On Oct. 1, the Obama administration started awarding bonus points to hospitals that spend the least on elderly patients. It will result in fewer knee replacements, hip replacements, angioplasty, bypass surgery and cataract operations. These are the five procedures that have transformed aging for older Americans. They used to languish in wheelchairs and nursing homes due to arthritis, cataracts and heart disease. Now they lead active lives. But the Obama administration is undoing that progress. By cutting $716 billion from future Medicare funding over the next decade and rewarding the hospitals that spend the least on seniors, the Obama health law will make these procedures hard to get and less safe. The Obama health law creates two new entitlements for people under age 65 â subsidies to buy private health plans and a vast expansion of Medicaid. More than half the cost of these entitlements is paid for by cutting what hospitals, doctors, hospice care, home care and Advantage plans are paid to care for seniors. Just Take Pill 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. President Obama seems to think too many seniors are getting these procedures. At a town hall debate in 2009, he told a woman "maybe you're better off not having the surgery but taking the painkiller." Science proves the president is wrong. Knee replacements, for example, not only relieve pain but also save lives. Seniors with severe osteoarthritis who opt for knee replacement are less apt to succumb to heart failure and have a 50% higher chance of being alive five years later than arthritic seniors who don't undergo the procedure, according to peer-reviewed scientific research. Yet Foster warned Congress that 15% of hospitals may stop treating seniors once the Obama-Care cuts go into effect. The rest will have to lower the standard of care. Hospitals will have $247 billion less over the next decade to care for the same number of seniors as if the health law had not been enacted. More http://news.investors.com/ibd-edito...are-cuts-danger-to-senior-citizens.htm?p=full
Pspr, really you confuse me so much. You talk all the time about some people in the USA want free, free, free and not want to work or earn. I do not think that is true, but you you talk all the time about that. So now you have this link you post, and I really not sure how much is true of your link. (BUT IF) you link is true, you can see (private insurance) is pay MORE to the doctors. So why you have complaint for Obama? "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." Read More At IBD: http://news.investors.com/ibd-edito...s-danger-to-senior-citizens.htm#ixzz28wy6ttRi
LOL After rebooting my computer and seeing windows reload my browser to ET P&R without logging in, I am so glad for the ignore feature. Thank you ET for the moron bleeper.
Sad, but the Boomers were dumb. They sold themselves out for a quick buck and now they're about to pay the price with their health, and their lives.