Senate Approves a Bill on Changes to Medicare

New York Times ^ | Tuesday, April 14, 2014 | Robert Pear

[Star Traveler]

WASHINGTON — The Senate on Tuesday approved sweeping changes in the way Medicare pays doctors, clearing the bill for President Obama and resolving an issue that has bedeviled Congress and the Medicare program for more than a decade.

The 92-to-8 vote in the Senate, following passage in the House last month by an overwhelming vote of 392 to 37, was a major success for Republicans, who devised a solution to a complex policy problem that had frustrated lawmakers of both parties. Mr. Obama has endorsed the bill, saying it “could help slow health care cost growth.”

The bill, drafted in the House in negotiations between Speaker John A. Boehner and Representative Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic leader, also extends the Children’s Health Insurance Program for two years, through 2017.

Without action by Congress, doctors would have faced a 21 percent cut in Medicare fees on Wednesday or Thursday. Senate leaders cleared the way for final passage by allowing votes on several amendments sought by liberal Democrats and conservative Republicans.

[Cry if I Wanna]

Like the majority of Freepers, I’m on S/S and Medicare and I support this bill. Flame me, I don’t care.

[1066AD]

Maybe they should gut the law saying Medicare is not allowed to shop for drug prices, that would save some big $$$.

[Kickass Conservative]

I don’t get it. Wouldn’t it be easier to put everyone on Obamacare and send them the $2,500 Check Obama promised us every Year?

The Dear Leader said Obamacare would save money and would Insure everybody. He wouldn’t lie to us, would he?

[Star Traveler]

What I’m waiting for ... is the younger crowd saying “Just get out of our way and DIE!” Then they can start forming the “death panels” with no one over 30 years old ... LOL ...

That’s about the only solid solution I can see ... “Just DIE!”

Otherwise the older people are going to consume more resources. There’s no way around that ... you either put them out of their misery, or, they continue taking more and more of those resources, living to a ripe old age. The “just die” part can be achieved by withholding medical treatment.

[kabar]

Read this article: Chief Actuary Blows Away Make-Believe Medicare 'Doc Fix'

On March 25, the U.S. House of Representatives voted for a fiscally irresponsible so–called Medicare “doc fix” that will add $141 billion to the deficit over the next ten years, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). The U.S. Senate will likely vote on the bill later today, and the same lobbyists who dragged Obamacare into the end zone in 2010 are hoping for another win. This one will be even better, because it will be bipartisan.

Nobody denies the way Medicare pays doctors today is flawed. Every year, Congress has to increase the scheduled amount of money because if it did not, fees would drop by about one fifth. Many doctors would stop seeing Medicare beneficiaries.

There are two major differences between this so-called “fix” and previous ones. The first one is real: Previous increases have been offset by cuts to other government spending, and this one is not. The second one is fiction: That this doc fix is a permanent solution to the fee problem.

That fiction was debunked last week in a report published by Medicare’s Chief Actuary. First, the Chief Actuary has a significantly higher estimate of the gross cost of increasing physicians’ fees over the next 10 years than the CBO did. As shown in Table 1, the differences are trivial for the first few years, but they grow with time. Over the entire 11-year period, the Chief Actuary estimates the increase in payments will be $205 billion, $29 billion more than CBO’s estimate.

And it gets worse: Even this “fix” is no fix at all, but as unrealistic and broken as the current fee schedule. Medicare’s Trustees do not believe the current fee schedule is credible, so they estimate a “projected baseline” which they calculate by taking an average of the last 10 years of actual increases Congress adds on to the fee schedule, and using that to project a realistic estimate of future Medicare physician spending.

[Star Traveler]

Obamacare is one thing, but Medicare was around a long time before anyone knew what an “Obama” was ... :-) ...

[Star Traveler]

There’s nothing to stop legislators from coming back and adjusting what needs to be fixed. The 21% cut tomorrow has been stopped now ... so ... if the voting electorate wants their legislators to come back and make adjustments ... they can do it.

[Star Traveler]

Sure ... you’re not about to crawl into a hole and die ... like some might like you to do, in order to solve the problem ... :-) ...

[Star Traveler]

Clear that one with the Medicare recipients, first ... :-) ...

[Star Traveler]

It’s not nonsense ... as we sit here today ... looking at the bill in front of us. It’s either it gets passed today (which it did, of course) ... or it doesn’t get passed in order to “make it better” and we get the 21% cuts.

NOW ... if you are proposing we all jump into some kind of “time machine” and go back into the past to have a “do over” ... okay, maybe it would work. So, produce that time machine for us ... LOL ...

[Kickass Conservative]

I believe I read right here on FR that Medicare was sold to the Public as projected never to cost over $20,000,000,000 a Year adjusted for Inflation.

I think that number lasted a few years at best.

My Best Friend from Childhood just passed away at 61. He never saw a Dime of the Hundreds of Thousands of Dollars he paid into Medicare and SS over his working Lifetime.

Things like that happen when Pyramid Schemes are Government Policy.

[Star Traveler]

I could have died, too ... earlier ... and would have never seen a penny of it. I find that’s the case for a lot of other things I pay for. Heck, I haven’t had a car accident for over forty years ... and I think about all that insurance money I could have used for other things ... :-) ...

BUT ... I didn’t die and I’m really consuming those resources now. I might even live to a hundred and I’ll end up REALLY taking a lot of resources.

HOWEVER, I understand that some want to form DEATH PANELS to withhold treatment for those less worthy of living, which is likely to be me!

[RginTN]

The bill, drafted in the House in negotiations between Speaker John A. Boehner and Representative Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic leader

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Vote GOPe get more BIG GOVT.

[NonValueAdded]

You would think they would be able to figure out a solution in less than a decade.

Who had control for most of that decade? That should clear it up for you.

[GGpaX4DumpedTea]

““But apparently even a $20 trillion national debt is not enough to get these people to cut any spending.””
“This has to end badly. And we will be the ones screwed.”

I have long advocated that it is time to hoist the bankers on their own petard. The Bankers and the Federal Reserve own the national debt. Let them eat it! The Federal Reserve has been screwing the country since the days of Woodrow Wilson. It is time to end it all. Put the US Treasury in charge of the money supply and let the Fed choke on the debt!

[caww]

....”The “just die” part can be achieved by withholding medical treatment”...

..and that’s coming you can be sure. In some cases it’s here already. They limit the care when they “have done all they can”....if some are not reaching the desired “recovery” from an illness then they move you on to someplace else I understand. No doubt where the costs are less and the care less as well.

I sometimes think for Seniors they fight more at the golden years of their life, “for life”, then any other time.

[Hardens Hollow]

“What I’m waiting for ... is the younger crowd saying “Just get out of our way and DIE!” Then they can start forming the “death panels” with no one over 30 years old ... LOL ...”

What was that movie where nobody lived to over 30? Oh yes, Logan’s Run.

What we have is not sustainable. The two extremes are to withhold treatment to save money and to keep spending money out of the general treasury, thereby adding to the debt and ensuring our children and grandchildren have limited opportunities in their lives. Both ends of the spectrum are due to people feeling entitled and selfish.

The solution is somewhere in between, but beats me what it is. Medicare and SS have been a bankrupt mess waiting to implode and fixing them at this late date will unfairly cause some group pain.

[Hardens Hollow]

Thank you. You are a wealth of information and graphs ;)

“Wealthy” will be changed so that eventually we are all in that category. Just like SS was only .5% of one’s income in the beginning (so I was told - haven’t verified that number but it certainly has been increasing.

I hate to see SS and Medicare means tested since everyone is forced to pay into it. It is already socialized, with those that work the hardest subsidizing others.

[JennysCool]

Should Ted Cruz win the Presidency, I think the first thing he should do is give the heads of each and every government program 48 hours to write a statement as to why they believe their program is important enough to be continued. Just imagine the caterwauling from the officials who know damn well they haven’t been doing anything for years but raking in money.

[momincombatboots]

Ditto... Let the law stand as it is. I am disappointed that no one will full the full effects til 2016...conveniently after the election.