Medicare Fee Dispute Puts McCain on the Spot With Elderly, Their Doctors

[Purveyor]

Source: Bloomberg

July 9 (Bloomberg) -- Senator John McCain will be on the spot, in person or by his absence, when the Senate takes up a measure today to halt a cut in Medicare payments to doctors.

Republicans have stalled Democratic-backed legislation to reverse the 10.6 percent cut in doctors' fees by reducing payments to insurance companies instead. Democrats on June 26 fell one senator short of the 60 they will need to force a floor vote. Two senators were absent: Edward Kennedy, a Democrat from Massachusetts who is being treated for brain cancer, and McCain of Arizona, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.

For McCain, whose schedule indicates he will campaign today in Pennsylvania and Ohio and whose office won't say whether he'll show up in the Senate, the vote is a political dilemma.

``In one case McCain could be voting against his party and in the other he could be voting against an issue framed as pro- senior and pro-physician,'' Robert Blendon, a health policy professor at Harvard University's School of Public Health in Boston, said in a telephone interview yesterday.
---
Democrats said they will blame McCain if the Medicare measure falls short again today.

``I don't know what Senator McCain's position on this is,'' Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, the deputy Democratic leader, said on the Senate floor yesterday. ``I hope he's for Medicare. It's time for Senator McCain to make his position clear and return to the Senate for this critically important vote.''

Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=agX1b8egpse8&refer=us

[fmlymninral]

1. what this article does not say

is that through Medicare advantage plans the senior citizens has better insurance than original Medicare. Most seniors need to buy a supplement plan to cover the expenses Medicare does not. the cost in NC for a 65 year old male is around $120 per month. The Advantage plans cost the senior no additional money unless they go to the doctor then they have co-pays like most health insurance. these plans also provide benefits that traditional Medicare does not like yearly physicals. Some also have the Medicare part d built into them. For the low income these plans are a great advantage over traditional Medicare. Medicare advantage plans also help States with their medicaid budgets as it limits the cost exposure to Medicaid.

[azurnoir]

2. So you support the GOP position?

Thanks or pointing out that MediCare advantage costs nothing, unless you use it, that is.

Welcome to DU

[nancyr]

5. My point exactly.

[Ian David]

3. Thanks, Ms. Burnett. n/t

[nancyr]

4. I don't see your logic....

As long as a person never sees a doctor this might work fine. The majority of people on Medicare do need occasional medical care, and it's the 20% co-pay that adds up faster than what they might pay for the supplemental. I'd rather pay the supplemental and know for a fact that that 20% is paid for. In my case, I'd be totally broke if I had to pay the 20% out of my own pocket. I fail to see how this makes Medicare Advantage the better option. I am one of those low-income people you mention, and I am very satisfied with my supplemental plan for which I pay $85 a month. Go see a doctor and have some tests done and see if the 20% isn't astronomical.

[hadrons]

7. "Advantage plans cost the senior no additional money unless they go to the doctor...."

So how does this help a senior who has to visit the doctor regularly?

[northernlights]

8. what the article does point out is...

"Medicare Advantage plans...are paid on average 13 percent more than it costs the government to provide benefits directly."

So they're skimming from both sides -- higher payments from the government PLUS copays from the sickest patients who can least afford it.

And ou're suggesting that the insurance bureaucrats should get more government money than the doctors who actually provide the service?

News for you. Those insurance bureaucrats didn't 1. pay (or go into school debt for) hundreds of thousands of dollars and 2. invest thousands of hours and years of hard work into learning a specialized skill. They are an impediment to healthcare, not a help.

Lower the doctor's fees enough and see how many are forced to turn away medicare and medicare advantage patients because they simply can't afford to.


Ahhhh...18 posts. A rightwing shill sent to spread rightwing propaganda. :eyes:

[Nickster]

Exactly, thank you.

[CountAllVotes]

9. that is not true

The cost around here is $800.00 a month for the supplemental insurance. If Medicare doesn't cover it, the supplemental doesn't cover it.

[SharonAnn]

10. Medicare Advantage Plans are subsidized by the Fed. gov't. They cost

the taxpayer more than regular Medicare.

If "Private Enterprise" is so great, why does it cost more that gov't administered medicare?

[pattmarty]

6. Good. He will be damned if he does (vote against it), and.......

..........damned if he doesn't (show up for the vote), and THEN the Dems will have a cause they can really hurt him with, especially if they are stopped short by 1 vote again.

[Doctor_J]

11. why should he care? If he didn't have the House health plan, he'd have Cindy's $100,000,000

to pay for health care.

[GoldenOldie]

12. Medicare Advantage Plan = Original Medicare privatized

The insurance corporations with the aid of elected reps, have been slowly selling Americans who not only have Medicare or paying into Medicare for future protection and have supplemental insurance paid by themselves or their companies. The are stating that by the Corporate Insurance brokers processing all claims along with "WE the Peoples," Medicare portion, health care costs will be reduced??? Corporate Insurance companies will determines who gets care, what they will pay, etc., etc., etc. Just as Halliburton, KBR, etc., is answerable to no one, Medicare Advantage follows suit. Medicare no longer will be a health program for "We the People," but profits for the corporates.

This ='s PRIVATIZATION! Sneaky little bastards!