Article on Health Care Spending Disparities Stirs a Fight
Makes for interesting reading.
According to The New York Times, the President’s made Dr. Atul Gawande’s New Yorker article required reading in the White House, telling Senators: “This is what we’ve got to fix.” Not surprisingly, Senators in high cost states are already suggesting justifications for the variations in healthcare spending tracked by the “Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care” – for years.
Original article from The New Yorker: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/09/us/politics/09health.html
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Cuts to Medicaid and Medicare
The quote below is from a press report about what is being agreed to in the Senate. This will increase disparities and make people lose their providers as they bail out if payments fall too low. This is the exact opposite of what we were told would happen.
"As described by aides and lawmakers on the Senate Finance Committee, the financing package includes substantial reductions in future spending on Medicare and Medicaid, the primary federal health programs for elderly and low-income people."
Absent any real reforms(cap profits, cut CEO salaries, beef up investigation of fraud, allow negotiations for drug prices) across the board cuts will hurt the most vulnerable.
Appalling
Note that the Congressional Budget Office has still not done an analysis of the one plan that can provide care for all at a reasonable cost and still allow wide choice of providers and medical decisions made by medical providers. Single Payer.