Medicare Maneuvers, Part 3: The Insurer Showdown
July 16, 2008
It seems that Harry Reid gambled and won. In our previous two posts we described the battle being waged in Congress over the proposed 11% paycuts to Medicare physicians. After the Independence Day recess, the Senate Majority Leader and advocacy groups working on behalf of doctors and seniors - as well as informed and angry constituents - were able to put enough pressure on Senate Republicans to finally cross the aisle.
But party lines weren’t the real issue. The two sides squaring off in this debate were private insurers versus the average American. Why? Two words: Medicare Advantage.
As discussed in our July 2 post, Medicare Advantage came about when insurers convinced government that they were getting good at cutting spending on health care, and that maybe the government should learn from some of their tactics. Heck, they said, let’s just let insurers do the job themselves!
Medicare Maneuvers, Part 2: The Solution?
July 3, 2008
As we wrote about yesterday, payment cuts for doctors who treat Medicare patients finally went into effect July 1. Unfortunately, the first legislative attempt to block the looming doctor payment cuts didn’t come until the end of 2007, and was part of the doomed legislation to improve public funding for children’s health care (see WhatIf’s piece on SCHIP). With the competing SCHIP bills finally all defeated this spring by Presidential vetoes and Republican opposition, there was little time left to deal with doctor payment cuts before the July deadline.
Medicare Maneuvers, Part 1: The Problem
July 2, 2008
Payment cuts for doctors who treat Medicare patients - which have been looming for about a year - finally went into effect yesterday. The payment cuts of 10.6% will affect the 600,000 doctors who treat Medicare patients, and thus millions of elderly and disabled Medicare enrollees who rely on them.
Maybe if you’re under 65 and/or not relying on government health care benefits you think this isn’t your problem. You’re wrong.
A little history (based on the writings of Jonathan Cohn):
Blame the Boomers?
March 18, 2008
It’s long been the assumption that what’s driving the rise in health care costs is our aging population and in particular, the baby boomers. As folks get older, they get sicker and more fragile – need more health care treatment and medicines. As the baby-boomers hit their sixties, people are assuming that our nation’s health care spending is going up accordingly.
But experts now say shifting demographics isn’t the main cause of our costs problem. The Congressional Budget Office has issued a new report finding that unnecessary tests and treatments are to blame. CBO Director Peter Orzsag has stated that if nothing is done these costs will consume half the U.S. economy before the end of this century.
The Last Frontier in Outsourcing?
March 12, 2008
With the costs of US health care rising along with growing awareness of its oftentimes comparatively poor quality, more and more Americans are going abroad for health treatment - half a million in 2005 - mostly to Mexico and other Latin American countries.
The loss of American manufacturing jobs was the first casualty of the global economy. Many thought service jobs would be safe: you can’t have your latte poured or your office cleaned by someone in another country. But as American telecommunications and technology jobs have drifted to India and elsewhere, health care jobs seem to be following suit.
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