Newt Gingrich lies in an Atlanta Journal Constitution editorial

[groundloop]

http://www.ajc.com/opinion/reform-would-gut-home-128163.html

My blood pressure just peaked as I read this ass' lies. Everybody needs to flood the AJC with emails about this.



Reform would gut home health care - By Newt Gingrich and Nancy Desmond



The leukemia patient spent only four days instead of many weeks in the hospital thanks to home health care services that send a nurse to his Statenville home to help administer the antibiotics.

In a cost-efficient move, Medicare pays for home health care to keep patients out of hospitals — a program combining efficiency with compassion.

“Considering this versus 10 weeks of hospitalization, there is no comparison,” Cox said. “You get to rest at home and carry on in your own surroundings. It is a far more convenient and healing way of being treated than being in the hospital.”

But if President Barack Obama and Congress have their way, Cox and many of the other 3.2 million other Medicare patients who utilize home health care benefits could be cut off next year.

Congress may not have adopted a health reform bill yet, but the administration and Congress are already taking steps to ration cost-effective and life-saving programs such as home health care.

Bureaucrats at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issued an administrative order last month, cutting $34 billion from home health care programs for Medicare over the next 10 years.

In addition, the proposed health care reform bill in the House includes $56.8 billion in cuts to home health care services under Medicare.

That’s almost the entire federal budget for home health care services in 2007.

If either of these cuts stands, they would likely put more than two-thirds of the nation’s approximately 9,800 home health care providers out of business in the next two years.

Rather than target the crooks that rip off the taxpayers to the tune of $80 billion to $120 billion annually in the current Medicare and Medicaid programs, the administration and Congress are turning their guns on the defenseless: homebound patients who need help feeding, dressing, taking their medication or even utilizing the bathroom.

A recent study released by Avalere Health LLC found that early use of home health care after hospitalization for those with chronic disease saved Medicare $1.71 billion over two years from 2005-06. Those patients were significantly less likely to be readmitted to a hospital, the study found.

Home health care produces better health care outcomes by keeping patients out of hospitals or nursing homes and helping them heal in a more personalized setting, according to studies by the Rand Corporation.

Another study found patients with congestive heart failure who had home health monitoring had hospitalization rates drop by more than half.

Yet, rather than identifying and stopping the specific scam artists, Washington would rather gut home health care to fund a public health insurance system the majority of Americans don’t want.

In our recent book, “Stop Paying the Crooks” edited by Jim Frogue, we at the Center for Health Transformation have documented specific examples of government health care programs paying crooks, such as men earning maternity; pizza parlors being paid as HIV transfusion centers; and dead patients earning federal health care benefits.

We’re not talking about inadvertent billing errors here. We’re talking about outright fraud going on in the Medicare and Medicaid systems that is not being addressed.

If there was ever a reason not to embark on another government health program, this is it. Government can’t get the details right.

Rather than targeting the scam artists that infiltrate the system, they totally gouge the home health care program — a program that, when managed properly, helps make the existing health care model more efficient.

Every one of the 3.2 million Medicare patients who utilize home health services will be the first victims of health care rationing as a result of the 2009 Obama administration health care reform movement.

This gives all of us a glimpse into the future of life in a Washington-run health care system.

As economist Milton Friedman once said, “There is no such thing as a free lunch.”

Unfortunately, it is the home-bound, the very sick and the disabled who may be the first who will have to pay the price for the politicians so hellbent on financing “free” health care for all.


Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia is the founder of the Center for Health Transformation. Nancy Desmond is the center’s president and CEO.

[marmar]

1. Newt Gingrich lied? ..... What's next? Wet Water?

n/t

[WCGreen]

2. the key here is that the savings they are going to cut out of the

present system has nothing to do with the old guy getting his IV given at home.

(BTW, I did this last year and I thought it was pretty cool, giving myself Iv's while I was comfortable in my bed with my food and, well, all the comforts at home.)

I believe that savings will come from the outright purchase of home medical equipment that is now being rented to patients. for instance, my O2 device sells for about $ 1,200. Insurance and medicare pay out any where from $75 to $125 per month. Buying the equipment is where, I believe, the savings are going to come from.

[rurallib]

3. Newt praises Medicare to target 'socialized' medicine?

:eyes: :eyes: :wtf:
it is ironical irony

[madrchsod]

4. i had a serious infection that needed doctors care three times a week

he and i decided that i could do what he was doing. instead of three visits it became one visit. this saved me about 10 office visits and about 600 hundred dollars.

[madmom]

5. I had a shoulder injury that I needed physical therapy for. After the initial

therapy got me to where I was doing simple exercises I told them I could do these at home. Why pay co-pays for every visit (2x week) My shoulder is fine now for the most part.

[Demeter]

6. For a Moment I thought I'd Read "Newt Gingrich Dies"

but disappointment set in as soon as I blinked...

[JHB]

7. Newt has dmonstrated (repeatedly) that he will say ANYTHING...

...that pushes his agenda (or that of his sponsors), or which riles up his "base", often both at the same time, and with a spectacular disregard of actual facts.

(That last part isn't just about a dispute as to what the facts are; he's mouthed off proclamations on subjects before the actual facts of the case had been determined.)

Newt's disregard for truth and facts is so marked, severe, and consistent that anything with his name on it has ZERO information value. Nothing can be take for granted.