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Budget chief contradicts Obama on Medicare costs

By ERICA WERNER (AP) – 21 hours ago

WASHINGTON — Congress' chief budget officer is contradicting President Barack Obama's oft-stated claim that seniors wouldn't see their Medicare benefits cut under a health care overhaul.

The head of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, Douglas Elmendorf, told senators Tuesday that seniors in Medicare's managed care plans would see reduced benefits under a bill in the Finance Committee.

The bill would cut payments to the Medicare Advantage plans by more than $100 billion over 10 years.
...

Obama says cuts to Medicare providers won't reduce seniors' benefits.

The Associated Press: Budget chief contradicts Obama on Medicare costs

Somebody's lying.

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"All that is required for evil to triumph is for good to do nothing."

Real World

Well, that depends on what the definition of "is" is.

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"The most difficult subjects can be explained to the most slow-witted man if he has not formed any idea of them already; but the simplest thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he knows already, without a shadow of doubt, what is laid before him."
Leo Tolstoy, 1897

sdaniels7114

Yeah, its you. There's like 6 different bills bouncing around Congress right now. Is Obama responsible for all of them? Even if a couple contradict each other?

Until one emerges from both houses and Obama actually signs it you're just being your usual BS self.

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Give a man a gun and he can rob a bank, give a man a bank and he can rob everyone.

alvinnf

Cuts might not reduce benefits to seniors. It will however cut the price paid to the provider. That I can gaurantee.

Real World

Yeah, so who ends up paying the difference? Anyone want to guess?

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"The most difficult subjects can be explained to the most slow-witted man if he has not formed any idea of them already; but the simplest thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he knows already, without a shadow of doubt, what is laid before him."
Leo Tolstoy, 1897

patsfan13

Well no Pelosi is still referring to HR3200, the outline of Baucus's bill has been published (minus the 500 amendments proposed). The absurd part is that Pelosi has blocked a proposal that members be given a couple of days to review the 'final bill' likewise H Reid won't allow 72 hrs to review the 'final' bill in the Senate which will be an amendment to a TARP bill. THe bills won't be put on the web for public review the CBO isn't being given time to finish an analysis before the votes.

This is the game the dims are playing with 1/6th of the economy. So much foir transparency.


BO has punted but said he will support whatever mess is passed by congress. So he is accountable for the lies he told. If he didn't have the final product why say there would be no tax increases, or portability and lie?

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"Some guys play in all-star games, some guys don't. I don't know who picks all those all-star teams. In all honesty, I don't know who picks the combine, for that matter," Belichick said. "How does (Miami-Ohio offensive lineman Brandon) Brooks not get invited to the combine? How did Vollmer not get invited to the combine? I don't know. We can't really worry about that. We just have to try to evaluate them the best we can."

DarrylS

The Lobbyists will not get a chance to ramp up their rhetoric and get Freedomworks and the rest of their lackeys all fired up to stop this damned bill... lemmings need an opportunity to organize.

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"Being the best doesn't mean you always win. It just means you win more than anyone else".. tweet from Kurt Warner to Tom Brady.

Mrs.PatsFanInVa

The key word here is Medicare ADVANTAGE plans.

These plans are not Medicare as you know it. They are medicare programs run by private insurance companies and they are relatively new and they haven't been working out so well for patient or doctor alike.

I've had a few of our patients who switched to one only to become totally disillusioned within months and switch back to Medicare at the first opportunity.

Some of the Advantage plans are cheaper - but at a cost. Most are HMOs, so you're entirely limited in your choice of physician, lab, hospital etc. There are those who say you can see "any willing doctor" but, as a person working in a doctor's office, most doctors aren't willing.

Medicare is dependable, it is fairly quick-paying and the paper work is minimal compared to private insurers. The "Advantage plans" are none of those things. Doctors accept them for awhile because they like their patients, they don't want to upset them by denying their insurance and they are hopeful that it'll work out.

It doesn't and a few months down the line the doctor has to tell the patient that he can no longer accept the Advantage plan in question and the patient will have to find a new doctor or cover the cost of the visit out of pocket.

That's the point where the patient finds out that not only will his old doctor no longer take his insurance but that there are very very few other doctors who will accept the insurance plan.

Personally I think it would be a great idea to ban private insurance companies from getting involved in Medicare at all.

Don't trust me, tho, check it out for yourself.

http://www.medicare.gov/MPPF/Include...sAtAGlance.asp

Mrs.PatsFanInVa

Oh yeah, and another thing:

There have been multiple complaints about The Advantage Plans. Many private insurers have already been stopped from offering them.

Reducing payments to physicians or HMOs who are involved in Advantage Plans are nothing new. It's just one more example of Obama having to finish fullfilling Bush's empty promises. Congress started considering reductions in payments back in 2007.

The changes don't solve fundamental problems with Medicare Advantage and are a ``pathetic attempt'' to protect the plans, said Representative Pete Stark, a California Democrat and chairman of the House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee, which is reviewing U.S. payments to the providers.

``Independent and nonpartisan experts agree that private plans are massively overpaid relative to Medicare,'' Stark said in a statement. ``The excessive payments also provide an incentive for marketing abuses that will continue as long as they are in effect.''

Congress is considering cutting payments for Medicare Advantage, which costs about 12 percent more than government- administered Medicare benefits

Humana, UnitedHealth Suspend Some Health Plans After Complaints - Bloomberg.com

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news0...advantage.html


At a committee hearing Wednesday, Wisconsin Insurance Commissioner Sean Dilweg testified that 37 out of 43 states that participated in a recent survey reported complaints about Medicare Advantage plan sales agents and their confusing or misleading marketing practices.

“In the most troubling of these cases, unscrupulous agents have enrolled beneficiaries with dementia into an inappropriate plan,” Dilweg said. “Seniors are being told that they can go to any provider without being told that they may only go to a provider that accepts Medicare, and also a provider that has agreed to accept the plan's payments.”


Read more: http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news0...#ixzz0S1InwhTD

Did you feel the same back in 2007 when Congress mentioned cutting payments and/or applying better guidelines or is this a relatively new and Obama-related disgust?

A huge part of the cause of the current health care crisis is the fact that the previous administration refused to do anything about gross overpayments and/or creating federal guidelines for private insurers.

DarrylS

Good Response Ms. PatsfaninVa... glad to see you provide some sanity to this often maddening situation..

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"Being the best doesn't mean you always win. It just means you win more than anyone else".. tweet from Kurt Warner to Tom Brady.