Posted by mtdewcmu on April 13, 2011, at 23:25:57
In reply to Obama New Health Care Cuts Please Read + Comment, posted by Phillipa on April 13, 2011, at 22:06:51
I don't know why that story is written in such a scary tone. Probably to get people to read it.
I think that IPAB is going to be modeled after the British government's NICE agency, which determines which treatments are helpful enough to justify having the NHS pay for them. Drug companies and especially device makers try to get FDA approval for incredibly expensive drugs and devices that barely have any benefit to the patient, but Medicare and insurers wind up having to pay for them. So it's like a scam to get money out of Medicare. With a government agency doing cost-benefit analyses, they can refuse to pay for extraordinarily expensive and marginally helpful treatments, which could save Medicare a lot of money. Only the drug companies and device makers should be afraid of IPAB, and possibly some doctors that have been abusing the rules to get more money. Doctors feel that reimbursement rates are not sufficient for an office visit, so they order tests that aren't necessary but Medicare pays a lot for, to increase their income. If Medicare goes on paying for anything and everything, it will literally bankrupt the government. Somebody had to do something. Paul Ryan and the Republicans want to end Medicare and give seniors some money toward buying private insurance. There would be no guarantee that it would be enough to cover a plan that is equivalent to Medicare. And in fact, the idea is to give seniors less than what they'd get through Medicare to save the government money, and if that's not enough to buy insurance, too bad. Obama is trying to do the right thing and make Medicare solvent without destroying it, by cutting out waste. But some people prefer to believe that Obama is planning to euthanize seniors to save money. If you believe that, then I have some beachfront property I'd like to sell you in New Mexico. But it's impossible to have a rational debate in this country anymore.
poster:mtdewcmu
thread:982734
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20110406/msgs/982744.html