I have to take what Orin Hatch says on CNN seriously.
So what is he on about with the Democrats proposing to take thirty billion dollars out of medicare to fund the general health care plan ?
Why? He’s a Republican, and he’s talking about healthcare reform. Republicans just want to kill healthcare reform. They’ve hit it with everything they can think of, and the kitchen sink. To take what one of them says seriously now requires extraordinary evidence of their sincerity. Did Mr. Hatch actually promise to vote for some form of health care reform, or is this just more Republican negativism?
[Moderator note]
While the answer to the OP may well be political, I think this response is not appropriate for GQ. Let’s try to first address whether there might be some factual basis for Hatch’s statement.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
The figures likely come out of the American Health Care Association’s analysis of the bill, which claims that the bill will cut Medicare payments for nursing home care by 32 billion over the next 10 years.
Sorry Colibri, but the automatic assumption of credibilty on the part of Hatch is uncalled for, and needed to be mentioned lest people be lead into the wilderness by false witnessing.
Hatch is still a major cheerleader for the failed policies of the past:
If Hatch’s number’s have a basis in reality, fine. Given the senator’s record, the assumption should not be that they do.
I’ve been away all day, but I must say I’m quite disappointed with the lack of substantive response to my question.
As a Canadian, I’m a firm supporter of universal health care. It does appear though, to me, that a lot of the opposition to introducing the proposed plan in the US comes from senior citizens worried about medicare. Orin Hatch made that assertion about the proposed cut. Orin Hatch claims to be a close friend of Kennedy, who we well know has long fought for universal health care. If friendship means something, it must be true.
So what gives? Are the Democrats willing to take away from senior citizens, or is Hatch simply a fucking two faced liar ?
Orin Hatch is a bald faced liar. Not sure why that would surprise you. The proponents of the health care bill want to partly fund the cost of providing coverage by cost savings in Medicaire. Now ordinarily cutting costs would be a good thing, but this is cookoo season.
The govt is currently prohibited from negotiating drug price reductions with the pharmaceutical companies. The US is the only country that does this, and it makes one wonder if the priority of many in congress is to protect the pharmaceutical companies rather than help citizens.
I’m not sure if this is the answer, but I assume it is, at least in part. EMTALA (Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor act) is the law that mandates that emergency rooms treat everyone. As part of Medicare, the feds kick extra money to hospitals that bear a disproportionate share of EMTALA costs. Presumably, under any universal or near-universal system, the need for EMTALA payouts would severely decrease.
He’s not just making it up. It comes from the AHCA’s study, I’m sure of it. However, I’m just finding news releases for the study, and not a copy of the study itself. But all the news releases the AHCA’s put out about the study start:
Given the bad start this has been given, it’s probably best to just move to from GQ to GD.
Colibri
General Questions
I can’t comment on the truthfulness of Hatch’s allegation, but he was one of the votes in the Senate to support President Bush’s veto of a bill last year that would have cut $12.5 billion from Medicare by reducing the reimbursement rates paid to doctors. Cite, cite.
I’m also not sure what Senator Hatch thought of Bush’s last budget proposal, but it sought to cut Medicare by $91 billion. Cite. Those cuts were rejected by Congress.
It is galling to see Republicans try to position themselves as saviors of Medicare, a system that the party, in general, has consistently tried to cut or dismantle under the banner of reform.
But again, Hatch’s past record on Medicare has no bearing whatsoever on the truthfulness of his claim. Just because a fool says it is night, does not mean that it is day.
Are the Dems feckless, disunited, and uncertain? As a general rule, yes. Are they utterly and entirely batshit crazy, and determined to massively offend, infuriate and insult Medicare recipients and their families, and thereby ensure political ruin? No.
Well, how much money could be saved by not buying, say, Hoverounds from Medicare funds? Are there statistics on how many insurance plans (approximately) pay for powered wheelchairs?
And after this August, I would be happy to see some offending, infuriating, and insulting of Medicare recipients who don’t like government programs.
32 billion over ten years is not the same as 30 billion over one year.
I don’t know whether it is or not, but the question is where he got the numbers from, not if the numbers are right or wrong, right?
Good point. I don’t think the Hoveround people are doing much good for Medicare when non-recipients see the ads claiming that old folks can get $6200 Hoverounds for free.
That’s an excellent question. And it’s not just Congress, but the White House as well
Can the gov’t take money directly out of Medicare to fund other programs? My understanding was that it had its own dedicated tax, so that even if they saved 30 billion by cutting medicare payments, they couldn’t turn around and put that money into the new health program.
Plus Medicare will be running a deficit in the near future, so any money saved by cutting expenditures there are unlikely to go towards new programs, but will almost certainly be swallowed by growing costs elsewhere in the program.
I’m curious as to why you are asking this. Do you believe that insurance (Medicare or private) should not pay for powerchairs?
Mediicare overpays big time for durable goods, wheelchairs, walkers, PAP machines etc. I saw a show last week stating at min. 4 x cost a person could buy it for. When attempts were made to allow price shopping the pols voted it down.