Republicans Attack Medicare, Military Families, and Doctors.
Cross posted from The Progressive Pulse
Congress will resume debate today over the bill to prevent a 10.6% pay cut to doctors who provide care to Medicare patients. Details here. The pay cut took effect last week, July 1, but processing of claims has been delayed for two weeks in hopes of a solution. Military families, who receive coverage under the federal program Tricare, are similarly threatened. Tricare payments are linked to the Medicare fee schedule, so any threat to Medicare endangers the Tricare patients as well. Remember: most physician contracts (public and private) are linked to Medicare. If Medicare cuts 10% then total revenue will be decreased a similar amount. There is another fee cut of 5% scheduled for January 2009. I can promise you that a 10-15% cut will seriously decrease access to physicians for Medicare and Tricare patients.
The bill passed the House 355-59, but was stalled in the Senate by one vote in failing to attain the required 60 votes. All 40 "NO" votes were Senate Republicans (including North Carolina's Richard Burr). President Bush has said repeatedly that he will veto the bill, so it is likely that a veto-proof 67 votes will be required for passage.
In support of the bill are AARP, advocacy groups for military families, and the American Medical Association.
Why would Republicans risk screwing military families, the elderly, the disabled, and doctors (not to mention taxpayers) in an election year? Because they care more about corporations than they do about people, that's why. In this case, it is health insurance companies that are receiving the Republicans and President Bush's loving embrace.
The sticking point is that Democrats want to pay for the bill by reducing the corporate subsidies provided to insurance companies to privatize Medicare. On average, taxpayers pay 13% more for private companies to provide benefits that are currently available under traditional Medicare.
You heard me right: government-run traditional Medicare outperforms the private sector. We pay approximately $1,000 more per patient per year for private insurance to manage Medicare patients. The market has spoken, but Richard Burr, George Bush, and the Senate Republicans don't want to hear it.
There is no good reason to continue subsidizing private companies to provide coverage already provided by traditional Medicare. It is clearly more expensive, and there is no evidence that private companies deliver a better product. In fact, private insurance companies have to use unethical hard-sell scare tactics to sell the damn things. There are numerous myths by the insurance lobbyists to be debunked here (including the myth that low income or minority beneficiaries in rural or inner-city localities would be adversely effected).
By far, the best analysis of the facts regarding this bill can be found here.
Do yourself a favor and read it. Then contact Richard Burr here and ask him why he favors insurance companies over his constituents: military families, elderly, disabled, and doctors.
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Burr's vote explained
I'll write the guy, but to date he has never answered one of my letters. Not one.
How many more will go without healthcare due to this cut?
How many more military families, elderly, and disabled will go without healthcare due to this cut? That's something I have not heard any of the proponents of this cut mention.
NCDem Amy on YouTube
That depends...
Each doctor will need to decide individually if they will continue to see Tricare and Medicare if the cuts are enacted. Personally, I think the military families are in a much more vulnerable position. Tricare typically would be a much smaller percentage in most medical practices, so it would be easier for a practice to drop them.
Talk about adding insult to injury...soldiers get deployed for the 3rd time to Iraq or Afghanistan only to find out that no doctors will see their family members.
That will be a major issue here in the communities surrounding
Ft. Bragg.
This is a potential disaster.
Can we, instead, start talking about "for the good of North Carolina?" --Leslie H.
Pointing at Naked Emperors
Two of my children
were born at Cape Fear hospital in Fayetteville, because there were no beds available at Womack on FT. Bragg.
If they had sent us away or stuck us with a fat bill for "what your plan doesn't cover", I...don't know what we would have done. We were already perched on the edge of poverty as it was, and that would have pushed us right over.
and Bragg is bigger than it was when you were stationed there
There is already stress on the communities surrounded the base - more on Fayetteville than anywhere else, but even out here in Moore Co, and in Hoke, Harnett, etc., there are just more and more families coming in. If Tricare isn't accepted at medical facilities, it's going to be, as I said, a tragedy.
Can we, instead, start talking about "for the good of North Carolina?" --Leslie H.
Pointing at Naked Emperors
Was that from BRAC?
With all that money that's being saved from trimming bases, there should be more than enough to keep Tricare stable.
It is from BRAC
We're not seeing a lot of the savings out here in the outlying areas. Just lots of people moving in, needing all kinds of services, and needing them NOW. Ultimately good for an area's economy, I suppose, if the area is equipped to react. I don't think we were quite ready.
Can we, instead, start talking about "for the good of North Carolina?" --Leslie H.
Pointing at Naked Emperors
Bratton for Congress Position
This bill would have the effect of cutting access to care for seniors and also for military families because their Tricare payment fee schedules are tied to Medicare. Doctors will be forced to ration care to Medicare and Tricare recipients. As a former solo practitioner, I understand the financial challenge of providing quality health care in the face of rising costs of health insurance. I support replacing the flawed Medicare sustainable growth rate formula with a sensible formula of annual updates reflecting practice costs. This would eliminate the annual crisis in Congress over fair Medicare reimbursement to physicians. If voters in the Sixth Congressional District elect me in November to represent them in Congress, I will press for this badly needed reform.
Teresa Sue Bratton, M.D.
teresasuebrattonforcongress@gmail.com
www.teresasuebratton.com
Thanks for commenting, Dr. Bratton
I'm glad that you've got a grasp on this issue! It's only one of many that we'll need you to fix once you send old Howard packing.
I'm looking forward to seeing you the next time you're in Moore County.
Can we, instead, start talking about "for the good of North Carolina?" --Leslie H.
Pointing at Naked Emperors
Medicare.
I should be the last one to stand up for doctors. If they hadn't been gouging people in the 80s then HMOs would have never come into power. But, the fact is that even Medicare at its current rates is too low. Medicaid is also "tied" to Medicare and if Medicare goes down then Medicaid will go down. When BCBS recently lowered its payback to doctors to Medicare levels, for its PPO, we were forced to travel 30 miles to find an "in-network" provider for certain services. Meanwhile the higher-reimbursed HMO from BCBS had three in-network practitioners for those same services within one mile.
Doctors don't do well with Medicare at its current rates. I've been told by at least one physician that UNC Hospitals will be losing money on some types of patients if they are covered by the PPO, and they have been begging their patients not to switch to this coverage because of its Medicare-level payouts.