The so-called party of fiscal conservatism is fighting spending cuts in one of the most bloated social welfare programs in the Federal Budget:
After years of trying to cut Medicare spending, Republican lawmakers have emerged as champions of the program, accusing Democrats of trying to steal from the elderly to cover the cost of health reform.
It’s a lonely battle. The hospital associations, AARP and other powerful interest groups that usually howl over Medicare cuts have also switched sides. Last week, they stood silent as the Senate Finance Committee debated a plan to slice more than $400 billion over the next decade from Medicare, the revered federal insurance program for people over 65, and Medicaid, which also serves many seniors.
With the Finance Committee set to resume deliberations Tuesday, cuts to government health programs are expected to account for at least half the funding for its health-care reform package. A competing bill drafted by House leaders would cut spending even more sharply.
AARP and other groups say the cuts are small enough to be absorbed without affecting services, and many health policy analysts tend to agree. But the size of the cuts is less relevant than the widespread calculation that health-care providers and their most frequent patients have much to gain from President Obama’s overhaul of the nation’s health system.
Cutting Medicare does not necessarily mean reducing spending but rather slowing its rate of growth. Such efforts are usually aimed at reducing the federal budget deficit. Spending is cut, and, from the perspective of doctors, hospitals and other providers, the cash disappears. This time the cuts would finance a vast expansion of coverage for the uninsured, creating a new pool of nearly 30 million customers. Earlier this year, industry groups agreed in talks with the White House to forgo billions in Medicare and Medicaid payments to help cover the cost of reform.
The reasons for the Republican switch are, of course, pure political cynicism.
The same polls that show that older Americans oppose health care reform also show that they oppose cuts in Medicare. When 2010 comes along, you can rest assured that the GOP will be running ads telling elderly voters that they fought to “save” Medicare while the Democrats wanted to cut it.
For the rest of us, though, stuff like this should be all the confirmation we need that the Republican Party cannot be trusted to live up to it’s limited government rhetoric.
September 28th, 2009 at 1:43 pm
Whoa Doug! Cut through the WP spin and read the core claim. Medicare cost get cut without any real reduction in services and the savings from those cuts get transferred to to Obamacare. Do you believe that?
Looks to me like it’s another one of those let’s increase the size of the government, by getting something for nothing schemes — a fraud almost for sure. If there are real savings to be had, bank those savings to prove and then use the program for capturing those savings as a blueprint to improving the system.
Providers are buying into this deal because they know Feds will pay more down the road, providers are not dumb.
September 28th, 2009 at 11:01 pm
Medicare, like all government programs, does have room for getting rid of waste. However, the Democrats biggest “waste” target is the Advantage program.
Medicare’s own audits (the few they do) show Advantage is about 20% more cost effective than standard medicare, and has higher patient satisfaction. So why cut it… Oh yeah, insurance companies manage that program, and they are now evil.
Seriously, cutting reimbursement rates (again) isn’t the answer either. Medicare and Medicaid both pay about 25% less than standard insurance. That has driven up costs for the rest of us, and caused about 15% of medicare providers to quit accepting new patients over the last decade.