beebrisk
Brilliant_Rock
- Joined
- Dec 18, 2005
- Messages
- 1,000
Maria D|1341325976|3227854 said:beebrisk|1341321762|3227822 said:Maria D|1341318521|3227801 said:beebrisk|1341288812|3227678 said:Laughinggravy0|1340908250|3225273 said:I'm british so I don't really have the right to make much comment - 'cept that I can't understand how this could not be a good thing.
I heard a ranting guy on BBC Radio 4 news, in a report on this passing, saying it was a tragedy and that it was communism on US soil. Just seems so odd the people wouldn't want to pay tax for a fairer a society. Someone else said it was a blessing because it meant that, for example, the elderly wouldn't have to choose between meds or rent. If that really is a choice that is facing some citizens well.... in this day and age, in a developed country....
Ask any senior in the US who has been paying into Medicare their entire life how they feel about the program being cut by a half-billion dollars over the next few years. Ask them how "blessed" they are going to be when their doctors stop caring for them and opt out of the program because they'll no longer be reimbursed fairly by a keystone cop government that mis-managed and bankrupted the system in the first place!
This bill stinks to high heaven. We needed INSURANCE reform to ensure greater affordability and access. We did not need *health care* reform. But our elected officials, with their infinite wisdom and collective boners at the idea of further intrusion into our lives, passed a bill that no one had read.
The guy on BBC (who I assume was Daniel Hannan?) was right to rant. I wish I had a microphone, too!
No, don't just ask *any* senior, be sure to pick one that watches Fox News exclusively. Because the facts don't bear out that medicare benefits will be cut by $500 million. Instead, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) says that the federal government spending on Medicare will continue to GROW, but the RATE of growth will slow down. The reason that the growth rate can be stemmed is because ACA will cut fraud and overpayments to private insurance. That *is* insurance reform. The $500 billion savings will be spent to fund new benefits, including a gap in prescription medicare coverage that affects seniors.
http://mediamatters.org/mobile/research/2012/07/03/foxs-hume-advances-misleading-claim-that-health/186918
"The ACA will cut fraud and overpayments to private insurance".
Because our wise and beneficent federal government has a *stellar* history of cutting welfare and social security fraud.
oops, I fixed a mistake in my quote, it's $500 billion, not million.
OK, let me get this straight: The complaint is that the feds are cutting Medicaid by $500 billion. But it turns out that's not true, the feds are actually going to INCREASE spending to Medicaid, just not as quickly as they would have without ACA. The feds claim that, while still spending more each year, they will be spending $500 billion less than they would without ACA because they will institute insurance reform, which you say is what is needed. Now your position is that they won't be able to cut fraud. So we need insurance reform but, forget about it, that's impossible because after all this is America we're talking about. Not very patriotic here, are we.
The federal government's history, stellar or not, does not change the fact that your argument about $500 billion cuts to Medicaid is bunk.
Here's what's bunk:
The federal government is telling us they are going to SLOW the growth of Medicare in order to SAVE money that will BENEFIT seniors.
Time will tell, but I'd put $1/2billion on the fact that within the next 10 years, quality and access for seniors will be in serious decline, as will everyone else's care...except of course for the wealthy who will be able to pay out of pocket.
A wiser man than us once said "The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.'" But that was Ronald Reagan. A Conservative. Mocking response expected.