Doctors Press Senate to Undo Medicare Cuts

[ShockediSay]

Source: NYTimes

WASHINGTON — Congress returns to work this week with Medicare high on the agenda and Senate Republicans under pressure after a barrage of radio and television advertisements blamed them for a 10.6 percent cut in payments to doctors who care for millions of older Americans.

The advertisements, by the American Medical Association, urge Senate Republicans to reverse themselves and help pass legislation to fend off the cut.

How to pay doctors through the federal health insurance program is an issue that lawmakers are forced to confront every year because of what is widely agreed to be an outdated reimbursement formula. But the dispute, which showcases the continued potency of health care issues, has reached a new level of urgency this year. Some doctors are reassessing their participation in the program and powerful interests on all sides are in a lobbying frenzy.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/07/health/policy/07medicare.html

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It's the lobby lawyers, stupid,

the greatest hidden {corruption]
tax increase the American public
ever got, on account of the Bushies

[whistle]

1. If doctors accept Medicare they get absolutely minimal payments from

....secondary insurers. This is an insurance cartel driven move and must be stopped

[pattmarty]

2. As I stated in another thread on the same topic; just another.......

....."back door" way to disembowel Medicare and Medicaid. Sure, the insurance companies want this big time.

[ben_meyers]

3. Oh, the poor Doctors

they might have to give up some of their obscene profits. They should be nationalized and compensation set by the government like in many other countries.

[Diane R]

4. You might see if differently if you or your kid had gone a half million in debt to get a MD degree.

My son just graduated from the nations' top ranked Dental School. He is engaged to a girl who is finishing her pediatric residency. Between the two of them, their school loans are way over a half-million, and they've lost all the years of earning money while their peers worked, and they studied. Add to that the risk involved in providing medical care, and the overhead, and I don't begrudge them like you do.

It takes brains, sacrifice and lots and lots of lots of hard work to become a doctor. Yes, many of them make a lot of money, but I think your anger would be better spent on trust fund babies like the bush brats and the McCain kids.

[ben_meyers]

5. But wait, isn't that how universal health care works in

Britain, Canada and even Cuba? If the government is paying the bill won't they be in a position to set the rates? It should be non profit.

Maybe in addition to universal health coverage we will need to provide free medical training as well. That shouldn't cost much more.

[crimsonblue]

6. free medical training won't work

the quality of the education will be severely impacted (what doctor would volunteer to teach med students for pittance? The ones that would aren't worthy of teaching). Doctors provide an essential service and deserve to be justly compensated for their time and effort. I'd like to see you make a diagnosis of a patient that came in with no medical history, and sort out the thousands of drugs available to make the right choice so that you don't cause any allergic reactions. Doctor bashing isn't going to solve anything. The quality of care in the US is the best in the world, the problem is access. Britain has just as many access problems as the US does, without the great quality we do.

[crimsonblue]

7. i couldn't agree more

People think that med school is easy and that anyone can do it. There's a reason that med school is so competetive and expensive-- 1)the students are being taught and trained by professionals with good credentials in their field (and in order to get good doctors to teach, reasonable compensation is necessary), 2) med students deal with real patients during their training, and the medical malpractice costs for students is ridiculous (which the school almost always covers), 3) The vast majority of doctors are not surgeons; most are generalized practice of some sort. The specialists that do make the most: cardiologists, radiologists, specialized surgeons, have an increased risk associated with their job (namely, greater likelyhood of patient death which raises malpractice premiums, high stress, and terrible hours). Most doctors deserve every cent they make, as most work 40+ hours a week. Also, in many hospitals or practices, the doctors themselves have no control over billing, and therefore must accept the guidelines in place. This is especially troublesome in more rural areas.

[ShockediSay]

8. somehow,some way, this kind of debt needs

to be rescheduled