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Obama Accepts $70 Billion Less in Medicare Payment Cuts to Hospitals

Thursday, July 9th, 2009

Many hospitals are quite happy with the news that the Obama administration has now agreed to decrease its proposed hospital cuts by about $70 billion. Originally the White house was planning to cut Medicaid and Medicare payments to hospitals around the US by about $224 billion over 10 years to aid healthcare reform. However, they now agreed to the smaller target amount of $155 billion over 10 years.

Unfortunately, this deal may only be good news for hospitals. Since President Obama does not want the healthcare reform to add to the deficit, now the White House has to find other ways to get the money to fund it. The healthcare reform is expected to cost more than $1 trillion. Losing this source of funding for the reform puts our country in another $70 billion of debt if other sources are not found.

Obama and the Senate are still struggling with healthcare reform legislation and trying to work out all of the details. A lot of controversy still remains, although some people are hopeful that a bill will be passed by the end of August.

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Medicare Doughnut Hole Closing

Friday, June 26th, 2009

President Barack Obama announced on Monday that he plans on closing the gap in prescription drug coverage for senior citizens. The way that Medicare works now is that once a senior’s prescription drug costs reach $2,700, Medicare stops paying. Then once costs top $6,100, Medicare starts paying again. “It’s a reform that will make prescription drugs more affordable for millions of seniors … and restore a measure of fairness to Medicare Part D,” Obama said. Under the agreement, prescription drug costs would be cut in half for about 26 million seniors who fall into the so-called Medicare doughnut hole. Some people, however, are not so hopeful for this plan’s outcomes. “It signifies pretty much nothing,” said Michael Cannon, with the Cato Institute. “The pharmaceutical industry isn’t going to give out those discounts just for free. They’re expecting to get more customers. They’re expecting to make more money off this deal not less money,” Whatever the case may be, even if the pharmaceutical industry’s goals may be financial, it does not change the fact that this plan will help millions of seniors throughout the country pay for their prescriptions.  Many seniors sufffer from the inability to pay for prescriptions under the doughnut hole and some are forced to drop their insurance.  Sure, the pharameceutical companies may gain money through all of this, but as long as more seniors are covered with affordable prescription drug coverage, this plan is a success.

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FDA Warns Zicam Poses Serious Health Risk

Tuesday, June 16th, 2009

The Food and Drug Administration has warned consumers to stop using three of the Zicam nasal cold symptom remedies because they have been shown to cause users to permanently lose their sense of smell. The FDA reports

that since 1999, it has received over 130 reports of loss of smell associated with Zicam use. The type of smell-loss they cause is called anosmia, and in some cases occurred after only one dose. Though long-term scientific studies into the effects of Zicam are not available, the FDA is concerned that consumers will use the product which could unknowingly cause themselves serious harm, hence the warning to immediately stop using these products. The FDA has notified Matrixx Initiatives (makers of Zicam) that the products can no longer be marketed without FDA approval. Matrixx argues that the allegations that Zicam is dangerous (resulting in a number of lawsuits) are false and unsubstantiated. The FDA asks consumers experiencign any loss of smell or taste after using nasal products containing zinc should see their physician.

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Obama “Will” Control Medicare Costs

Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009

At a recent meeting Senate sources confirmed that President Obama plans to undertake a major Medicare reform. The White House hopes that a large part of the changes will be centered on MedPAC, the Medicare Payment Advisory Committee. MedPAC is an independent congressional agency formed to help Congress deal with Medicare issues. Every year the agency releases a report to Congress that analyzes the payment policy of Medicare and gives recommendations and every year the report is ignored.

There are currently two plans to reform Medicare under consideration that involve MedPAC. Under Jay Rockefeller’s MedPAC Reform Act, MedPAC would move into the executive branch and be given control over things like Medicare payment rates. The other plan consists of taking MedPAC’s yearly recommendations and putting them through a yes-or-no vote in Congress. This plan would call for fast track, episodic reform. However, healthcare reform is a continual process and as such should consist of continual reform.

Despite obvious reasons that the second plan would do more harm than good, all the healthcare reforms being discussed by government need a reality check. Before trying to even promote universal healthcare or make more people Medicare-eligible, Obama should eliminate all of the fraud and abuse that already exist in programs like Medicare and Medicaid.

The largest problem of all surrounding healthcare reform is that America does not have the money for it. Obama wants to spend money that we do not have in order to fix something that government shouldn’t be involved in. The government should really just stop spending money on programs like Medicare because it doesn’t have the money to do it. Out government is already trillions of dollars in debt. The sad truth is that Obama will not be able to control Medicare costs with any plan that is under consideration. You can’t spend money you don’t have and expect to get away with it. If we follow Obama’s plans we may be the first country in the world to universalize healthcare while already being bankrupt.

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Medicare Bankrupt in 2017, Social Security in 2037

Thursday, May 28th, 2009

Advisers to the Obama administration announced this month that the economic crisis has put both Medicare and Social Security on the fast track to bankruptcy. Economists predicted more than a decade ago that Medicare and Social Security would face bankruptcy in the near future, but reports issued by the government show that both programs – the primary health care and income sources for millions of retirees – have felt the effects of the economic downturn and will be running out sooner than expected. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner projected that Medicare will run out of money in 2017, followed by Social Security in 2037.

Though market conditions now appear to be stabilizing, many forty-somethings and younger find themselves questioning whether either program will exist when they retire and are planning for worst-case scenario. Financial advisers are trying to address the most immediate of these concerns, Medicare, by helping clients arrange ways to self-fund their healthcare after retirement. They are encouraging those under fifty to be more conservative in their spending during their remaining working years and to establish larger cash reserves to cover unanticipated healthcare costs in their elder years. Few think that Medicare will ever completely disappear, rather it will probably assume some other form as it would be political suicide for any elected official to allow the system to fail.

This kind of uncertainty has led many to prepare for health expenses during retirement differently. For a married couple retiring in 2009, the total medical costs during retirement (beyond Medicare) would average around $240,000 according to Fidelity Investments. Some people are saving for these kinds of expenses through health savings accounts, which function like a 401(k) for health care costs. It is tax-free to withdraw the money for medical costs, and if these costs end up being less than anticipated, the remainder acts like an ordinary retirement account.

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Further treatment for strokes rejected

Tuesday, April 21st, 2009

According to a Wall Street Journal article, doctors are pushing for more scans in stroke cases because certain types of stroke can become worse even after treatment. The first few hours after a stroke are the most crucial because the clot-dissolving drug given to stroke patients may increase bleeding in the brain for certain types of stroke. Doctors are pushing several more CT scans after arriving at the hospital to make sure no bleeding occurs.

Unfortunately last fall a group known as the National Quality Forum, rejected the call for a scan 45 minutes after a stroke wording that the rule to do so would raise too many questions. The cost for such scans is one of the main reasons the stroke treatment was rejected. The Obama administration is trying to cut healthcare costs and this procedure is considered costly and unnecessary.

On the other hand, stroke neurologists are angry by the decision to reject this procedure. They believe that the rejection threatens to compromise stroke care all over the country which can possibly result in more deaths among stroke patients.

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Kansas Governor nominated for Secretary of Health and Human Services

Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009

Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius was introduced yesterday by President Barack Obama as his nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services. As a Democrat in a Republican-dominated state, Sebelius has been frustrated in her attempts to expand health care coverage in Kansas. She has tried twice to raise Kansas’s cigarette tax to expand medical coverage and both times had been let down by Republic legislators, who objected to the tax increases.

Kathleen Sebelius is currently serving as the 44th Governor of Kansas and the second female governor of Kansas. She was first elected to the Kansas House of Representatives back in 1986 and left the House in 1994 to run for state insurance commissioner. She was elected to the position of Governor in 2002 and was reelected again in 2006. She has been named one of the best governors in America according to Time Magazine in 2005 for eliminating the $1.1 billion debt she had inherited when elected to governor.

Senator Max Baucus of Montana says, “I’m particularly pleased to hear of her selection because she brings such solid experience to the position. Passing comprehensive health-care reform is an absolute imperative this year, and as a former insurance commissioner, Governor Sebelius really gets what needs to be done.”

As the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Sebelius will take charge of an agency with 65,000 employees responsible for the public health, food safety, scientific research, and the administration of the Medicare and Medicaid programs of 90 million Americans.

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