When people were warned that seniors would pay a terrible price for Obamacare, they were pooh-poohed. Well, reality, as usual, has delivered a brickbat up the side of the head.
From Maggie's Notebook:
"Astoundingly, doctors will be paid less to treat a senior than to treat someone on Medicaid, and only about one-third of what a doctor will be paid to treat a patient with private insurance.
On July 13, 2011, Richard Foster, chief actuary for Medicare, warned Congress that seniors will have difficulty finding doctors and hospitals to accept Medicare. Doctors who do continue to take it will not want to spend time doing procedures such as knee replacements when the pay is so low. Yet the law bars them from providing care their patients need for an extra fee. You’re trapped.
Medicare patients paid into their future medical coverage under Medicare their entire working life. A portion of every Social Security contribution was dedicated to future Medicare coverage, but what has the Medicaid patient paid? In some cases, nothing – ever."
The obvious question is "Why". On the surface, this makes no sense. Let's ask two questions.
1. If this is a simple attempt to control cost, why is it illegal for a senior to pay from their own pocket to make up for the gap?
2. Why are Medicaid reimbursements higher than Medicare? That appears to shoot down the cost control argument.
From Accuracy In Media
"In addition to the across-the-board cuts, the Obama administration will now impose a new measure on hospitals: “Medicare spending per beneficiary.” Hospitals that spend the least on seniors get bonus points, and higher-spending hospitals get demerits.
Hospitals will even be penalized for care consumed up to 30 days after patients are discharged, for example, for outpatient physical therapy following a hip or knee replacement.
There are ways to control Medicare spending, such as inching up the eligibility age or asking well-off seniors to pay more. Forcing hospitals to skimp on care is deadly.
Research sponsored by the National Institute on Aging (Annals of Internal Medicine, February 2011) shows that heart attack patients at the lowest-spending hospitals are 19% more likely to die than patients of the same age at higher-spending hospitals. Yet the Obama health law pushes all hospitals to imitate the lowest spending ones.
Ignore the political rhetoric and look at the scientific evidence. The Medicare cuts in the Obama health law will end Medicare as we’ve known it and doom seniors to painful aging and shorter lives."
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Can the following happen here in America:
Pulling the plug on grandma & grandpa is the first step. Taken to its logical conclusion, the next steps in this scenario will be:
1. Targeting the physically & developmentally disabled as well as
2. The chronically ill
3. The mentally ill possibly leading to
4. Targeting those who disagree with the state and labeling them as mentally ill, or as terrorists.
All of the above will eventually be "cleansed" from the populace.
Outrageous? Think Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Pol Pot, etc....
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