Well that's one way to cut costs........

[Peter_Puget]

Shit dont worry about BIG Pharma worry about the guys at Google....

 

What pussies

 

I just tried it out.

[olyclimber]

try "Scientology is". those are the litigators they should be afraid of.

[rob]

i heard that Scientologists like to have sex with dead babies.

[Peter_Puget]

Providers would drop Medicare under Senate bill, CMS says

 

 

01/11/2010

 

 

Supporting longstanding GOP criticisms of Democratic health care reform legislation, a new CMS report finds that the Senate’s reform bill may prompt providers to opt out of Medicare, the Hill reports.

 

The CMS actuary’s report found that the Senate’s plan to extend coverage to 34 million uninsured Americans would increase health care spending by $222 billion, or a “slight” boost of 0.6%, between 2010 and 2019. However, the report concluded that the bill’s provisions to produce $483 billion in Medicare savings across a decade are “unrealistic” and may limit seniors’ access to care.

According to the CMS actuary, barring legislative intervention, the bill’s lower reimbursement rates for Medicare may prompt providers to turn away Medicare patients in order to remain profitable. Additionally, the influx of new patients anticipated under reform may also affect non-Medicare patients, as the CMS actuary notes that providers may curb their availability and increase fees to meet the demands of new consumers.

 

Over time, however, the Senate bill’s cost-cutting measures might reduce the annual increases in health care spending and provide “substantial” long-term savings. Specifically, the report cited a Senate provision to tax Cadillac health insurance plans, which although may “take years to manifest,” is purported to raise approximately $150 billion between 2013 and 2019. Seizing on these long-term cost savings, Democrats added that the Congressional Budget Office determined that across 10 years the Senate and House bills would reduce the federal deficit by $132 billion and $139 billion, respectively.

 

While HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius lauded CMS’ findings, saying that they demonstrated how the Senate bill would slow health care spending and expand coverage, President Barack Obama in his weekly radio and Internet address did not directly mention the report. Instead, he chose to focus on the “brighter side” of health reform, the Associated Press reports, by enumerating benefits that would take effect this year, including barring insurers from denying coverage to individuals with preexisting conditions and providing tax credits for small business owners to cover their employees, among others. He did acknowledge, however, that many changes put forth in the final health care bill would not be “fully in place” until 2014 (Associated Press/Modern Healthcare, 1/9 [subscription required]; Bolton, Hill, 1/9; Superville, AP/Washington Post, 1/10 [registration required]).

[prole]

According to the CMS actuary, barring legislative intervention, the bill’s lower reimbursement rates for Medicare may prompt providers to turn away Medicare patients in order to remain profitable.

 

Thanks, Peter. I'll be writing my Congressmen to urge them to propose a universal, not-for-profit, single payer health care system.