[Vision2020] Warning to the GOP: Don't Mess with Medicare

[Kai Eiselein, Editor]

In the interest of fairness, I am posting Crapo's opinion on the same 
subject.
Somewhere between the two is the truth, in the meantime they cover the rest 
us of with the spittle of their partisan rants.
Common sense is a rare commodity on Capitol Hill and college campuses.

POLITICAL MANIPULATION IN THE EXTREME
Guest opinion submitted by Idaho Senator Mike Crapo

Millions rely on Medicare to access our healthcare system.  They should
have exceptional care and cutting edge treatments available to them.
Reimbursing doctors so that they can serve these patients is
critical-for this reason, I have consistently advocated for timely and
adequate physician compensation.  Systemic reform is also crucial.  The
Medicare system needs the strengths inherent in the market-healthy
competition that provides choice, flexibility and affordability   The
Medicare Modernization Act of 2003 introduced market forces into the
system that have benefited millions of seniors since.

Unfortunately, in early July, the Senate voted to compromise positive
gains we've made in instituting market-oriented reforms to Medicare over
the past four years.  The vote on H.R. 6331, the Medicare Improvements
for Patients and Providers Act, wasn't about physician compensation.  It
was about whether or not this country would reject market-oriented
reforms and move, instead, toward a strictly government-run healthcare
system.  As Paul Krugman, an editorial writer for the New York Times
said in an article the day after the vote occurred: "Ostensibly,
Wednesday's vote was about restoring cuts in Medicare payments to
doctors. What it was really about, however, was the fight against
creeping privatization...If the Democrats can win victories like this
now, they should be able to put a definitive end to the privatization of
Medicare next year. "  Krugman concludes his article by stating, " A lot
can still go wrong with this vision.  But the odds of achieving
universal health care, soon, look a lot higher than they did just a
couple of weeks ago."  Krugman has it exactly right.  Contrary to
Krugman, though, I don't support socialized medicine and don't view last
week's vote on Medicare with jubilation.

There are those who want to move this country backward, toward failed
healthcare policies that reduce choice, incentives for good service and
access while increasing systemic and individual costs.  They created a
bill with controversial offsets, eroding provisions that have made
Medicare more responsive to recipients.  That's what the vote on H.R.
6331 was about, plain and simple.  Physicians still would have received
their unreduced Medicare compensation; there was virtually universal
support for that fix and it will be made under every proposal on the
table.  But, linking the physician compensation fix to removing
market-oriented reforms in Medicare was political manipulation in the
extreme.

Those who want to reverse our move toward a more market-oriented
Medicare system tried to turn my nay vote into an appalling misportrayal
of my priorities.  My priorities are and always have been patients,
physicians and our entire health care system.  Time and again, I've
championed adequate and timely Medicare reimbursement for physicians.
I've been a leader in the Finance Committee in fighting for this for
years, as my voting record testifies.

Let me repeat:

*  Support for stopping impending cuts in physician Medicare
compensation is virtually universal and bipartisan; physicians would
have received updated compensation, regardless of the outcome of H.R.
6331.
*  This vote and legislative battle were not about physician's
compensation.  They were about rejecting market-oriented reforms and
moving toward socialized medicine.
*  I have been and will remain a leader in fighting for proper physician
compensation.  In fact, although I consistently support annual fixes, I
continue to advocate for a permanent fix rather than the temporary fixes
Congress continues to enact.

Please visit my website at http://crapo.senate.gov for links about the
true nature of The Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act.
I regret that this particular bill passed Congress.  What I regret even
more is that physicians who treat Medicare patients were the unfortunate
hostages in this ongoing crisis.

--------------------------------------------------
From: <nickgier at adelphia.net>
Sent: Wednesday, July 16, 2008 10:21 PM
To: <vision2020 at moscow.com>
Subject: [Vision2020] Warning to the GOP: Don't Mess with Medicare

> Greetings:
>
> This was my radio commentary for KRFP this morning.  It will also go to 
> the Idaho State Journal, the Los Cabos Daily News, and the Sandpoint 
> Reader.
>
> Why didn't McCain have courage enough to come to the vote?
>
> Nick Gier
>
> WARNING TO THE GOP: DON'T MESS WITH MEDICARE
>
> Some Republican Senators were running scared for the July 9th Senate vote 
> reversing cuts to Medicare.  On June 26th the Democrats did not the get 
> the 60 votes necessary to stop a filibuster, so Senator Ted Kennedy left 
> his sickbed for the second vote.
>
> As it turned out, the heat applied to the Republicans made Kennedy's 
> presence unnecessary.  A total of nine GOP senators switched their votes 
> to provide a 69-30 veto-proof majority.  On July 15 the House and Senate 
> overrode President Bush's veto by votes of 383-41 and 70-26 respectively.
>
> John McCain was the only senator missing for the July 9th vote. His 
> campaign had no comment about why he was not there, but McCain has said 
> that he opposes the bill. Barack Obama voted for the resolution on June 
> 26th and July 9th.
>
> Mad as a hornet about the proposed 10.6 percent decrease in payments, the 
> American Medical Association bought ads and targeted 10 Republican 
> senators in 6 states. The AMA's current support for Medicare is ironic 
> because it lobbied strongly against the original bill when it passed in 
> 1965 as part of President Lyndon Johnson's Great Society program.
>
> Former President Harry Truman was the very first person to join Medicare. 
> In 1945 he hoped that he could persuade Congress to adopt a single payer 
> plan of the sort being developed in Europe at the time. The hobgoblin of 
> socialism sank the idea. The U.S. now ranks last among industrialized 
> countries in terms of access, efficiency, equity, preventable deaths, and 
> healthy lives.
>
> Even with its various problems Medicare has served America's seniors very 
> well.  Medicare's administrative costs, estimated at 2-6 percent, are much 
> lower than the 17-30 percent variously calculated for private companies.
>
> Medical Advantage plans, private policies designed to substitute for 
> Medicare, are expected to cost taxpayers $149 billion over the next 10 
> years.  While ordinary claims are being underpaid, Medicare Advantage 
> doctors are being overpaid 13 percent.  Touted by Republicans as a less 
> expensive free market alternative to Medicare, these plans have not 
> managed care nor have they reduced costs.
>
> Supporters of Medicare Advantage claim that 95 percent of the 9 million 
> people who opted out of Medicare like their new coverage. With billions of 
> dollars in subsidies, they have cherry picked younger and healthier 
> clients and offered them Cadillac programs. It is no wonder that these 
> policies are highly praised, but their success has come at the neglect of 
> ordinary Medicare recipients.
>
> Much to the distress of GOP free marketeers, but to the satisfaction of 
> those who believe in a level playing field, the current bill takes funds 
> from the failing Medicare Advantage programs, eliminates the 10.6 percent 
> cut, and adds one percent to doctor payments.
>
> This bill is still not enough to solve the problem of Medicare costs and 
> access.  The number of doctors who limit the number of Medicare patients 
> has now risen to 25 percent. The AMA estimates, if the current bill had 
> failed, that the percentage would have risen to 60 percent.
>
> The medical association of Santa Cruz County has announced that its 
> doctors will accept no more Medicare patients.  Nine California counties 
> have the lowest Medicare reimbursement rates in the country, while other 
> California counties have the highest.
>
> Once again in America, the wealthiest nation in the world, the poor suffer 
> both medically and educationally because of pockets of privilege and the 
> highest level of economic inequity in the industrialized world.
>
> When Ted Kennedy came back to the Senate on July 9th, he vowed that he 
> would not allow Medicare to be destroyed.  During his first term 
> representing Massachusetts, he voted for the original legislation in 1965.
>
> In a speech to the National Press Club in January of 2005 on the 40th 
> Anniversary of Medicare, Kennedy declared: "It's no secret that America is 
> still dearly in love with Medicare. Administrative costs are low, patient 
> satisfaction is high, and unlike with many private insurers, they can 
> still choose their doctor and their hospital."
>
> At that time Kennedy introduced the concept of Medicare for All, which 
> would start by including those 55-65 and all young children, and gradually 
> phase in all other uninsured Americans. Funding would come from increased 
> payroll taxes, savings due to Medicare's efficiencies, as well as reforms 
> "based on value and results, not just the number of procedures performed 
> or days in a hospital bed."
>
>
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Kai Eiselein
Editor, Latah Eagle