Transforming the health care system = screwing seniors and the disabled
House Republican aides said the budget blueprint to be issued by the chairman of the Budget Committee, Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, would slice more than $5 trillion from projected federal spending in the coming decade. Health care accounts for much of the savings.
But while saving large sums for the federal government, the proposals on Medicaid and Medicare could shift some costs to beneficiaries and to the states.
Under the proposal, Medicaid would be transformed into a block grant, with a lump sum of federal money given to the states to care for low-income people. States would be given more discretion over use of the money than they have under the current federal-state partnership.
As Ezra Klein notes, it's not as if the states have these brilliant plans to fundamentally lower health care costs -- innovations that the iron fist of the federal government has prevented them from putting in place.
Medicaid is cheap. Too cheap, as many health care providers simply won't accept Medicaid patients because the reimbursement isn't worth it.
Labels: GOP outreach
posted by John at 11:20 AM
1 Comments:
His summary of the Medicare proposal said, “Health plans that choose to participate in the Medicare exchange must agree to offer insurance to all Medicare beneficiaries, to avoid cherry-picking and ensure that Medicare’s sickest and highest-cost beneficiaries receive coverage.”Under his plan, poorer and sicker people in Medicare in future decades would be more heavily subsidized by the taxpayers than would wealthier and healthier retirees.
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