No ruckus about Medicare cuts in sequester

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Feb 27, 2:07 PM EST
No ruckus about Medicare cuts in sequester
By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Hospitals, doctors and other Medicare providers are on the hook for a 2 percent cut under looming government spending reductions. But they're not raising a ruckus. Why?

The pain could be a lot worse if President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans actually did reach a sweeping agreement to reduce federal deficits.

Automatic cuts taking effect Friday - the "sequester" in Washington-speak - would reduce Medicare spending by about $100 billion over a decade. But Obama had put on the table $400 billion in health care cuts, mainly from Medicare. And Republicans wanted more.

"What people were really worried about was the prospect of a huge deficit bill that could target Medicare for $400 billion or $500 billion," said John Rother, president of the National Coalition on Health Care, an umbrella group that includes service providers.