Republicans and Medicare - Krugman

[groovedaddy]

“Don’t cut Medicare. The reform bills passed by the House and Senate cut Medicare by approximately $500 billion. This is wrong.” So declared Newt Gingrich, the former speaker of the House, in a recent op-ed article written with John Goodman, the president of the National Center for Policy Analysis.

And irony died.

Now, Mr. Gingrich was just repeating the current party line. Furious denunciations of any effort to seek cost savings in Medicare — death panels! — have been central to Republican efforts to demonize health reform. What’s amazing, however, is that they’re getting away with it.

Why is this amazing? It’s not just the fact that Republicans are now posing as staunch defenders of a program they have hated ever since the days when Ronald Reagan warned that Medicare would destroy America’s freedom. Nor is it even the fact that, as House speaker, Mr. Gingrich personally tried to ram through deep cuts in Medicare — and, in 1995, went so far as to shut down the federal government in an attempt to bully Bill Clinton into accepting those cuts.

After all, you could explain this about-face by supposing that Republicans have had a change of heart, that they have finally realized just how much good Medicare does. And if you believe that, I’ve got some mortgage-backed securities you might want to buy.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/12/opinion/12krugman.html?th&emc=th

[applegrove]

1. Yup. GOP can't alienate those seniors on medicare. That is their base.

I just hope Pelosi and Reid can get the HCR bill through congress. I'm crossing my fingers. We should never have lost that seat in Boston.

[busymom]

2. The CMS

just made drastic and sweeping medicare reimbursement cuts through the back door while we were all looking at the HCR bill. If there are any more medicare cuts made in the name of cost saving, hospitals will start to close doors...and not just to seniors. MRI machines, PET scanners, nurses, PCA's...it is NOT free.

Seriously...I'm a democrat...but I think some people here are just plain living under a rock! As it is, medicare barely covers costs. In many cases, medicare pays less than the cost of overhead for procedures. By that, I mean, covering the cost of lab techs, x-ray techs, nurses, electricity, etc. If more medicare payments are cut, hospitals will not be able to keep going. You aren't just talking pay cuts to physicians (whom I know everyone here loves to hate) but we are talking reducing pay to nurses, reducing nursing jobs, lower pay to lab techs and less lab tech jobs...cuts across the board...

Also, if pay cuts are going to be so drastic for doctors, fewer qualified people will be willing to go into debt of $150,000 plus and invest many years of residency/fellowship training in order to become qualified physicians. What will this do to the overall quality of medical care? Many clinics now are run mainly by mid-level providers. I have respect for mid-levels, but they have limitations.

Think about it...at your current job that you are at, your employer tells you that even though they value you, they are going to pay you 30% less. They expect you to do more work, work weekends and evenings and to have a good attitude while you do it. You will not be compensated for overtime or the level of difficulty of your job. If you have fixed costs, like house payments, car payments, etc ... that is your tough luck.