventive services, for a total of $52 billion in new spending. Offsetting that new spending is $768 billion in net cuts to other parts of the Medicare program, primarily hospitalization and medical services. Obama says these $768 billion in cuts make Medicare stronger, and don't affect its coverage benefits. But that's not true either: $156 billion of the cuts are taken out of the popular Medicare Advantage program, which more than a quarter of all seniors participate in. The administration's own Medicare actuary, Richard Foster, wrote in 2010 that the Affordable Care Act "will thereby result in less generous benefit packages" (emphasis added). "We estimate that in 2017, when the (Medicare Advantage) provisions will be fully phased in, enrollment in MA plans will be lower by about 50%" than under prior law. According to an analysis from the Heritage Foundation, the average senior enrolled in Medicare Advantage will lose $3,714 in health care services in 2017, with larger losses in future years. Most of ObamaCare's cuts to the Medicare program — $415 billion over the next 10 years — come in the form of "updates to fee-for-service payment rates," a euphemism for cuts to the payments Medicare makes to hospitals, nursing homes, doctors and other providers of health care services. ObamaCare, in effect, forces these health care providers to offer the same "benefits" for much less money, without making any underlying improvements in the efficiency by which those services are delivered. Again, the result will be less health care access for millions of seniors. Foster estimates that, over the next decade, the cuts will make 15% of hospitals more or less permanently unprofitable. Over the same period that the retirement of the Baby Boomers will add 16 million seniors to the Medicare rolls — an increase of nearly 30% — the bankruptcy or closure of 15% of American hospitals could be catastrophic to seniors in rural areas, and lead retirees everywhere to wait longer for urgently needed care. Meanwhile, provider cuts are leading an increasing number of doctors to drop out of the Medicare program. In North Carolina, WTVD called 200 family physicians at random, asking them if they would accept new Medicare patients. Nearly half said they wouldn't. Beverly Frake is one of those seniors. Beverly moved to North Carolina from upstate New York to be closer to her daughter, who lived in the state. "I moved into this nice apartment complex, big medical complex across the street, I thought, 'How lucky am I?'" she told investigative reporter Steve Daniels. "And I went there and was told in the waiting room, well they just don't take Medicare patients. One of the receptionists said to me, 'Well honey, it's just going to get worse.'" Real Medicare reform starts with putting seniors back in control of their own health dollars, as the Romney-Ryan plan does. The plan gives future seniors the ability to choose among dozens of competing insurance plans, just as they already do in Medicare's prescription-drug program. The drug program's efficiencies have resulted in spending far below government projections. Medicare prescription-drug premiums actually went down in 2012 — a remarkable achievement — without cutting benefits. The Romney-Ryan plan aims to bring these same features to the rest of Medicare, while making no changes to the program for those older than 55. ObamaCare's blunt, indiscriminate Medicare cuts will disrupt benefits for millions of seniors, drive hospitals out of business, and make it harder for seniors to see their doctors. The president can try to defend the fact that ObamaCare raids Medicare to pay for an entirely new health care entitlement. But he can't claim that it will make Medicare better