General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Our first medical procedures under Medicare [View all]DFW
(54,817 posts)While wasting away from pancreatic cancer in 2000, there was a cost-reducing proposal put forward to reduce the amount of coverage that Medicare provided for outpatient surgery from 95% to 85%. My dad, knowing full well about the costs of in-patient and out-patient care at that point, arranged a conference call with then Senator Moynihan of New York and the Clinton White House, warning them that implementing such a plan would only cause lower income patients to all demand the higher coverage (95%) in-patient care, and caost the government untold billions more than under the old plan.
A few clicks of calculators later, they both agreed he was right, and the measure was dropped like a hot potato. Kinda scary when a single journalist, wasting away in his sickbed, can figure out something like that where a sympathetic Senate and White House can't.