Medicare bill a study in D.C. spoils system

[wellst0nev0ter]

Read it and weep :eyes: :

What once began as a proposal for $253 billion in drug coverage for seniors four years ago grew to a $400 billion grab bag for a broad spectrum of players in the health-care economy. The staggering costs rose yet another 33 percent when the Bush administration unveiled an estimate this year that it had kept quiet during the 2003 debate over Medicare: $534 billion.

Congressional leaders rewarded university medical centers, publicly traded hospital companies, physicians, helicopter ambulance companies, hospice providers, nursing providers, dialysis clinics, insurance firms, and more. The bill benefited premier teaching hospitals from Boston to Houston. Doctors in Alaska got an extra $50 million. Cancer institutes with outreach programs for Native Americans got access to government loans they never have to pay back.

The additions, which some supporters say were necessary to win support for the bill, help explain how such a massively expensive bill, contributing to record 17.4 percent Medicare premium increases this year, could provide a prescription drug benefit that is viewed as inadequate by many seniors. The actual costs of the bill are still being debated 10 months after its passage, triggering calls in some quarters of Congress to roll back some provisions

LINK

Also, I don't know why I haven't seen these other tear-jerkers on these forums:

Part One

Part Two

[punpirate]

1. Someone did post the first installment...

... today or yesterday.

Thanks for getting the other two up--I didn't realize it would be three installments over three days.

Yeah, pretty crummy assessment of what the system has become. *sigh*

[wellst0nev0ter]

2. Kick

:kick: