Come Again?

[babylonsister]

They are so shameless. I'm glad someone is calling them on their lies in the NYT.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/22/opinion/22sun1.html?_r=1&hp

Come Again?
Published: August 21, 2010



Republicans claim to be deeply worried about the deficit — their favorite political target, followed closely by President Obama’s relentlessly demonized health care reform. So why are they so determined to overturn one of the central cost-control mechanisms of the new reform law?

snip//

That has not stopped Senator John Cornyn of Texas from trying to kill off the board. In July, he introduced the ever so cutely named “Health Care Bureaucrats Elimination Act.” It currently has 11 co-sponsors, and a similar version, introduced earlier in the House by the Republican Phil Roe of Tennessee, has 54 co-sponsors.

Neither bill will go anywhere so long as the Democrats run Congress, but expect to hear a lot of hype about bureaucrats hijacking health care — and nothing about the needed savings — in this fall’s campaign.

Republicans are also eagerly attacking another important source of savings: the new law’s elimination of the subsidies given to the private managed-care plans known as Medicare Advantage. That is projected to save $132 billion over the next decade, but don’t expect to hear about that part on the campaign trail.

Instead, Republicans are warning seniors enrolled in these plans that their coverage may disappear. Senator John Barrasso, Republican of Wyoming, even charged that the cuts would “kill” the Medicare Advantage program, which now serves some 11 million beneficiaries. That is preposterous.

The law simply forces managed-care plans to compete on an even basis with the traditional Medicare program. Some beneficiaries may face higher costs or lose some gold-plated benefits, but only the most inefficient plans will disappear when the unjustified subsidies that are propping them up are withdrawn.

Republicans are also eagerly, and shamefully, pillorying Dr. Donald Berwick, the new head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. There are few figures who command greater respect for uniting health professionals and institutions to improve the quality of medical care while reducing costs. That is not stopping these critics from implying — baselessly — that he will introduce socialized medicine and death panels in this country.

more...

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/22/opinion/22sun1.html?_r=1&hp

[Clio the Leo]

1. kick nt

[saltpoint]

2. K & R

:hi:

[Moosepoop]

3. K&R! n/t