Sunday, August 12, 2007

Destroy Medicare

It has long been a goal of those who would destroy FDR's legacy to destroy both Social Security and Medicare. In the last 6 years steps have been taken to make Medicare harder to use and less palatable to users.
1. Medicare Advantage plans are heavily subsidized, have resorted to fraud and denial of care to pad their profits. They are also not available to people in rural areas.
2. Experimental Medicare plans offer bonuses to groups that are able to cut spending (mostly by denying care and cutting off expensive patients).
3. Medicare is cutting payments to MD's by 10% across the board. This will result in fewer doctors taking Medicare patients and more complaints about inability to find a doctor. Also Medicare continues to cut payments to hospitals.
4. Medicare's resources are being drained by the Medicare drug bill which is just a huge source of income for big Pharma.
The more Medicare is destroyed and the more older people complain about Medicare the less likely it is that we will have a single payer health plan for all Americans and the further down the toilet our health system will go. We will have the best health care in the world for the rich and famous.

No comments: