Study Sees Room for 30 Pct Cut in Medicare Costs

Mapleleaf, There's gonna be an automatic 30 percent cut in MediCare, because of the national and state deficits. ;( c.i.

Mmmmm...nothing can be taken at face value, can it?

I hate when news organizations report on studies. They leave more questions unanswered than the number they actually answer.

I'd really like to see the dataset for this study just because the article makes mention of the cost per patient in different areas. It would be interesting to see what the cost of living comparisons are between those areas and see if there is a correlation.

fishin, You bring up a very good point. These generalities never seem to provide the details of how and where. In our area, some hospitals have closed, and many are in financial trouble. We have a shortage of nurses like everywhere else in the US, and the renewal on contracts are showing some generous gains in salaries for nurses. The new four year contract the nurses got through Kaiser will get 25 percent. I'm not sure how MediCare can cut costs by 30 percent, and provide for prescription drugs. c.i.

Well Mapleleaf you seem to have found another dreadfully
biased, ridiculous nonsensical idea to cut the benefits of
health care by CUTTING THE COSTS, and thereby reducing
quality of care whic we are ENTITLED TO! Making neeeded
diagnostic tests hard, if not impossible to get. Procedures
that are essential for our elderly citizens who are sick & our
disabled citizens. This is sounding more and more like a
devious move toward HMO, managed care, which has already
proven itself (in the majority of cases) to be a very REAL
danger to ALL patients. There is NO REASON AT ALL that
our Medicare Program can't pay for prescription drugs; if our
government can EVEN DARE CONSIDER A WAR COSTING
BILLIONS OF DOLLARS, spent on a small 3rd world country,
primarily for the Bush family fortune, and of no use to WE
THE PEOPLE of this country. Countries like Denmark, Norway,
Great Britain & Canada are making a go of totally socialized
medicine. Their citizens pay higher taxes, yet the people do
not RESENT their taxes like Americans, because their benefits
ARE READILY VISIBLE EVERY DAY & are appreciated by the
citizens of these countries. We have a NAFTA agreement - the
exact same drug that I pay $80.00 in the US, I purchased in
Mexico for $7.00!!!! Seven dollars! And it is no generic, it is
the very same identical Azulfidine that I pay a fortune for
here in the US. It is clearly a matter of "whatever the traffic
will bear!" IT SHOWS CLEARLY WHERE WE THE PEOPLE are
totally disregarded by our "representatives"?? in Washington DC.
*I think I know who they are REALLY representing & it is not you
or I. Our huge conglomerate drug companies are (currently)
hopping mad & making a huge complaint about the fact that
some American citizens DARE TO BUY THEIR MEDS THRU A
CANADIAN MAIL ORDER PHARMACY, in an effort to save on
some of the highest prices in the world, those charged to US
citizens. These folks are so severely unable to pay the
EXCESSIVE, PRICE FIXING costs charged by conglomerate
drug companies in the USA they desperately need, yet can't
afford to buy.
*This is not right!! It is not right morally, ethically nor should
it be right legally. WE THE PEOPLE have/are paying into the SS
program with OUR SWEAT, BLOOD AND TEARS, WITH OUR
LIVES!!! We prostitute our entire LIVES to jobs we hate,
companies that make every effort to pay us as little as they
possibly can get away with, in order to earn money & hopefully
to earn the right to the HOPE that benefits of SS will be there
for us when we need them. Hilary Clinton was RIGHT!
*Meanwhile while there was a huge surplus of money that
SHOULD have been fed into a SS program that is being overly
drained, OUR government (which should be representing YOU
AND I, decided to give piddly amounts of "tax cuts" individually,
just to kiss the rumps of the public - a vain and futile attempt
as anyone can see to earn the favor of the American public
half of whom do not even believe that Bush was elected at all.
Not only vain and futile, but worse - it insults OUR intelligence!!!
WE are all quite aware that OUR future financial security
is becoming less and less secure every passing day under this
horrible presidency & congress, who are passing so many
pork programs that even THEY are humiliated by their ruthless
greed. WE HAVE THE RIGHT TO TRY TO SAVE OUR MONEY
ANY WAY THAT WE CAN!!! Comparing Minnesota to Miami
is akin to comparing peaches and oranges.

Consider all the Nursing Homes that have had to close. Low levels of Medicaid funds and too many people trying to con the system and avoid paying.

BABs:

Remember the $20 billion to Turkey so we can fight Iraq. If there's dough for the Turks, there's dough for our senior citizens.