CBO: MEDICARE FIX THROWS HCR IN THE RED

Posted: Mar 20, 2010

The CBO has now said that the "Medicare Fix", which the Democrats are trying to pass separate from the HCR bill, throws their scheme into the red, eating up all of the claimed $200 billion in deficit reduction and instead adding $56 billion more. For those who don't know, there are programmed reductions in Medicare reimbursements to physicians that are supposed to "kick in" automatically, and every year Congress passes a bill to reverse those cuts for the simple reason that such reductions from the pathetic amounts paid now will absolutely result in no physicians taking Medicare patients. Physicians are being paid a little more than half of what it costs them to see these patients as it is. So these "Medicare fixes", or "doctor fixes" add to the cost of Medicare over and above the amount that is budgeted. (Shock! A government healthcare program that goes over budget?! Color me amazed.) At first, for obvious reasons, this "fix" was included in the House healthcare reform bill, where it properly belongs. When Pelosi and her minions saw that they weren't within a country mile of their promises regarding the cost of reform, they cleverly took out the fix and are offering it as a separate bill. So, CBO is alerting everyone to this "fixery trickery", just as CBO objects to the double-counting of the so-called "Medicare benefit cuts" - being counted first as "savings", but then spent to pay for other aspects of HCR. ;