The administration is, surprise, surprise, ready to cave in on the budget "negotiations" (read: Republican blackmail) by cutting Medicare and Medicaid benefits.Those of us who never bought into Barack Obama's hopey-changey thing in which he was going to be the advocate of the ordinary are not surprised. It's just another flip-flop by the Golden One whose raison d'etre is to get reelected with the help of the rich.
'Congress smells blood,' said William L. Minnix, Jr., of the trade group LeadingAge.Oh, yes, but it's all in the good name of possibly raising taxes. (I, for one, am not counting on that, at least not conventional tax revenues.) Senator Chuck Schumer said, "We are very willing to entertain savings in Medicare." Entertain? And good old Senator Joe Lieberman added, "We can't save Medicare as we know it. We can save Medicare only if we change it." Let's not forget that Joe and his wife, Hadassah, have serious stakes in the health care industry.
Part of the proposal includes reducing payments to teaching hospitals. As the victim of several doctors who never bothered to learn anything since they got their degrees, I I have a problem with this. Patients benefit from teaching hospitals because their doctors tend to be more up-to-date on techniques and procedures. Another proposal includes establishing a "blended rate" for each state for the CHIPs program. This means less of a financial burden on the federal government and more on the states. This isn't going to work. The federal government certainly has budget issues, but the states are in a bigger financial crunch. Anyone who has been on a state plan knows how hard it is to get access to health care that's comparable to those with standard insurance plans.
WHAT ME, WORRIED?The irony is that politicians, especially presidential candidates, count on seniors for votes. Obama should start fretting.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/05/us/05deficit.html?src=recg
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