The republicans have opened a line of attack trying to defend thier own medicare cuts by accusing the president of cutting 700 billion out of medicare inside of Obamacare (the affordable care act). There is, in fact, no cuts to beneficiaries in the Obama plan. The cuts remove subsidies to private insurance companies that have existed for some time. Obamacare also moves provider payments from a fee based system where doctors and hospitals get paid for the number of proceedures that they order to a system where medical providers and hospitals are paid for the results that they get through team efforts to make the patient better instead of simply running up large doctor and hospital bills. As many are aware, over the past decade or so, medical costs as a percentage of GDP have been climbing at an alarming rate. Some have said that if this trend doesn't stop it will singlehandedly bankrupt the country. There is a reason that the medical community, particularly doctors and hospitals, do not like Obamacare. AS a medical professional friend shared with me during the debate over Obamacare back in 2009-10, when he told me of a letter he recieved from a prominent head of a medical provider in our area urging his staff to lobby against the legislation because it would cut into their profits. WE also remember a trip we made to Cleveland, Ohio, home of the Cleveland Clinic, where one of their staff members stated in a meeting that we attended that so many doctors that he knew were more concerned about making and investing money than they were in providing proper care for their patients.
IOVHO,
Regards,
Joe
To say that "God exists" is the greatest understatement ever made across space and time.
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