By using this site, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Accept
Health Works CollectiveHealth Works CollectiveHealth Works Collective
  • Health
    • Mental Health
    Health
    Healthcare organizations are operating on slimmer profit margins than ever. One report in August showed that they are even lower than the beginning of the…
    Show More
    Top News
    benefits of using protein powder to build muscles
    Protein Powder for Muscle Mass: Everything You Need to Know
    December 12, 2021
    changes brought on by blockchain in healthcare
    Technology In The Healthcare Industry
    March 28, 2022
    What Does Core Body Temperature Say About Health?
    August 17, 2022
    Latest News
    Grounded Healing: A Natural Ally for Sustainable Healthcare Systems
    May 16, 2025
    Learn how to Renew your Medical Card in West Virginia
    May 16, 2025
    Choosing the Right Supplement Manufacturer for Your Brand
    May 1, 2025
    Engineering Temporary Hospitals for Extreme Weather
    April 24, 2025
  • Policy and Law
    • Global Healthcare
    • Medical Ethics
    Policy and Law
    Get the latest updates about Insurance policies and Laws in the Healthcare industry for different geographical locations.
    Show More
    Top News
    FDA Approves Diabetes Pill
    May 2, 2011
    Patient Gets Drunk on Hand Sanitizer
    June 20, 2011
    Cultivating Health Improvement
    July 20, 2011
    Latest News
    Building Smarter Care Teams: Aligning Roles, Structure, and Clinical Expertise
    May 18, 2025
    The Critical Role of Healthcare in Personal Injury Recovery: A Comprehensive Guide for Victims
    May 14, 2025
    The Backbone of Successful Trials: Clinical Data Management
    April 28, 2025
    Advancing Your Healthcare Career through Education and Specialization
    April 16, 2025
  • Medical Innovations
  • News
  • Wellness
  • Tech
Search
© 2023 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Reading: Obama, Ryan and You
Share
Notification Show More
Font ResizerAa
Health Works CollectiveHealth Works Collective
Font ResizerAa
Search
Follow US
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
© 2023 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Health Works Collective > Policy & Law > Health Reform > Obama, Ryan and You
Health Reform

Obama, Ryan and You

JohnCGoodman
Last updated: May 2, 2011 1:31 pm
JohnCGoodman
Share
6 Min Read
SHARE

Both parties are being disingenuous about Medicare reform. So let me be the first to open Pandora’s box and reveal three unpleasant truths.

First, health care spending is growing at twice the rate of growth of our income — clearly an unsustainable and undesirable spending path.

Second, any plan to reduce the growth rate of federal spending on health care without doing something about health care spending as a whole will necessarily shift costs — to the elderly, to the poor, to state governments, and to anybody other than the federal government.

Both parties are being disingenuous about Medicare reform. So let me be the first to open Pandora’s box and reveal three unpleasant truths.

More Read

CMS delays final rule
CMS Delays 2014 Final Rule
Health Exchange Enrollment: Speed of Light or…Molasses
Is a Government Takeover of Health Care Underway?
Money Money, Who’s Got The Money?
Creating the Connected Patient

First, health care spending is growing at twice the rate of growth of our income — clearly an unsustainable and undesirable spending path.

Second, any plan to reduce the growth rate of federal spending on health care without doing something about health care spending as a whole will necessarily shift costs — to the elderly, to the poor, to state governments, and to anybody other than the federal government.

Third, neither party is offering a serious plan to control health care spending as a whole.

Let’s start with President Obama, since his plan is already law. The administration calls it the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). Other people call it ObamaCare. Whatever you call it, if you are confused about what it means, that’s understandable.

 

So tired of the straight line, and everywhere you turn
There’s vultures and thieves at your back
The storm keeps on twisting, you keep on building the lies
That you make up for all that you lack

 

The numbers you see in newspapers are almost always produced by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the bean-counting agency of Congress. These forecasts show a dramatic slowing of Medicare spending — about in line with the recommendations of the President’s debt commission and with such independent reform proposals as the one made by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) and former CBO director Alice Rivlin.

If you are elderly or disabled, however, pay attention to a more ominous document — the Medicare Trustees report, released last summer. Unlike the CBO’s pronouncements, this report is an executive branch document that reflects the administration’s view of its own health reform. (Three cabinet secretaries — labor, health and human services, and treasury — are Medicare trustees.)

According to the Medicare Trustees report, ObamaCare will cut the rate of growth of Medicare spending in half and allow it to grow no faster than our national income. The Office of the Medicare Actuaries has released a separate document, explaining what this means:

  • By the end of this decade, the fees Medicare pays to doctors will be lower than what Medicaid pays. Seniors will become less desirable as patients than welfare mothers.
  • Also by the end of the decade, one in seven hospitals will be forced to leave the Medicare system.

In the decades that follow, the consequences continue to get worse and worse through time.

Bottom line: access to care is going to become increasingly difficult for the elderly and the disabled. That problem will be compounded when health reform insures 32 million additional people in just three years, without doing anything to create more doctors.

If all this is news to you, that’s understandable. The Obama administration has done nothing to publicize the Medicare actuaries’ warnings. But it has spent millions of our tax dollars on Andy Griffith television commercials, trying to convince seniors they have gained, not lost, as a result of health reform.

Senior voters were not fooled, however. In the last election, they abandoned Democrats in droves and voted for the GOP. Coming into this year, Republicans were in the catbird’s seat. Whatever Medicare reforms they called for would not be as bad as what the Obama administration had already planned.

Prudence might have dictated a cautious approach for Republicans — remembering the adage never to get between your opponent’s gun and his foot. Instead, a new Paul Ryan plan recently passed by the House of Representatives follows the ObamaCare cuts for the next 10 years and then calls for more severe cuts in the decades that follow.

For Ryan’s plan to have any chance to become reality it must be coupled with two additional items: (1) comprehensive health reform, slowing spending for everybody and (2) a way for people to save tax-free during their working years so they will be less dependent on government during their retirement.

I’ll write more about this in the future.

   

TAGGED:health care reform
Share This Article
Facebook Copy Link Print
Share

Stay Connected

1.5kFollowersLike
4.5kFollowersFollow
2.8kFollowersPin
136kSubscribersSubscribe

Latest News

Do You Grind Your Teeth at Night? Here’s How Night Guards and TMJ Treatments Can Help
Do You Grind Your Teeth at Night? Here’s How Night Guards and TMJ Treatments Can Help
Dental health
May 21, 2025
The Secret To A Confident Smile: Top Tips For Better Teeth
The Secret To A Confident Smile: Top Tips For Better Teeth
Dental health
May 21, 2025
Clinical Expertise
Building Smarter Care Teams: Aligning Roles, Structure, and Clinical Expertise
Health care
May 18, 2025
Grounded Healing: A Natural Ally for Sustainable Healthcare Systems
Grounded Healing: A Natural Ally for Sustainable Healthcare Systems
Health
May 15, 2025

You Might also Like

How Massachusetts’ Commonwealth Connector is Better than Utah’s Health Exchange

March 11, 2011

Path Dependency in Health Reform: The Case of Medicare

June 17, 2011

Another Side of Don Berwick

July 16, 2011

Stopping the Revolving Door of Avoidable Readmissions [VIDEO]

October 20, 2014
Subscribe
Subscribe to our newsletter to get our newest articles instantly!
Follow US
© 2008-2025 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Username or Email Address
Password

Lost your password?