Cuts to health care are looming Hospitals, nursing homes eye layoffs Sunday, August 7, 2011 By Sara Foss (Contact) Gazette Reporter
CAPITAL REGION — Under the debt ceiling agreement reached earlier this month, hospitals and nursing homes are bracing for spending cuts they say could hurt patient care. Health care providers warn they will be forced to lay off staff and eliminate services, that wait times will increase and it will be harder to schedule appointments. William Van Slyke, a spokesman for the Healthcare Association of New York State, which represents hospitals, said the impact of the debt ceiling agreement will likely vary from region to region, with rural areas more likely to experience shortages in physicians and specialists. “Every health care market is unique,” Van Slyke said. “Everybody’s struggle is a little bit different.” The debt ceiling deal calls for reimbursement cuts to Medicare providers that will result in lower payments to hospitals, doctors, nursing homes and other providers of Medicare services. The cuts have yet to be specified, but a 12-member “super committee” has been tasked with cutting federal spending by $1.5 trillion, and health care experts expect both Medicare, the federal health care program for seniors, and Medicaid, the federal health care program for the poor, to be on the table. If the super committee fails to agree on a deficit reduction plan, $1.2 trillion in across-the-board spending cuts in a wide variety of federal programs will be triggered, including a 2 percent cut to Medicare provider payments that would go into effect in 2013. “We don’t know what is going to come out of the Group of 12,” said Tricia Neuman, a senior vice president at the Kaiser Family Foundation, a private foundation in California that focuses on health care issues. “It’s awfully hard to anticipate what the effect will be. If they do come to an agreement, the effect will obviously depend on whatever agreement they come up with.” Several Medicare savings proposals have been discussed over the past year, such as raising the eligibility age from 65 to 67, raising premiums for high-income seniors, and increasing deductibles and co-payments. “A whole smorgasbord could be on the table,” said Neuman, who directs the program on Medicare policy at Kaiser.................................>>>>..........................>>>>.......................http://www.dailygazette.com/news/2011/aug/07/0807_cuts/
Under the debt ceiling agreement reached earlier this month, hospitals and nursing homes are bracing for spending cuts they say could hurt patient care. Health care providers warn they will be forced to lay off staff and eliminate services, that wait times will increase and it will be harder to schedule appointments.
That is the Conservative plan. The Rich will not be effected by these changes... the rest of us, of course, will pay the price in medical care. Vote Conservative if you want more of the same!
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. John Kenneth Galbraith
Just what do you think Obama care is going to do when it goes into effect and the country doesn't have the money to pay for it. Remember that there will be 500 million in Medicare cuts due in the near future already. You're right Box the rich won't be suffering and neither will Congress who voted for this plan because the taxpayer will be paying for their Cadillac health-care plan. This debt deal is about as conservative as FDR's new deal was. This is why an all government provided entitlement system will never work, they keep running out of other peoples money far too soon.
This was going to happen no matter what. Part of obamacare was going to be funded by medicare/medicaid cuts. The reps and dems knew this. The long term goal is to desolve both medicare/medicaid and have only ONE government healthcare system. And since it would end up being the 'largest' health care provider........private doctors that refuse to accept the payouts from the government run health care would soon be out of business since the private insurance companies will no longer be able to compete.
So this is nothing new.......it was the plan all along. And both the dems and reps and everyone else in congress/whitehouse knows it.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
I was talking to a couple of doctors who don't take any insurance or Medicare/Medicaid payments but deal with cash only. They said it eliminates the fight with getting insurance companies to pay for procedures and it eliminates all the paper work associated with insurance of all types especially Medicare/Medicaid.
I was talking to a couple of doctors who don't take any insurance or Medicare/Medicaid payments but deal with cash only. They said it eliminates the fight with getting insurance companies to pay for procedures and it eliminates all the paper work associated with insurance of all types especially Medicare/Medicaid.
Plus ( the more likely reason) when they take only cash, they put the cash in their pocket at the end of the day 'tax free'.
How did Leona Helmsley put it: ~ " "We don't pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes."
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. John Kenneth Galbraith
Doctors are free to do whatever they want in order to stay in business and eliminate all the red tape and regulations that the government has put on them. If they get caught not claiming revenue in order to avoid paying taxes then we have laws that would put them in jail for tax evasion.
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