Medicare Bill Would Enrich Companies..$125 Billion More For Employers

[cthrumatrix]

Medicare Bill Would Enrich Companies
$125 Billion More for Employers, Health Firms
By Amy Goldstein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, November 24, 2003; Page A01


The Medicare legislation that passed the House near dawn on Saturday and is moving toward a final vote in the Senate would steer at least $125 billion over the next decade in extra assistance to the health care industry and U.S. businesses, in addition to its widely heralded goal of helping older Americans pay for prescription drugs.

The largest chunk of that assistance, according to congressional budget estimates, would be $86 billion worth of payments and tax benefits for employers, giving them a new subsidy for the health benefits that many already provide to retirees. Health maintenance organizations, hospitals and physicians also would be paid more by the government for treating the 40 million elderly and disabled people in Medicare, the estimates show.

Whether this extra money, part of a $400 billion plan to redesign the program, is warranted remains a matter of intense debate. Regardless of whether the payments are needed, the bill's generosity to employers and major sectors of the medical industry helps explain the aggressive lobbying campaigns for the legislation by groups including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the American Medical Association.

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Thomas A. Scully, administrator of the federal agency that runs Medicare, said employers "should be having a giant ticker-tape parade." Scully recalled that he and Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson met in the spring with labor and corporate leaders -- including the chairmen of General Motors Corp., General Electric Co. and a major steel manufacturer. "Their joint plea was, retiree health costs are an unbelievable burden." They requested what Scully called "a modest buyout," equivalent to perhaps $350 per retiree. The bill, he said, provides more than twice that amount, a sum "way beyond their wildest requests."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8790-2003Nov23.html

[cthrumatrix]

1. Surely, the doctors are mad.....no....they get more money as well

Similarly, the American Medical Association has mounted a grass-roots campaign in which about 10,000 doctors and their patients have contacted their congressional representatives in recent weeks, urging them to vote for the measure. The bill would cancel a planned decrease in Medicare's payments to physicians for the next two years, providing them a small increase instead. That would give doctors an extra $2.5 billion over the next five years, although the money would be decreased after that.

Together with special physician subsidies in rural communities, the bill would give physicians $1.9 billion more in Medicare payments during the next decade than they would get otherwise, the budget analyses show.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8790-2003Nov23.html

[cthrumatrix]

2. Surely, the hospitals must be mad...nope...they get more money too

Hospitals would get nearly $24 billion extra over the next decade, about two-thirds of it in rural areas. The rest would be used to help defray the cost of new technologies and training doctors and to give all hospitals a bigger boost for inflation next year than the House originally wanted.

"I really take issue with anyone who would question the need of those hospitals that are critical to Medicare beneficiaries," said Charles N. Kahn III, president of the Federation of American Hospitals. But health policy analyst Gail Wilensky, a Republican who used to run Medicare, said hospitals rarely have received as much money to cope with rising costs as they would get from the bill.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8790-2003Nov23.html

[joanski01]

4. Yep. Everybody gets

richer, except for the poor people. Typical.

[0007]

3. junior has indeed done a great service for the wealthy again...

...I'm amazed that bill will be passed, and even more amazed that Senators such as senator feinstein would vote for it!

This will do great damage in years to come and will be extremely hard to reverse even if the dems ever get back in power.

I'm saddened.

[cthrumatrix]

5. The sad part is there is not a "easy explanation" of anything for seniors

and others citizens to see how we get screwed...the press takes more time reviewing Micheal Jackson then they do outlining something that affects their daily health.

The media has a chance here to educate ... but they are owned by big business ....