I’m of two minds to write this post this morning, but feeling like I do, I’m inclined to let the words roll.
I know many folks might not agree with what I’m going to write, but I really want to put it out there and see what people are thinking. Because I just can’t reconcile in my mind why the general public is O.K. with this.
The biggest topic on my mind is medicare and it should be on the top of everyone’s list. Now I’m not at an age where I qualify for medicare, but my mother is solely dependent on medicare for healthcare.
Here is the deal:
The SGR or sustainable growth rate formula is used to calculate reimbursements to various healthcare providers. It was designed in 1997 as a way to keep medicare spending on a certain track of outgoing expenses. However, in 2002, it became clear that the formula for figuring the SGR was flawed, requiring a 4.5% cut in all medicare payments to providers. So, to prevent healthcare providers from opting out of medicare, they put a hold on the 4.5% cut, vowing to address the issue in congress.
The issue has been discussed, but no act has remedied it. Every year they have put a hold on these cuts since 2001. This hold is set to expire at the end of 2012, which would effectively decrease medicare reimbursement by about 28%–the 716 billion dollars that has bandied about in the press. What has been talked about even less is the full implementation of medicare cuts which are an additional 415 billion dollars between the years 2013 and 2020 which is another 10 percent. So ask yourself, if your employer came to you and said you would have to take a cut in pay that amounted to 40% over the next ten years, would you do it? Of course not. You would look for another job, because while your salary is being decreased, the cost of living is increasing, and medicine is no exception. Technology costs money, tests cost money, and office visits cost money. In order to sustain a medical practice and pay your overhead, you have to make money, not lose money. A point that seems foreign to the guy sitting in the White House.
His master plan to save over a trillion dollars by the end of 2020 is to make medicare worthless. Because health care providers will start opting out of medicare very quickly when these cuts hit, it will leave many uninsured saving the government the money they would have paid out to the participating providers.
So I ask the questions, how is this O.K.? Why doesn’t the public see this? Do they see it and just not care? Do they hear it and think it’s a lie? Do they hear and believe that is the plan, but that they will come up with some other solution?
One thing is for certain. A storm is brewing, and the election? That was just the beginning…