Medicare

I have always maintained that the only way to save Medicare is to ration benefits. We have been doing this right along but without bringing it to the attention of the general public. Donald Berwick was appointed by Obama as head of the Center for Medical Services and he praised the British health care system and said the only way to maintain it was through income redistribution. He concluded that rationing had been going on under the radar but it must be made public. Forgetting all of the treatments that are adjusted for Medicare patients and concentrating on the finances, it is well known that for every dollar the hospital spends on Medicare patients the government only reimburses them 85 cents. What this does is skew the cost away from Medicare and onto the private system since hospitals make up this 15% by charging private patients more. Obama care impacts Medicare by limiting the growth of Medicare and by committee cutting fees to doctors and hospitals if the growth exceeds a given amount. So while treatment cannot be cut directly it can be adversely effected by availability of doctors care and hospital cost. Obama care creates no new doctors but allows seniors to have free physicals and other preventive benefits and this puts more pressure on doctors, many of who will decline to accept Medicare patients. When doctors are paid more to quickly see a 30-year-old with a sore throat or do a wellness checkup than to see a 75-year-old with 25 complex medical problems who needs help to get on an exam table, Medicare patients may be crowded out. With the demise of the super committee there lies looming ahead a 27% cut in doctor’s fees unless congress acts What all this means is that we are heading for rationing which is the only possible way to reduce cost. It is just not politically smart to describe this rationing as death panels but the fact remains that rationing is inevitable.