Free Republic

Two days after health reform cleared its first major hurdle in the Senate, two groups launched a joint television ad campaign. The AARP and American Medical Association (AMA) are undertaking the effort to promote the legislation’s effect on Medicare. "AARP is fighting to protect and improve the sacred promise of Medicare made to the millions of older Americans who depend upon it,” said AARP Executive Vice President Nancy LeaMond. "Now special interests are using myths and misinformation to distort the truth and wrongly suggesting that Medicare will be harmed. After a lifetime of hard work, don't seniors deserve better?”  The...

Social Security Act Amendments (1965) AN ACT To provide a hospital insurance program for the aged under the Social Security Act with a supplementary medical benefits program and an extended program of medical assistance, to increase benefits under the Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance System, to improve the Federal-State public assistance programs, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That this Act, with the following table of contents, may be cited as the "Social Security Amendments of 1965". TABLE OF CONTENTS TITLE I—HEALTH INSURANCE...

About 660,000 people nationwide – or 7 percent of Medicare Advantage enrollees – are in plans that are set to close. Between now and Jan. 1, they can switch to another private plan or join Medicare's traditional fee-for-service program. Many premiums are on the rise. Medicare Advantage enrollees who do nothing and remain in the same plan in 2010 will see their monthly premiums increase an average of 32 percent, according to an analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation. In addition, seniors will have fewer "zero-premium" plans next year. Those plans have proved popular because beneficiaries pay no more than...

U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., warned of major cuts to Medicare and large tax increases as the U.S. Senate neared its first votes this weekend on health care reform. McCain opposes health reforms pushed by Democrats and President Barack Obama that would create a public-option government system to cover the uninsured and operate alongside private insurance companies. "I don't think Americans really understand the scam that's going on here of beginning to collect taxes, tax increases and Medicare cuts of approximately $1 trillion beginning 40 days from now," McCain said Saturday. "In other words, the first of January, according to...

Think how much money we could save! In his June 13 New York Times op-ed, Tyler Cowen wrote, “Medicare expenditures threaten to crush the federal budget.” The title of the article was “Something’s Got to Give in Medicare Spending.” Got it. Old people cost too much money to keep alive—and you younger disabled people on Medicare, you’re not helping either. So, what’s Mr. Cowen’s solution? Let’s limit health care benefits to old and disabled people. Boggles the mind. One of the proposals coming out of the Obama administration is to limit end-of-life care. What exactly does that mean? In 1974,...

With the introduction of Harry Reid's health care bill - talk will inevitably focus on whether the public option or the Stupak amendment will undermine the legislation. Yet, if the bill dies, I do not think either of these will be the primary cause of death. I think this will be the culprit: (See chart in link) This is the CBO's analysis of how the Reid bill will cut Medicare. The total reductions come out to $491 billion over 10 years when everything is factored in. The following has been said by other commentators, but I have to add my...

Take My Medicare Malcolm A. Kline, November 20, 2009 In the usual manner in which bad ideas become even worse reality, good chunks of what policy wonks here are calling “health care reform” are flowing out of academia. Arguably, the most pernicious of these is the notion that “the federal government can build on the success of Medicare.” Lawmakers from both parties would have winced at such a brain wave ten years ago when both President Clinton and the Republican Congress, albeit using markedly different approaches, attempted to reform Medicare. What a difference a decade makes. That the federal government’s...

Should we add to the deficit or pay doctors less? That’s the question Congress is contemplating after coming up $200 billion short for Medicare providers’ reimbursement this year. he $200 billion “Doc Fix” issue is controversial because Democrats are trying to separate it off from the larger health care bill snaking its way through Congress. By separating off doc fix, they can maintain that Obamacare is budget neutral, because that’s the way it was scored by the Congressional Budget Office. They can’t maintain the bill’s budget-neutrality after a doc fix is added into the mix. “Let's be clear, House Republicans...

Reform: Only a Bernie Madoff could believe the Senate's health care bill will extend coverage to 31 million Americans while cutting deficits by $127 billion over 10 years. It would be the first profitable entitlement. But that's what Majority Leader Harry Reid, citing Congressional Budget Office estimates, tells us the 2,074-page bill — said to cost only $849 billion over a decade — would do. Like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, he seems to be following Vice President Joe Biden's admonition at an AARP town hall meeting that "we've got to spend money to keep from going bankrupt." We suspect Reid's...

Oh, if you haven’t heard about this one yet… you’ll love it! The government has mismanaged $98 billion dollars for the year of 2009 and it’s only November! Just can’t account for it. Poof… There goes the 98 billion on “questionable claims for tax credits and Medicare benefits” AND these people have the answers to fix our economy and health care? Are you frick’in serious? Just a thought BUT I think the GAO should look in a few freezers. Read more...

The government paid more than $47 billion in questionable Medicare claims including medical treatment showing little relation to a patient's condition, wasting taxpayer dollars at a rate nearly three times the previous year. Excerpts of a new federal report, obtained by The Associated Press, show a dramatic increase in improper payments in the $440 billion Medicare program that has been cited by government auditors as a high risk for fraud and waste for 20 years. It's not clear whether Medicare fraud is actually worsening. Much of the increase in the last year is attributed to a change in the Health...

As usual, the most dangerous parts of ObamaCare aren't receiving the scrutiny they deserve—and one of the least examined is a new commission to tell Congress how to control health spending. Democrats are quietly attempting to impose a "global budget" on Medicare, with radical implications for U.S. medicine. Like most of Europe, the various health bills stipulate that Congress will arbitrarily decide how much to spend on health care for seniors every year—and then invest an unelected board with extraordinary powers to dictate what is covered and how it will be paid for. White House budget director Peter Orszag calls...

Kudos to the Black&Right blog for finding this. You tell me we don't have political militants who are eerily vindictive. "In response to the Wall Street Journal piece, “Palin’s Book: The Overview”, a commenter added this example of liberal tolerance…"

A plan to slash more than $500 billion from future Medicare spending -- one of the biggest sources of funding for President Obama's proposed overhaul of the nation's health-care system -- would sharply reduce benefits for some senior citizens and could jeopardize access to care for millions of others, according to a government evaluation released Saturday.

McALLEN — There were no doctors, no patients or even a floor at a medical office on the city’s south side, but to Hidalgo County’s largest hospital system it was reputedly worth lease payments of $8,000 a month. The lease allegedly was a sham contract given to disguise an improper kickback to Eugenio Galindo, a McAllen doctor, a whistle-blower contended among his allegations in a lawsuit he filed accusing South Texas Health System of Medicare and Medicaid fraud. Galindo is one of seven Rio Grande Valley doctors whom the U.S. Department of Justice, which joined in the suit at the...

A plan to slash more than $500 billion from future Medicare spending -- one of the biggest sources of funding for President Obama's proposed overhaul of the nation's health-care system -- would sharply reduce benefits for some senior citizens and could jeopardize access to care for millions of others, according to a government evaluation released Saturday. The report, requested by House Republicans, found that Medicare cuts contained in the health package approved by the House on Nov. 7 are likely to prove so costly to hospitals and nursing homes that they could stop taking Medicare altogether. [snip] ... "exacerbating existing...

The government paid more than $47 billion in questionable Medicare claims including medical treatment showing little relation to a patient's condition, wasting taxpayer dollars at a rate nearly three times the previous year. Excerpts of a new federal report, obtained by The Associated Press, show a dramatic increase in improper payments in the $440 billion Medicare program that has been cited by government auditors as a high risk for fraud and waste for 20 years. It's not clear whether Medicare fraud is actually worsening. Much of the increase in the last year is attributed to a change in the Health...

The American Medical Association leadership is spineless when it comes to the health reforms now before Congress. The organization has focused almost entirely on a single issue -- the repeal of the Medicare Sustainable Growth Rate formula, which penalizes doctors a percentage every year if the total amount we're reimbursed exceeds government projections. The formula calls for a 21 percent across-the-board cut in our Medicare payments this year. The formula is absurd -- if it ever went into effect, doctors would flee Medicare, patients would revolt and Congress would have to reverse itself. All it does is force the AMA...

When the American Association of Retired Persons – one of the wealthiest advocacy groups in the U.S. – began backing the $1.2 trillion House health bill despite concerns about Medicare cuts, death panels and assisted suicide, many members shredded their membership cards, saying the organization no longer represents their interests – but AARP's history of Left-leaning activism on a host of issues may surprise its constituents. AARP's Nov. 5 health bill endorsement left many seniors wondering why the powerful group that claims to represent their interests would call for an estimated $500 billion in cuts to Medicare, a system many...

WASHINGTON – The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced on Oct. 30 a 21.2 percent 2010 pay cut for physicians participating in Medicare. CMS officials said they had anticipated a 21.5 percent pay cut for physicians in 2010, but new data allowed them to lower the cut to 21.2 percent. "The administration tried to avert the pending fee schedule cut in the FY 2010 budget proposal that it submitted to Congress, and remains committed to repealing the sustainable growth rate," said Jonathan Blum, director of the CMS' Center for Medicare Management. In the meantime, CMS officials are preparing a...

Just this week the famous protector of the the seniors in America came out and supported the 20 pound health care bill that will cut $550 billion from medicare for seniors. Go figure! Who is this group anyway? Under the radar this week I also see, according to Life Decisions International, that AARP made their list of "Dishonorable Mention" there too. That means that they are in a group of charitable groups that are associated with Planned Parenthood and/or its agenda. Also on that list surprisingly too are the Susan G.Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, The YWCA/YMCA, March of Dimes, Muscular...

As the suicidal Democratic congressmen proceed to rubber-stamp the Obama healthcare reform despite the drubbing their party took in the ’09 elections, the president trotted out the endorsements of the AMA and the AARP to stimulate support. But these — and the other endorsements — his package has received are all bought and paid for. Here are the deals: · The American Medical Association (AMA) was facing a 21 percent cut in physicians’ reimbursements under the current law. Obama promised to kill the cut if they backed his bill. The cuts are the fruit of a law requiring annual 5-6...

CBS4 I-Team Investigator Stephen Stock went undercover with other I-Team member to find suspect medical clinics operating in South Florida one step ahead of the law. The grainy, shaky undercover video tape shot by the CBS4 I-Team shows dozens of...........

…Thanks so much for reforming the health care system that will cover 94% of the population up from the 88%-90% legal population that are anyway covered. … Thanks for coming up with a plan that will be “self-sustaining” and “deficit neutral” just as social security was supposed to be. Now let me ask you a few questions, Mr. and Mrs. Democrat:

Healthcare reform will come about in some shape or form at some point in time. After all, we have seen major healthcare reform initiatives since 1920 including Truman’s attempt at universal healthcare in the 1950s. Today’s healthcare reform discussions have two major flaws: 1) The word “money” is not voiced enough, and, 2) The discussion is plagued and derailed by misinformation. The operative word missing from today’s healthcare reform discussion is money. Modifying insurance and reforming our tort system is not enough to solve this quagmire. As with many problems, the key issue is simply money. Who gets what? When...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Medicare has become a scary word to the doctors at the largest private group practice in Kansas City, Mo. It's so scary that most physicians at Kansas City Internal Medicine, with 65% of its nearly 70,000 active patients age 65 or older, have stopped accepting walk-in Medicare enrollees, said Dr. David Wilt, an internist at the group. Wilt and his colleagues say they are shunning the area's growing senior population because they believe Medicare doesn't reimburse physicians enough to cover the cost of care. "And if Medicare further cuts its reimbursement rates, then we'll be functioning...

Everyone knows that if you don't pay to maintain and repair your car, you limit its life. The same is true as human beings age. We need medical care to avoid becoming clunkers -- disabled, worn out, parked in wheelchairs or nursing homes. For nearly a half century, Medicare has enabled seniors to get that care. But ObamaCare is about to change that, by limiting what doctors can provide their aging patients. The Senate Finance Committee health bill released last week controls doctors by cutting their pay if they give older patients more care than the government deems appropriate. Section...

Proving my contention that broken, ineffective, and bankrupt government programs leads to more broken, ineffective, and bankrupt government programs, the Treasury Department has reported that America faces a $43 trillion unfunded obligation in Social Security and Medicare benefits with 77 million retiring baby boomers and rising health care costs.

(CNN) -- "Keep the government's hands off my Medicare." Those words -- quoted by so many TV talking heads -- never seem actually to have been spoken by anyone. It's like that poodle in the microwave story: Everybody has a neighbor who heard it from his cousin. The town hallers were angry, but they were not crazy, and they were not stupid. They knew perfectly well that Medicare is provided by the government. They also knew that their government is proposing to change Medicare in ways they do not like. The health care reform plans backed by President Obama would...

Guillermo Denis Gonzalez was released from prison in Florida in 2004 after serving 12 years for murder. By the end of 2006, he owned a health care business officially licensed by Medicare. This August, the Miami Herald reported that Gonzalez pled guilty to filing $586,953 in phony Medicare claims for supplies that were never given to any actual patients -- but this was only after he was arrested for murdering and dismembering another victim, to which he also confessed. While it's shocking that government policing efforts are so lax for Medicare that even a convicted murderer can be granted a...

(CBS) Of all the problems facing the United States right now, none are more important than health care. President Obama says rising costs are driving huge federal budget deficits that imperil our future, and that there is enough waste and fraud in the system to pay for health care reform if it was eliminated. At the center of both issues is Medicare, the government insurance program that provides health care to 46 million elderly and disabled Americans. But it also provides a rich and steady income stream for criminals who are constantly finding new ways to steal a sizable chunk...

Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., center, flanked Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., left, and Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., discuss "the urgent need for health insurance reform". GRAND RAPIDS — Senior citizens will find it harder to find a doctor who accepts Medicare if Congress does not stop a 21.5 percent cut in payment rates, say physicians and hospitals. “We might as well start building bigger emergency rooms, because that’s where people will be if they don’t have access to a regular physician,” said Micki Benz, vice president of development for Saint Mary’s Health Care. “In the end, people’s care will suffer, and...

A funny thing happened on the way to one of the biggest scam attempts in history. It got ratted out. And Capitol Hill got an earful. So the U.S. Senate failed by seven votes to invoke cloture on Wednesday and push forward a bill that even had Washington Post editorialists gagging on its duplicity. Thirteen Democrats joined all 40 Republicans to reject 47-53 a free-standing Medicare bill, S. 1776, that would have pushed up the national deficit by a quarter of a trillion dollars over the next 10 years. The reason it's a scam is that by separating it from...

Yip yip ya-hoo (as Limbaugh would say). The Dem's health care plan, as you probably know, will cover 94% of the U.S. population. Let’s have a drink to celebrate. But hold that one, because if you are currently uninsured, you still have a 50% chance of staying this way even if the Dem plan gets signed by Obama. Here are the simple numbers…

After a month of praising bipartisanship, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid lashed out at the GOP on the Senate floor Wednesday when a Medicare measure he brought up for a vote failed amid concerns about its impact on the deficit. The bill would have prevented a 20 percent drop in Medicare reimbursement rates to doctors that is scheduled to take effect in January. Reid angrily blamed the loss on bad intelligence from the American Medical Association, which he said promised him 27 Republican votes (he got none), as well as Republican dirty tricks designed to impede Democrats' progress on meaningful...

According to AMA’s National Health Insurance Report Card, Medicare denies 6.85 percent of its claims, higher than any private insurer (Aetna was second, denying 6.80 percent of its claims), and more than double any private insurer’s average.What’s fascinating is that The American Medical Association (AMA) has endorsed a public option, despite the fact that “some member physicians at the group’s annual meeting [in June] likened the notion to communism.”The Obama administration repeats ad nauseum that we need a government option to “keep insurance companies honest” and to make sure they don’t deny anyone coverage. Well what does one say about the fact...

The Senate Finance Committee recently approved Senator Max Baucus's bill to reform the nation’s health-care system. Every Democrat on the Committee voted to approve this big government plan; all but one Republican opposed it. I opposed it because it not only won't reduce health-care costs (which is the number one goal), but, for many Americans, it will actually make things worse. Many Americans, including middle-income families and the chronically ill, will see their insurance premiums go up and their taxes increased. Others, like seniors, will see their health-care choices eliminated. And everybody should be concerned about rationing of health care...

If you want to understand why Aetna, Independence Blue Cross (Keystone), and other insurance companies are dropping some, though not all, of their Medicare Advantage policies, you have to understand the way these plans have been tainted by President Obama and the Democratic proposals for Obamacare in its various forms. Their proposals, not yet enacted, will destroy the greatest health care delivery system in the world if enacted. But what they have already done has started to do serious damage to our system, as exemplified by what is going on with Medicare Advantage. Medicare Advantage plans are popular and have...

'Doc fix' no longer up for cloture on MondayBy Tony Romm - 10/18/09 02:34 PM ET Senate Democrats have decided to postpone Monday's scheduled cloture vote on a bill that would reform how Medicare reimburses doctors and hospitals. Initially, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) scheduled his motion to end floor debate and bring the so-called 'doc fix bill' to a final vote at the beginning of next week. But the leader reportedly changed his mind on Friday, deciding instead to he would vitiate Monday's vote so both parties' lawmakers could broker an agreement on a few remaining amendments, his...

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Just an anti-ObamaCare ad during the Red River shootout (OU leading Tex 6-0, BTW).....that means they are going for the kill. An ad during the big college football game of the week is serious stuff, costs a lot, and reaches a lot of people. I don't care for the insurance cos too much, but hell, the enemy of my enemy is my friend, and I wish them well in their quest to crush Obama and his asinine socialist health care plan.

By now, most are probably aware that President Obama is proposing a one time $250 check to seniors because there won't be a COLA (cost of living adjustment) increase this year to Social Security. With the bulk of the $787 billion stimulus package still unspent, some lawmakers say, President Obama should not be adding yet another $13 billion to the deficit by funding a one-time $250 Social Security payment.

IF only the laws of the uni verse didn't make it impossi ble to conjure something out of nothing. In a magical world free of such encumbrances, Democrats would be spared the bother of hiding the inevitable costs of ObamaCare. The latest gambit of Democrats in both the Senate and House is to take roughly $250 billion out of health-care reform -- for Medicare payments to doctors -- and spend it in a separate bill. This instantly makes ObamaCare appear cheaper, although its impact on the federal budget will be precisely the same. This isn't even competent three-card monte. It's...

First he was for it. Then he was against it. Now Rep. Mike Ross is back on board with a government-run healthcare plan. Sort of. Ross (D-Ark.), who had emerged as a leader among centrist Blue Dog Democrats opposing the public health insurance option, has suggested something his colleagues consider even more drastic – opening Medicare to those under 65 without insurance. He made the suggestion in meetings with House Democratic leaders and brought the idea to the closed-door House Democratic Caucus meeting Thursday. "I — speaking only on behalf of myself — suggested one possible idea could be that...

But if people have a choice to keep their current policy or select Medicare, all other things being the same, nobody would take Medicare except those who have no insurance, and, voila, everybody is covered. The big caveat, of course, is whether all other things like taxes on employer benefits stays the same. While I would not favor a massive expansion of Medicare, it forces the Dems to explain why this proposal doesn't provide choice and competition, while insuring everybody.

Remember this? [VIDEO OF OBAMA'S TRANSPARENCY AT SITE] Yeeeeeah: Maneuvering to boost prospects for sweeping health care legislation, Senate Democrats hope first to win quick approval for a bill that grants doctors a $247 billion increase in Medicare fees over a decade but raises federal deficits in the process, officials said Wednesday. By creating a two-bill approach, Democrats intend to claim the more comprehensive health care measure meets President Barack Obama’s conditions — that it will neither add to deficits nor exceed $900 billion in costs over 10 years. If approved and signed into law, the legislation would avert a...

The renowned Mayo Clinic is no longer accepting some Medicare and Medicaid patients, raising new questions about whether it is too selective to serve as a model for health-care reform. The White House has repeatedly held up for praise Mayo and other medical centers, many of which are in the Upper Midwest, that perform well in Dartmouth College rankings showing wide disparities in how much hospitals spend on Medicare patients. The model centers have capitalized on their status to insert into health-care legislation provisions that would result in higher Medicare payments for hospitals that do well on the Dartmouth rankings...

Eight Democratic senators stand between the Medicare and the destruction of the senior health care program as well as the ruin of American medicine generally.

Perhaps FR might feature this concern at the top of their menu? How will Obama's Health Reform proposals impact veterans 60 years and older who currently receive life sustaining treatment in such departments as oncology and cardiology via Tricare and hzd planned for Tricare For Life to fulfill the promise of our military service? When the Democrats say they will cut waste from medicare are they talking about us -- military retirees?

The estimate includes a projected net cost of $518 billion over 10 years for the proposed expansions in insurance coverage. That net cost itself reflects a gross total of $829 billion in credits and subsidies provided through the exchanges, increased net outlays for Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and tax credits for small employers; those costs are partly offset by $201 billion in revenues from the excise tax on high-premium insurance plans and $110 billion in net savings from other sources. The net cost of the coverage expansions would be more than offset by the combination of...