Latest Simpson-Bowles health plan stirs worry but lacks detail

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

Latest Simpson-Bowles health plan stirs worry but lacks detail

By David Morgan
WASHINGTON | Sun Feb 24, 2013 11:35am EST

(Reuters) - A new bipartisan deficit-reduction plan to slash a massive $600 billion from U.S. healthcare spending over two decades has policy experts scratching their heads over how such an ambitious target can be reached.

Democrat Erskine Bowles and Republican Alan Simpson have yet to declare what they would do to wring savings from Medicare, Medicaid and other programs, according to analysts who provide the two deficit hawks with their facts and figures.

Those ideas will be laid out in a detailed plan due to be issued at some point over the coming weeks.

But policy experts say the latest Simpson-Bowles plan may call for politically unpalatable steps, such as an increase in the Medicare eligibility age and a phasing out of the tax protection for employer-sponsored health insurance plans.

[font size=1]-snip-[/font]

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/24/us-usa-fiscal-healthcare-idUSBRE91N0AE20130224

[Lasher]

1. Bipartisan, my ass.

Last edited Mon Feb 25, 2013, 05:06 PM - Edit history (2)

Every time Uncle Scrooge and his twin brother decide to fart in unison, the press reports another "bipartisan" plan. Their now-defunct Catfood Commission recommended nothing and now they're just two private citizens pretending to have some sort of official capacity.