Medicare

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US Health Care Wastes $700B a Year
 US Health Care 
 Wastes $700B a Year 
Study sees huge savings
Oct 26, 2009 5:53 AM CDT

US Health Care Wastes $700B a Year

A third of spending is lost to pointless treatment, paperwork, fraud

(Newser) - A study by Thomson Reuters released today confirms President Obama's contention that the American health care system is hemorrhaging billions of dollars a year, with one-third of the cost of care wasted on inefficiency, mistakes, and fraud. The report, which cites dozens of research papers, finds that about $700 billion...

Dems: Let's Just Call 'Public Option' Medicare

House Reps suggest rebranding government-run plan

(Newser) - Some House Democrats think the public option would sound better if they renamed it “Medicare,” or maybe “Medicare Part E,” as in “Medicare for Everyone.” They think that rebranding could bridge the gap between liberals and centrists who oppose the plan. “People don’...

Dems, GOP Fight Over Medicare Rates
Dems, GOP
Fight Over Medicare Rates
Oct 21, 2009 12:33 PM CDT

Dems, GOP Fight Over Medicare Rates

Republicans say foes are trying to hide true cost

(Newser) - A new health care-related bill is in the spotlight on Capitol Hill, as senators battle over a Democratic proposal to freeze Medicare rates for doctors at the current rate for 10 years—overriding a 21% cut scheduled for January. Democrats say the bill, which is backed by lobbyists from the...

Pelosi Fighting for Stronger Public Option

Plan with Medicare-linked option would cost only $871B

(Newser) - Nancy Pelosi is on a mission to pass the strongest public option on the table in the House—a plan that would pay doctors the same rates as Medicare—and she's close to having enough votes, she told fellow Dems last night. The plan would cost just $871 billion, according...

Mayo Clinic Turns Away Medicare, Medicaid Patients

Hospital praised for efficiency treats increasingly wealthy population

(Newser) - The Mayo Clinic, which has gotten plaudits from the White House for its low spending on Medicare and Medicaid patients, is turning some of those patients away. The clinic will stop accepting Medicaid patients from Nebraska or Montana at its main Rochester, Minnesota, campus, and will no longer offer primary...

ObamaCare Opposition Drops

Poll finds nation now evenly split on health care reform plans

(Newser) - Opposition to President Obama's health care reform plans has plunged almost 10% in the last months, leaving the nation evenly split with 40% in favor and 40% opposed, according to the latest AP poll. Another 17% are neutral and 3% are undecided. Opposition among seniors, the group most skeptical about...

How Obama Wooed and Won the AMA: With a $228B Gift
How Obama  Wooed and Won the AMA: With a $228B Gift
health care reform
Sep 14, 2009 11:16 AM CDT

How Obama Wooed and Won the AMA: With a $228B Gift

Plan gives huge concession to doctor's group

(Newser) - Ever since its cries of “socialized medicine” killed Harry Truman’s attempt to reform health care 60 years ago, the AMA has been not only a vociferous enemy of reform, but a deep-pocketed one—only the Chamber of Commerce has spent more on lobbying over the past decade. But...

Mr. President, Stop Picking On 'Bureaucrats'
Mr. President, Stop Picking On 'Bureaucrats'
OPINION
Sep 12, 2009 12:55 PM CDT

Mr. President, Stop Picking On 'Bureaucrats'

What happened to making government 'cool' again?

(Newser) - In his admirable quest to make government work for the people, President Obama has stooped to the lowest common denominator and vilified “bureaucrats,” writes Max Stier in the Washington Post. A typical shot from the president recently: “I don't want government bureaucrats meddling in your health care....

Rural States Would Gain Most From Health Reform...

...but their vehement residents want it least

(Newser) - With some of the highest percentages of uninsured citizens, rural states like Wyoming and Iowa stand to benefit the most from health care reform—but they’re also home to its most vocal detractors, the Los Angeles Times reports. Such states tend to have lower personal incomes, more small businesses...

Health Care Is a Public Good; It's Time Dems Explain Why

'The health of each of us depends on the health of the rest of us'

(Newser) - The Democrats are in danger of losing the health care reform battle over an argument "that a novice debater would have no trouble putting down," writes Thomas Frank for the Wall Street Journal. Reformers need to directly address the role of government in health care, Frank writes, and...

US Retirees Find Flat-Rate Health Bargain in Mexico

IMSS system offers good care for flat rate

(Newser) - Mexico might have a raging drug war and rampant corruption, USA Today reports—but it also has a health-care system that is the envy of many Americans. In fact, many retirees too young for Medicare are moving to Mexico to take advantage of the plan offered by the Mexican Social...

How the Dems Can Save Obamacare
 How the Dems Can 
 Save Obamacare 
OPINION
Aug 28, 2009 9:41 AM CDT

How the Dems Can Save Obamacare

Keep plans private, creating gov't care 'by proxy'

(Newser) - Amid “widespread national revulsion,” Obamacare as it stands “is dead,” but the Democrats can revive it if they’re willing to make some key concessions, writes Charles Krauthammer—a nonpracticing physician in addition to pundit—in the Washington Post. What they must do:
  1. Dump the public
...

CBO Is Usually Wrong on Health Reform Numbers
CBO Is Usually Wrong on Health Reform Numbers
Analysis
Aug 26, 2009 9:53 AM CDT

CBO Is Usually Wrong on Health Reform Numbers

(Newser) - The Congressional Budget Office is a much-respected institution, and its integrity is beyond question, but it’s got a really lousy record when it comes to estimating the effects of health care reform, writes researcher Jon Gabel in the New York Times. It has drastically underestimated savings from each of...

Medicare Is Dead—Long Live Medicare: Steele

(Newser) - RNC Chairman Michael Steele continued his simultaneous defense of and onslaught on Medicare today, writes Eric Kleefeld of Talking Points Memo. Dems are “proposing up to $550 billion in cuts or shifting of funds out of Medicare, and I don't know what that means,” Steele said on Fox...

Steele Changes Tune on Medicare Cuts

(Newser) - The RNC has joined the fracas over health care reform with a proposed “seniors’ bill of rights” that guards against Medicare cuts, ABC News reports. “Our seniors have really come under fire in the last few weeks,” says RNC chair Michael Steele—who backed Medicare cuts as...

Millions Face Shrinking Social Security Payments

(Newser) - Millions of older people face shrinking Social Security checks next year, the first time in a generation that payments would not rise. The trustees who oversee Social Security are projecting there won't be a cost of living adjustment (COLA) for the next 2 years. That hasn't happened since automatic increases...

To Cure Health Care, See This Doctor
 To Cure Health Care, 
 See This Doctor 
OPINION
Aug 20, 2009 10:25 AM CDT

To Cure Health Care, See This Doctor

Mayo Clinic boss could be reform's 'Petraeus'

(Newser) - To fix health care, we need a commander like Gen. David Petraeus: “a professional who can break through the political chaff and describe a strategy for reform that can unite the country,” writes David Ignatius in the Washington Post. He nominates Mayo Clinic CEO Dr. Denis Cortese, who’...

Health Reform's Enemy No. 1? Seniors

(Newser) - Scan the ranks of health care reform malcontents at your local town hall, and you’ll notice a lot of older faces. With Democrats aiming their sales pitch mostly at middle-class Americans and the uninsured, seniors have come to fear that Medicare, their own beloved government-run health care, will face...

'Racial Anxiety' Fuels Town Hall Protesters

(Newser) - The mob-like scenes at recent town halls are "something new and ugly," writes Paul Krugman, who notes that 2005's protests against Social Security privatization never saw baying crowds and congressmen hanged in effigy. The New York Times columnist is unconvinced that the mobs are in the pay...

Krugman, Noonan Agree: Just Build on Medicare
Krugman, Noonan Agree: Just Build on Medicare
OPINION
Jul 31, 2009 8:25 AM CDT

Krugman, Noonan Agree: Just Build on Medicare

We already have a fine government option

(Newser) - Everyone's suddenly allergic to letting the government into health care, but Paul Krugman has news: The government is already knee-deep in health care, he writes in the New York Times. It's called Medicare, and without it almost no one over 65 would be covered. You can also thank tax subsidies...

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